Reportage
Brazilians march for the dream of a fossil-free future
It was a march the likes of which we haven’t seen in years. But inside COP, the sticking points concern timelines, commitments and, most importantly, an effective verification mechanism.
On Saturday, the streets of Belém were full not only with hundreds of ripe mangoes falling from the trees, but also with thousands of people marching for the climate and against fossil fuels. Activists from every part of the world gathered in the Brazilian Amazon city hosting COP30, the 30th UN Climate Change Conference, to demand more ambition.
It was a march the likes of which we haven’t seen in years. After COPs in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan – countries not very friendly for marchers with banners and drums – Brazil brought an energy back to the streets that had been missing: colors, music and a symbolic funeral for fossil fuels. It was the first major mass protest outside a COP since Glasgow four years ago, although those who were at the UN summit in Scotland are saying the level of participation seen in Brazil is unparalleled.
The People’s March, as it was renamed, came at the end of the first week of negotiations. It followed two demonstrations led in recent days by South America's indigenous movements, who are determined to not allow their voices to be ignored again while the world discusses how to curb global warming.
Among the most theatrical moments of the march was the funeral for fossil fuels: people dressed in mourning clothes, ghostly puppets several meters high, and three large coffins labeled “Coal,” “Oil,” and “Gas.” One of the performers explained: “Our lives depend on the elimination of fossil fuels. Our children depend on our struggle.”
Amid the floats, masks, banners and chants, a number of elements captured the media’s attention: the signs and songs in support of Palestine; a thirty-meter-long snake – cobra, a play on words between the animal sacred to many Amazonian peoples and the Portuguese imperative verb meaning “pay up!”; a banner reading: “Environmental collapse is capitalist: Lula, the energy transition with Amazonian oil is a farce”; and, a little further on, a truck playing Bella Ciao.
The demonstration was attended by trade unions, student collectives, Franciscan congregations, NGOs and local associations. Among them was the Network of Sustainable Favelas, which is calling for adaptation measures in the urban peripheries and has launched a charter which has been signed by over 200 representatives of informal settlements worldwide.
A young man from the João Telles de Menezes favela in Rio de Janeiro told il manifesto: “Top-down decisions are useless for our situation. We want concrete measures to make our neighborhoods more livable. For example, roofs covered with plants to lower the temperature of our homes.”
While people marched outside, the thorniest discussions inside COP30 were about a global roadmap for phasing out fossil fuels. According to Brazilian sources, President Lula wants to reach a formal plan here in Belém, but COP President André Corrêa do Lago keeps pouring cold water on the high expectations, hinting the time may not be ripe for that.
The front in favor of a plan is growing, however. France, Germany, Colombia, the Marshall Islands, the United Kingdom and Kenya are among the countries that openly support a roadmap, and in total, about 60 states are reportedly willing to agree on one. However, its concrete provisions remain up in the air: the sticking points concern timelines, commitments and, most importantly, an effective verification mechanism.
One proposal comes from former UN advisor Anne-Sophie Cerisola: create an international task force to help states plan their exit from fossil fuels, with dates, strategies, and tools. Brazil's new climate plan also speaks of the need to “plan the transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems.” This planning is essential, warns former Colombian minister Susana Muhamad: without a global process, “the International Monetary Fund and the credit rating agencies will be the ones setting the terms,” taking away political agency from the most vulnerable countries.
The reference point remains the Global Stocktake agreement adopted at COP28, which sets out the goal of “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050.” It’s likely that the roadmap will be linked to the five-year Global Stocktake, with a first milestone around 2030.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/i-popoli-in-marcia-sognano-laddio-ai-combustibili-fossili on 2025-11-16