At the end of the Belém climate conference, without consensus on fossil fuel phaseout proposals, the Brazilian presidency took on the task of developing a roadmap for transition away from those that are the main greenhouse gas sources in the upcoming months. This will require year-round coordination with governments, regulators and financial institutions. 

“Brazil’s proposal opens up opportunities for participation and advocacy for RCFs, as we can react quickly by mobilising technical capacities and financial support”, adds the executive director of Climate Initiative of Mexico (ICM), Adrián Fernández. Mexico was one of the 80 countries that signed a declaration for the fossil fuel phaseout.

Another roadmap promised is the one for halting and reversing deforestation. The expansion of the Tropical Forests Forever Facility — a mechanism to deliver long-term, results-based payments to tropical forest countries for conservation — is another point that will receive attention in the following months, as well as advancing the financing priorities of the Circle of Finance Ministers. This includes the operationalization of the new Country Platforms Hub.

“The logic of  a ‘continuous COP’ allows RCFs to operate throughout the inter-COP cycle, offering support for new structural projects, and coordination with the Baku–Belém Roadmap”, analyses Netto .

Fernández agrees, as the philanthropic network can work along with climate decision-makers to move forward quickly and flexibly with policy and action formulation. Especially when it comes to finance, RCFs can play a decisive role: “Our foundations can mobilize short-term resources while advancing international management processes for larger-scale grants and loans”.

Overall, COP30 “delivers much-needed political momentum”, states Shakti Energy Foundation. “For developing countries, the priority is to accelerate clean energy transitions, embed climate considerations into economic planning, and expand implementation capacity in the lead-up to COP-31 and COP-32”, completes the RCF from India.

Sub-national governments gain importance

The absence of some countries from the conference, as the United States, or delegations facing government contradictions, as Argentina, states and cities emerged from COP30 as key players on climate issues.

The visibility of “sub-nationals” actors opens space for the Regional Climate Foundations to act, supporting urban adaptation plans, developing methodologies for measuring risk and resilience, and building networks of resilient municipalities, in Maria Netto’s perspective. She also highlights the opportunity to connect subnational entities from different countries for technical cooperation and fundable projects.

“COP30 amplified the role of sub-national climate action, which directly aligns with the coalition’s mandate”, states Shakti, remembering some debates conducted inside the RCF pavilion that showcased best practices from India and other regions on adaptation and mitigation. “We demonstrated how state-level policies on renewable energy, green industries, electric mobility, and nature-based resilience are already delivering measurable impacts”, the organisation says.

The Indonesian RCF sister, ViriyaENB highlights one specific achievement of COP30, that is better measurable on a local perspective: the formal recognition of health co-benefits in climate decisions. The climate conference set 59 voluntary, non-prescriptive indicators to track progress under the Global Goal on Adaptation. Health was among these indicators. “Hopefully, the health co-benefits are going to get more traction in the future, as we progress our efforts in climate change mitigation and improving air quality”, expects the organisation.

RCF pavilion connected COP30 to the real world

After three years appearing as a coalition during climate conferences, the Regional Climate Foundations ended COP30 with a coherent and strong identity. “We have turned the term RCF into a brand”, explains Adrián Fernández. “We are a family of organizations that share an interest in making strategic grants to enable many other organizations to have greater impact on climate policy in their countries”, completes.

Shakti agrees: “COP30 significantly strengthened the Regional Climate Foundations coalition, both in substance and in visibility”, states the organisation, highlighting some pavilion sessions that exposed solutions from Global South to the world.

“The RCF Pavilion is a unique space where the most relevant topics of COP30 were discussed while experiences from the countries and regions where the different RCFs work were exchanged”, adds Fernández.

From Brazil, Maria Netto, executive director of the Climate and Society Institute (iCS), emphasized the central role of connecting negotiation rooms with implementation-focused spaces like the RCF Pavilion. Negotiators, she explained, work with global targets — finance, adaptation, trade, indicators, just transitions — while the pavilion brings forward “the institutions and coalitions that make these goals feasible in real territories.” 

