FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
23 June 2025
Press Release: Climate Groups Call for Accountability and Ambition from COP30 Presidency
Bonn, Germany – In a press conference held today at the June Climate Talks, leading voices from the climate justice movement urged a stronger, more accountable path forward for COP30.
At the press conference, speakers from across the Global South emphasized that the world cannot afford another summit of empty promises. They called on the COP Presidency to deliver a tripling of renewable energy capacity and phase out fossil fuels in the negotiated outcome, and for Indigenous peoples and traditional communities to meaningfully participate in the Leaders Segment and official agenda.
Today’s messages were clear: 1.5°C is a lifeline, not a target to be negotiated. The Global North must deliver new, additional public finance to meet its climate debt, and frontline communities must be empowered as leaders in global climate governance. Only through ambition grounded in justice can COP30 deliver the outcomes the world urgently needs.
Alia Kajee, Global Campaign Project Manager, 350.org says:
“At home in South Africa, 88 people died in flooding just this month. Droughts, storms, and heatwaves are intensifying. Food and energy costs are rising while a handful of billionaires profit and prop up the industries that pollute our lands, air and waters while the vulnerable carry the burden of climate impacts and the cost of life. We ask the COP30 Presidency: Will you match our courage, or will you let history remember you as the government that wrote sophisticated letters, but failed to walk the talk?”
Claudio Angelo, Head of International Policy, Observatório do Clima, says:
“Brazil is the best presidency you could get for a climate conference, given the context we have today with wars and the expansion of fossil fuels everywhere. The issue is more that there is a lot on their plate right now. They do have a plan, and they are trying to innovate in a COP format, but the issue is that simply the context is not favoring much ambition right now. But it’s not game over yet. If one country can do it, at a climate conference, especially looking at the last three presidencies, Brazil can deliver – but it can’t do it alone.”
Cacique (chief) Ninawá Inu Huni Kui, says:
“We are here to reaffirm that we are not invited to simply occupy seats at global decision-making tables; we are holders of ancestral knowledge and guardians of the territories that guarantee life on the planet. Indigenous peoples and local communities are not spectators in the climate debate: we are protagonists and have the right and commitment to guide paths towards fair and sustainable change.
This is not an option. It is a vital necessity for each and every one of us. Let’s transform this global battle into a joint and equal action, so that all voices are heard and all strategies are strengthened by the Indigenous and traditional presence.”
Dr Sindra Sharma, International Policy Lead, Pacific Islands Climate Action Network, says:
“I am born of and a product of the Pacific, a region that did not cause this crisis, but is paying for it every day. It’s been 10 years since the Paris Agreement, and what do we have to show for it? In every country, planetary boundaries are being crossed, emissions keep rising, and fossil fuel subsidies are not falling. The problem is not a lack of science, it’s a failure of political will. For us, the 1.5C limit is a red line. As we move toward COP30 we hope this is the moment we can reclaim 1.5C, as our time is running out. We’ll continue to defend 1.5C and the science. But know this, our resilience is not your excuse to not act. We must maintain the required ambition.”
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Note to Editors
Earlier this year in Brasília, more than 200 activists from 70 nations including Indigenous leaders, workers, and youth stood united, all demanding climate justice. They delivered a letter to the COP30 President-designate André Aranha Corrêa do Lago demanding the delivery of renewable energy, a fossil fuel phase out, and Indigenous and traditional communities participation in the negotiations.
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