Road to COP30

Climate-vulnerable communities are already suffering from the climate crisis globally, its  impacts infringing upon universally recognised human rights of present and future generations, including rights to life, food, water and a healthy environment.  

In this critical decade for climate action, when we are faced with a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all, it is crucial that those affected by the climate emergency are central to policy responses.  

For the first time, COP30 will take place in the Amazon, the largest rainforest in the world and home to thousands of Indigenous and traditional peoples. Brazil will host COP30, which takes place in Belém, the capital of Pará, in November 2025.

It will be a key moment of reckoning: world governments will have just unveiled new commitments for climate action two years after the Global Stocktake of the Paris Agreement (GST). It will also mark five years left until the 2030 IPCC milestone, when emissions must be cut by half and the UN Sustainable Development Goals achieved. 

Failure to adopt urgent climate action contravenes not only the Paris Agreement target to keep global heating below 1.5°C, but also human rights obligations. 

Global action to tackle the climate crisis must be underpinned by meaningful system change for people and communities, enabling them to claim their rights and power and helping to shape a just, equitable and environmentally sustainable world. 

This means that a fossil fuels phase-out must happen fast enough to avert climate catastrophe and that the transition to clean energy is also just, fair, equitable and inclusive.  

It is critical that COP30 in Brazil – home to almost 60% of the Amazon and Indigenous communities – catalyses political action to put people and planet over profits and produce concrete commitments for human rights-based climate action.  

Our work in the lead up to COP30 will build on Global Witness’s experience over three decades at the intersection of environmental and human rights abuses, working to advocate for government and corporate accountability in accelerating a just energy transition. 

In the run up to COP30, we are calling on the G20, also taking place in Brazil this year, to:

• Uphold democracy and, human rights and implement robust accountability mechanisms for the G20 decisions, with the meaningful participation of civil society organisations. 
• Urgently implement just transition plans, with fossil fuels divestment and more ambitious climate mitigation and adaptation measures. 
• Enhance legal security for civil society organisations and movements – for example, registration and operational freedom from repression or arbitrary legal threats – to prevent restrictive legislations based on combatting terrorism, and protect human and environmental rights defenders and journalists.

We are working in solidarity with our partners to advocate for effective and meaningful participation of communities and civil society in climate decision-making.

We’ve developed a joint call for action to push governments to commit to the safety of land and environmental defenders and make sure their voices are heard in climate policies.