She pointed to the example of Country Platforms: while finance ministers outlined priorities in the plenary, the RCF Pavilion showed how regional philanthropy can provide project preparation, governance, transparency and social participation, “essential elements that do not appear in negotiations but are indispensable for these platforms to work.”

For Netto, COP30 represented “a qualitative leap” for the coalition, consolidating the RCFs as “the philanthropic infrastructure of the Global South for implementation of the Paris Agreement,” and creating stronger alignment around themes such as adaptation and climate justice.

La entrada Continuous COP cycle expands opportunities for climate philanthropy se publicó primero en Regional Climate Foundations.

With adaptation as one of the 10 subject priorities on space, many of the events touched on the theme, bringing different perspectives on the challenges for its implementation.

The last one took place on Thursday, 20, when leaders from communities in Bolívia, México and Brazil stated a clear message: no matter what the point is to discuss on adaptation, local voices might be heard. Not only because those communities represent some of the most affected people, but especially because they are already developing solutions. “It is a two-way road”, highlighted the climate policy advisor at PalmaresLab, Alex Soares, from Brazil.

Speaking on behalf of his community in the Caratateua island, in the periphery of Belém — the city that hosted COP30, in the heart of the Amazon — Soares demanded not only more incidence space for the impacted communities. He also asked for elements that could make the debate more accessible to the people in the real world.

“The concept of adaptation adopted at climate conferences refers to ‘the adjustment of human and natural systems’”, explains. “It does not bring a human perspective. It seems to refer to a large machine in which we are seen as pieces”, completed.

Negotiations are conducted entirely in English, but other languages need to be included in the rooms to democratise the debate, he asked. “There is no point in empowering communities if they arrive here and encounter this barrier”, added the moderator of the debate, Daniel Porcel, from Talanoa Institute, which is one of the 45 other organisations, from 13 different countries, on the Adaptation Task Force. 

“Those voices must be heard. They have many contributions to the debate”, argued in another round table Leonildes Nazar, from the Institute of Climate and Society (iCS) — one of the eight regional climate foundations.

Territories are the link from global to local

If in the meeting rooms and the plenary, the debate is made with a language that is inaccessible to all, the examples that came from the communities are didactics. “In the negotiating room, adaptation is a stalled issue, as countries are unable to reach an agreement. But adaptation is alive and well in Latin America and the Caribbean”, Porcel compared.

Many examples came through across the debates. In Bolivia, for example, where the Andes Mountains meet the Amazon Forest, Lorena Terrazas is helping a community to implement adaptation measures to climate change. One example: with the rising temperatures, people decided to change the time range for kids going to school. “They start the classes earlier, so they can return home before the sun is too hot”, explained.

Conversations with women from the villages in the region, who are usually responsible for providing food for the families, led to the rescue of the traditional rice seeds, lost due to the commercial variations. “The traditional seed is resistant to water”, explained, mentioning the increasing risks of floods.

On the Acari ‘favela’, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the action started with residents working on data collection about the communities vulnerabilities. The citizen-guided dataset is published and can guide decision-makers. “Where there is no data, it is impossible to draw effective public policies”, justified one of the coordinators of the study, Mari Galdino. “We decided to provide this information so that this group of people can be prioritised when the budget is allocated”, added, highlighting that there are 16 million people living in ‘favelas’ and suburbs in Brazil: “They live in extreme vulnerability”, concluded.

Working on a rural community in Bahia, a northeast Brazilian state, professor Lourivânia Soares also organised a group of women to develop a community map of risk. Providing evidence of the risks faced by residents of this traditionally dry region, she regretted that the ancient knowledge is often ignored by climate experts. “We needed to use the language of science to validate what communities have known for a long time”, explained. Soares reproduced a testimony of a leader of this community, a griot master — a woman that communicated stories and history orally, as the African tradition — that, a decade ago, said the community was no longer in the semi-arid region, but in the arid region. “Now the study has come out, and the desertification was found”, explained. “But, in that moment, her social voice was not heard; she had no validated knowledge”, regretted.

