Credit: Observatório do Marajó
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Belém, November 5, 2025 – On the eve of COP30’s Leaders Summit, a banner (in English and in Portuguese) displayed from a boat on the Guajará Bay offered both a welcome – and a warning – to heads of state and delegations arriving in Belém. Bearing the message “COP30: Welcome to the end of an Amazon free from oil and gas,” the act used irony to denounce the contradiction between the Brazilian government’s climate rhetoric and the recent approval of an oil exploration license at the mouth of the Amazon River.
Organized by quilombola, reverine, extractivist and Marajó islands communities, the action highlights the region’s historical challenges – from social inequality to oil expansion – and calls for a just, people-centered, fossil-free energy transition that ensures sovereignty and dignity for the peoples of the forest.
“We raise banners, but we also open paths. The Amazon speaks through its rivers and its people, calling for light, justice, and preservation. We want an energy transition that is fair and popular, that brings clean and accessible energy to those still living in the dark, without deepening inequalities or destroying the forest. Our banners are a reminder that the future must be built with those who live here — with the people from the Marajó islands, with the voices of the forest, with all who resist and keep the Amazon alive.”
– Ediele Lima, community leader from Melgaço (Marajó, Pará)
The intervention marks the opening of the Leaders Summit with a direct appeal: the tone of the negotiations must start with the leaders themselves – with the courage to confront the contradictions of the Amazon and the global energy model.
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