Local Adaptation Plans as a solution for implementation

Many panelists of the RCF pavilion call that the voices of young people, women and communities are included in the national adaptation plans — the NAPs, in the wording of the global climate conference. But also highlighted the difficulties that the most affected had to get funds and attention. “Municipalities deal with smaller budgets, but the bigger impacts”, told Thais Ferraz, from Institute of Climate and Society. “It is crucial to work with them”, completed.

An idea that emerged is the necessity of developing local or even small community adaptation plans. “In different territories, we know what is affecting us”, suggested Lorena Terrazas, from Bolivia.

In some cases, not only people that live in the place need to be at the centre, but also those who pass through a specific point. This is the case of the city of Mapastepec, in Chiapas state, Mexico, that is in the middle of many different migration routes between Mexico and the United States. Suffering the impacts of climate change, the community decided to include those migrants into their adaptation plan, creating reception and support centres.

But the migration also impacts the own community, as the territory became militarized. “Due to the militarization, if I want to move in my own territory, I need to cross 11 check-points. And in some cases, I’m obliged to sing the national anthem, to prove that I’m from there”, exposed Pepe Villalobos, from Laycs.

Public resources, but also private funds and philanthropies were remembered as important partners on the adaptation — and the necessity of tripling the finance for this specific topic of climate crisis response, as highlighted by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres. 

Without any certainty of results, participants of the climate conference that are focused on adaptation returned to home with new inspiration. “COP30 is coming to an end, but we have many new alliances and a lot of work ahead of us. Despite the crisis, we are excited and happy”, concludes Lorena Terrazas.

La entrada From financing to territories, debates bring different perspectives on adaptation challenges se publicó primero en Regional Climate Foundations.

Born in Colombia, Francisco Manzanares, 16 years old, is one of them. But instead of waiting for adults to take action, Manzanares raised his own voice to the climate movement. “We are facing the greatest existential threat before our eyes, which is the climate crisis”, notes. “And to face this complex crisis, we news complex solutions”, completes.

Participating in his fifth Climate Conference edition, Manzanares is one of the best-known voices claiming justice and rights for the children and teenagers at COP30. Belem, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, was stage for more than 160 children make their demands during negotiations — an historical achievement that owes much to Manzanares’ path: at COP27, held in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, he was the only child formally accredited to the Blue Zone.

“The crisis we are living is a systemic crisis, caused by a predatory model of production that destroys life and people”, criticize.

Manzanares began his activism at age nine with the movement called Guardianes por la vida (Guardians for life, in English). In 2023, Unicef nominated the Colombian activist as the first youth advocate for environmental and climate action in Latin America and the Caribbean to promote education and child participation. Vera was just 13 years old at the time.

He spoke at the Regional Climate Foundations Pavillion during COP30, where he emphasized culture as a bridge to connection and argued that the climate crisis is rooted in economic models that disregard life. “In the face of climate denialism and historical denialism, we must try to reach young people through culture”, stated on the occasion.

COP in the Amazon and fossil fuels

Manzanares underscored the relevance of holding COP30 in Latin America for the first time in 11 years, a decade after the Paris Agreement, and in the Amazon region, which is central to global climate debates.

The activist pointed out that Brazil and Colombia currently have more favorable political environments for climate discussions. Still, he noted contradictions between public statements and concrete actions. In Brazil, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has defended ending fossil fuels at COP30, weeks after authorizing new oil exploration in the Amazon.

“Actions are different from speeches, actually”, Manzanares marked. “But implementation is lacking, and there is a need to discuss how to protect activists. Therefore, regardless of who governs, the climate must be defended”, he added.

He also stressed the need to make climate communication more connected to people’s daily experiences. “Many narratives focus on distant images such as melting polar regions”, he said, “while communities in the Amazon are already facing local impacts — including the recent deaths of pink river dolphins during extreme heat events”.

When is not advocating for a better future, Francisco is a teenager who goes to high school in Spain and France. Activism is a passion for him, but he also has other interests. He likes to go to the sea and explains why: “the Mediterranean Sea is beautiful, I encounter many octopuses”.

La entrada The teenager who paved the way for COP with record attendance by children se publicó primero en Regional Climate Foundations.

Studying the relations between indigenous people and nature, the Brazilian archeologist Eduardo Goés Neves discovered that the traditional communities in the Amazon interfered in the forest — but unlike what happens currently, they improved diversity. “The Amazon we know today was shaped over thousands of years by indigenous peoples. They are producers of landscape and, in some cases, are even understood as producers of nature.

His studies rely not only on ancient artifacts, but also on chemical analysis to find in the soil certain characteristics that allow him to interpret the results as consequences of this deliberate interference: “Around 2% or 3% of the Amazon soils were built by indigenous people. They are what we call ‘terra preta’, very fertile”, explains, breaking the old narrative on the supposed poor composition of soils in the region, what would be the reason for absence of human occupation. 

“In Rondonia, there is evidence of regular human presence since nine thousand years, in a continuous form”, adds, highlighting that currently it is safe to affirm that between 8 and 10 million of indigenous lived in the Amazon in ancient times. They had constructed a complex of villages and cities connected through roads that can be seen from the sky through special equipment that goes beyond the forest coverage to map the traces of this ancient network.

This knowledge needs to be considered in the moment of thinking about the current Amazonian occupation. “We need to consider these local arrangements to planify our cities in the Amazon”, argues Ana Claudia Cardoso, professor at the Pará’s federal university (UFPA). 

Forest-cities as a model for adaptation

Cardoso reminds that the evidences reveals a big “forest-city” that had Belém — the Amazonian capital that is receiving COP30 this year — as its central point. “It was dense, but on an Amazonian scale. There were spaces for people, and for nature”, explains. 

The currently urban spaces in the region forgot this, grounding small rivers, constructing under fertile lands. But, recovering ancient technologies and applying them in the present can help cities in adaptation to avoid the worst climate change impacts. “We need to reimagine our territories in a way that doesn’t lead us to collapse. This must be done using communitary practices that rely on this ancient knowledge”, concludes.

This is not the only possible outcome of the research on ancient Amazon occupation. Through the studies that reveal the complex of cities in the region — its roads, villages, cemeteries, and trash places — Eduardo Goés Neves research group aims to push for the official recongnition of this archeological heritage, forcing its protection.

“It is a path to reach protection of areas that are threatened by the current occupation of farms, roads, and economic activities”, explains. “Whe want to block its destruction”, adds.

Rescue of traditional practices lead to finance

The traditional practices of local and indigenous people can also unlock finance flows that are difficult to access, panelists said this Wednesday, 19, at the Regional Climate Foundations pavilion. “Sometimes, scholars, scientists, experts or activists went to a community to offer solutions that were designed without consultation, and without considering the local dynamics and knowledge that are very valuable”, criticize Alphonse Maindo, from Tropembos, an organisation from Democratic Republic of Congo that led local restoration of degraded lands, providing economic opportunities for the communities.

To understand the communities demand, help them to navigate into a climate project, and also engage with the donors to sensitize them to local needs is the purpose of the Brazilian Fundo Casa Socioambiental. “The first thing to understand it that people that take care of the forests around the world many times need to improve their livelihoods”, explains its Global Philanthropy Strategies director, Maria Amália Souza. 

In this sense, women and youth are the best pillars to develop projects on forest restoration, they highlight. “In many communities, man goes to the cities to get a job, exactly because the natural resources are not there anymore”, explains Maindo. “But after the projects, we see biodiversity reborning, the man camebacking and a whole village transformation”, celebrates, justifying that projects led by woman have preference to his organisation.

Closing the day at the pavilion, a meeting gathered leaders from Latin American communities reinforced the need of listening ancient knowledge. “The only way to move forward to a transformation in the world is putting people at the centre”, states the executive coordinator of Casa Fluminense, Larissa Amorim. 

Her panel aimed to be a space for connections and dialogues between innovative practices of social mobilization for those who are at the forefront of territorial agendas for community resilience, inclusive adaptation, mitigation, and climate justice. “Traditional knowledge is a technology that leads to solutions”, concludes.

La entrada How Amazonian ancient cities can help protect the forest and regulate the climate se publicó primero en Regional Climate Foundations.

Those were some of the stories told at a meeting held this Tuesday, 18, on the Regional Climate Foundations pavilion at COP30 in Belem, Brazil. “People that are religious believe and are mobilized, so faith is a powerful tool to collectively overcome difficulties through a movement that puts people and hope at the center”, stated the Global Organiser Director at GreenFaith, Meryne Warah. 

It is not new that religious leaders and structures are quite active on climate issues when it comes to bringing assistance to communities affected by an emergency — a flood, for example. But facing the extreme weather events led these leaders to think better about their reasons — and solutions for the communities they serve to. “It is very difficult to deliver a sermon to a congregation displaced or that was hit by hunger caused by climate change”, highlighted Warah.

So, in many places, pastors, priests, indigenous spiritual references are taking action to avoid the worst impacts. “Religious leaders are both influential on the territories and on local governments”, added José Vitor, from Black Christian Movement Brazil. “By their influence, they are able to bring adaptation and climate measurements to the territories”, completed.

Increasing role 

The role of faith and religion on climate change is increasing with more organised movements, such as GreenFaith or the Brazilian Acacia Project, from Black Christian Movement Brazil — that select and train spiritual leaderships from communities on climate action.

But it is not new. “The concept of environmental racism was forged by a pastor from the Baptist Church in the United States of America”, reminded Vitor. “Unfortunately, we have seen churches and religious leaders getting far from the violence that their communities suffered”, added.

“Defending the planet means protecting God’s creation. But not only that: it means protecting my relationship with my neighbour, with myself, with my environment”, stated Miriam Moreno, from Tearfund. “Religion offers a perspective that goes beyond individual responsibility and shows that what is needed is a systemic energy change”, concluded. 

Audience echoed the panelists

The debate with the audience, following the panelists’ presentations, was rich. A woman who works with marginalized communities in Rio de Janeiro pointed out that these are the regions that suffer most from the impacts of climate change: “Due to a lack of urban planning, segregation and social exclusion, many of these areas do not have schools, health services or security. The state is absent”, she said. “If you ask people, many will not be part of a union or an NGO. But 100% of them have some connection to a faith community”, added.

Also in the audience, Lorena Froz gave a testimony about what happens in her spiritual space of black African ancestry: the Ossain do Ile Ase Méjì Omi Odara. “I’m from Candomblé, and we are no longer using certain vestments and objects to leave out in nature”, revealed. “We need to think globally about how to bring climate thinking to the care of our territories”, concluded.

La entrada Faith is the path for climate action in vulnerable communities around the world se publicó primero en Regional Climate Foundations.

“We are in a time of discouragement, many things are not working, but there is a great diversity of Argentinian here”, celebrated one of the gathering organisers, Enrique Maurtua Konstantinidis. “Many more people showed up than I thought would”, completed.

The session echoed the historical importance of the country in climate change debates. “It is important to say that the Kyoto Protocol existed because there was an Argentine leading those negotiations”, exemplified Konstantinidis, who also mentioned the papal encyclical on climate change, written by the Argentinian Francis.

Together on the stage, four secondary school students told the audience their sensations of being the generation that will suffer most of the impacts of climate change. “We are here to be aware about the decisions that are being made here at COP30, as we are the people who will live in the world with the consequences of these decisions”, explained Justina Pinto, one of the speakers. “Actually, we and the generations that will come after us”, added.

She and her colleagues are participating in a COP for the first time. They were selected to be in Belem, Brazil, after writing a manifesto with eight demands from young people from Argentina: “For example, we must promote education about climate. So that young people can have a better world”.

The idea of the gathering was to generate enthusiasm among Argentinians. “We need to be connected, generating ideas that will generate projects, that will generate change”, concluded Konstantinidis.

Provinces ally to fill the space left by the presidency

Six Argentinian provinces developed a coalition called Green Alliance Argentina to occupy the space left by Javier Milei’s presidency in what refers to climate change action. “In the context of climate change denial, we are joining forces because the impact is felt across territories. There are no borders for this impact. And those of us who are closest to it are the subnational states and municipalities”, explained the Environmental Secretary of La Pampa province, Vanina Basso.

Earlier, she had participated in a debate with other subnational representatives from Mexico and Brazil on the challenges of action in the territory. “It was a very enriching panel because, beyond listening to the challenges and opportunities that each of us faces, we firmly agree that it is very necessary to start adapting now”, stated.

To do that, the funds need to find the direct way to the communities. “So that adaptation can truly be achieved and the vulnerability of our communities and our environment to the impacts of climate change can be reduced”, completed.

La entrada To affirm Argentina’s place at COP30, civil society gathers at the RCF pavilion se publicó primero en Regional Climate Foundations.

David Enríquez, the organiser of ‘Energy 2050, technologies, market, and regulation. A Latin American perspective on the path to net-zero’ presented the two volumes of the collective work, which gathered 60 different authors from Latin America and Spain.

“Our effort was putting together in a picture different approaches to answer one very simple question: how can you see your own sector or area in 2050, aiming to achieve the net-zero objective”, explained Enriquez.

He also highlighted that the books are not designed as an academic source of information, but for a wide public interested in the subject.

“It is interesting to note that Latin America has a cleaner energy matrix compared with other regions”, observed one of the authors of the book, Luisa Sierra. According to her, 60% of the energy in the continent is based on sustainable sources. “Although, we need to increase ambition to achieve net-zero in 2050”.

Despite the diversity among the authors of the book, with different backgrounds, perspectives, and areas of expertise, Enríquez noted that two points were common to almost all the analyses: scale and speed.

“We see many things happening in our countries, but not on the scale or speed we need”, noted the executive director of the Mexican Climate Intiative, Adrián Fernández, who also participated in the debate. “With the new NDCs 3.0 goals, countries need to realize that they can’t keep moving in this inertial, gradual, slow way to bring a real energy transition”, concluded.

Forty years of air quality monitoring

The second book presented in the session was ‘What the air told us: Stories behind four decades of air quality monitoring, policy, and climate change in Mexico’, in which the chapters were written by researchers that have studied and monitored Mexican air quality for 35 or 40 years.

“The subject of air pollution is not new, but is not solved”, noted Adrián Fernández, from ICM, who wrote the presentation of the book.

He exemplified this, mentioning that currently the air quality in Mexico is, on average, five times better than in the 80s. But there is still a high concentration of pollutants and particles that can threaten human health.

“What happened is that the international standards for air contamination are becoming more restrictive than before. So we are moving forward, but the targets are moving faster than the solutions”, concluded.

La entrada Books show evolution and challenges for energy transition and quality air improvement se publicó primero en Regional Climate Foundations.

The NDC Partnership representative, Joaquim Leite, head of Climate Finance, also explained the existing lines and budgets for countries to implement ambitious NDCs.

But to have the funds available is not enough, many of the speakers repeated. It is urgent to create conditions of access to actors that today don’t have the capacity to borrow money. “Just to give an example, the Brazilian Amazon has 774 municipalities, but only 10 have fiscal space to access it”, explained the special envoy for civil society for COP30, André Guimarães. “We need to enable conditions under the risk of having pots of money and no operational investments taking plans”, completed.

In this way, the participants reminded that partnerships are essential. “The richest nations had developed in a high-emission base, without any restrictions. But we need a new development pathway, and in this case, South-South learning is the best way to move on”, argued deputy director at the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment Chen Zhihua.

To be closer to the realities in the Global South and understanding better the conditions, Sinha announced that the Green Climate Fund will open regional offices in the region. “We received 43 qualified proposals”, said.

Leite suggested that what is needed is a system change: “We need to move beyond individual project to massive projects — not one, but one thousand, bringing to the finance world the concept of mutirão”, advocated. “A different level of collaboration among national, global and local actors, because no individual can do it alone”.

“Africa is ready for transformation”

Two keynote speakers closed the session. The Chair of the African Group of Negotiators, Richard Muyungi, from Tanzania, assured that African countries are ready to implement 3.0 ambitious NDCs. “We are focused on transforming the world into a better, greener place. But we need you for capacity”, stated.

The Climate High-Level Champion for COP30, Dan Ioshpe, reminded that partnerships are essential to close finance gaps: “Government, academia, businesses, investors and multilateral development banks are needed to accelerate transition. Together, we will be able to get more ambition for climate action”.

Baku to Belém Roadmap

On the COP of implementation, the initiative of the Brazilian presidency to launch the Baku to Belém Roadmap, outlining ways to leverage resources for developing countries, is an important aspect of the conference, according to the executive director, Maria Netto. She made an evaluation of the finance discussions at the end of the first week of the climate conference in Belém, Brazil.

“We need to think about the next 10 years, but we can only move forward if there is funding”, stated.

To meet climate goals, the estimated amount needed is USD 1.3 trillion per year, which goes beyond the USD 300 billion committed by the developed countries in Baku, during COP29.

To meet this target, strategies include reforming development banks, making climate funds more flexible, and deploying innovative mechanisms to attract private capital by covering risks. “A combination of reforms and actions will be necessary to leverage these resources”, said Netto. “There is no silver bullet”, concluded.

La entrada Leaders explore finance options for the Global South in a world with scarce resources se publicó primero en Regional Climate Foundations.

An unprecedented study released at the Regional Climate Foundations Pavilion compiled responses from more than 2,000 Brazilians on the subject and concluded that yes, culture can really change minds when it comes to climate action. More than 60% of the interviewees said they changed or reconsidered their views on climate themes after participating in cultural experiences. 

“Culture has the potential to transform thoughts because it generates empathy and another form of connection”, explained Mariana Resegue, executive director of C de Cultura — one of the institutions behind the study, besides Outra Onda Conteúdo and Instituto Veredas.

One of the many reasons that a cultural approach can broaden access to climate information is because it moves away from technical language. “In climate conferences, it is usual to talk about acronyms, data and numbers, but mostly people need to deal with these topics in easier ways”, argued Eduardo Carvalho, director of Outra Onda Conteúdo.

He noted that music, books, exhibitions and audiovisual content can connect with people who do not access climate information through institutional channels. “Our goal is to build synergy to generate more artistic products, more than that, emotion and mobilization”, concluded.

The research extends the Culture and Climate platform first presented at the RCF Pavilion during COP29, which introduced an initial mapping of the cultural-climate agenda. The organizations also maintain Espalha, a platform created to link research findings to cultural initiatives through a national award for culture-and-climate projects.

An antidote to denialism

The research also found that more than half of respondents reported a sense of powerlessness regarding climate action — which suggests that communication strategies commonly used often distance the public rather than attract it. “Culture is in the territory, in people’s lives, in habits”, justified Resegue, noting that it offers an alternative route to communicate climate issues in everyday settings. 

The launching of the new study was followed by a debate. One of the invited, the Colombian youth activist Francisco Vera celebrated “culture is a bridge of union” in a moment of loss of consensus and climate denial: “In the face of climate denial, what we must try to do is reach young people through culture”.

Researcher Diosmar Filho, from Associação de Pesquisa Iyaleta, reminded how certain territories remain invisible in climate debates despite their active cultural production — and that the research reveals the potential of the traditional acknowledgement: “These territories have an existence that is pulsating to be part of the solution”.

He also cited the legacy of Luiz Gonzaga as one of the main agents of climate adaptation negotiations in Latin America: his cultural work on drought in the 1950s influenced the creation of regional governance structures such as Sudene. “Cultural narratives can inform policy and expand the climate conversation beyond institutional spaces”, stated.

Public policy construction

But to reach the minds and hearts on the scale that is needed for an ecological transformation, culture needs to be stimulated by public policies that connect this field to climate. “We decided to collect more data to strengthen public policies, so that other people and organizations embrace this cause”, justified Eduardo Carvalho. 

In this sense, the launching of the study during COP30 connects to a broader inclusion of cultural themes in global climate diplomacy, according to Brazil’s Ministry of Culture executive secretary, Márcio Tavares. A good example of this was a working group on the subject, co-chaired by Brazil since COP29, which gathers more than 50 countries and organizations. “Cultural knowledge and traditional practices can support livelihoods, strengthen access to education, health, food systems and generate opportunities within creative and cultural economies”, stated.

To put into practice what was said, the panel held a singing performance in Nheengatu language, from the indigenous activist Thaline Karajá, who talked about the threats on the region of Baixo Tapajós river, where she was born, close to Santarém (PA), Brazil. “We are being threatened by Ferrogrão”, a railway that will connect the grain-producing region of the Midwest to the state of Pará, ending at the Port of Miritituba (PA), Brazil. “Before, I could eat fish without worrying, but with the pollution of the rivers with pesticides, this is no longer possible”.

The activist, who is attending her sixth COP and has been living in Finland for two years, where she studies International Relations, spoke of the importance of education for traditional peoples. “Young indigenous people are stepping up, educating themselves to protect those who came before us, who are there within the territories”.

La entrada Culture emerges as a key driver to mobilize society in the climate crisis se publicó primero en Regional Climate Foundations.

“These are examples of inspiring projects that promote just transition”, celebrated the moderator of the panel, Rebecca Collyer, who is the executive director of ReNew2030, a global coalition that works on the clean energy process.

The participants shared experiences on the climate goal of tripling the renewable energy by 2030 — commitment made during COP28, in the UAE — by installing solar panels in small communities. But also the challenges of the distributed generation in remote locations.

The main achievement they see in the projects is the life quality the communities gained: “With stable energy, these people have more time and new dreams”, explained the manager of Energy Transition at the Institute for Climate and Society, Victoria Santos. “Women, for example, can now use washing machines”, added.

This perception was repeated by the other panelists, the Professor Ji Zou, CEO and President of Energy Foundation China, and the energy director of the Mexican Climate Initiative, Luisa Sierra.

In China, for example, microgrids are allowing rural communities to improve production and money income. “We are driving a people-centered development with solar panels. And, in the meanwhile, we save the climate, mitigating emission of greenhouse gases”, expressed Ji Zou.

In Mexico, the strategy of the Mexican Climate Initiative for ensuring clean energy for the more vulnerable communities includes dialogues with those villages, to gain their trust, as well as with the government, in order to develop a regulation framework that makes the projects sustainable in the long term. “We also are campaigning, advocating and offering technical assistance”, listed Sierra. 

Sierra explained that many villages that are receiving clean energy projects live in areas where the temperatures can reach 40º or even 50º C — so cooling strategies are central to saving lives.

Greenest and cheaper

In Brazil, the solar panels are replacing diesel-powered generators. “This old source of electricity did not provide autonomy, and it is a very expensive power source”, explained Santos. So, by reducing energy costs, the projects are also increasing income to the communities. In many cases, they also allow the community to improve their revenues: fishermen, for example, can freeze their products and sell them at the most appropriate moment.

In China, where big distances can sometimes represent a high investment to reach them with expanding the regular grid, microgrids based on solar energy are also saving money. Besides that, in places with intensive coal use, solar panels are also positively impacting people’s health, as are improving air quality.

Indicators

The goal of generating social impact and economic development while using clean energy, however, suffers from one difficulty: the lack of indicators to track progress made. 

For the head of secretariat at JETP Indonesia, Paul Butarbutar, a global indicator won’t solve the problem: “The concept of just transition has a different meaning for many countries, it is not a global same understanding”, introduced in the panel “Ensuring just energy transitions: using indicators for successful, fair and inclusive transitions”. “And there isn’t any reason for having it. I’m thinking if it is worthy to have a global indicator for that”, added.

But for three of the participants, there are important indicators to track progress — or, more than that, to make sure that the transition is really fair with all. The executive director of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights International, Joan Carling, for example, advocated for an indicator to assure respect to indigenous territories, rights and resources: “And also the obligation to consult the indigenous, and, most important, the respect for the right to say no”.

Eric Manzi, the Deputy Secretary General of the International Trade Union Confederation reminded that a just transition only exists if workers rights are respected. “Our mission is to protect jobs and families”, explained.

Finally, Sheila Oparaocha, a director at International Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy, reminded us of the need for gender responsive indicators: “the lack of access to energy and to just transition impacts disproportionately much more women”.

La entrada Solar panels deliver renewable energy and livelihood improvement for communities in China, Mexico and Brazil se publicó primero en Regional Climate Foundations.