Thousands march outside COP30 summit in call for action

Marching to the beat of pounding sound systems, thousands of climate protesters have been bringing their message to the gates of the COP30 climate talks in Brazil.

Chanting and singing “free the Amazon”, demonstrators in host city Belém have been carrying three giant coffins reading Oil, Coal and Gas flanked by two grim reapers.

Indigenous groups displayed signs reading “the answer is us” as an inflatable elephant and anaconda weaved through the crowd under the hot sun.

It is the first time since 2021 that protesters have been allowed to demonstrate outside the UN climate talks. The last three took place in countries that do not permit public protest.

“We are holding a funeral for fossil fuels,” Tuga Cíntia told the BBC. She is from the theatre group Hydra Dance from the Federal University of Pará.

“I’m here because enough is enough with COP meetings and theory. It’s time for us to actually act,” she said.

Indigenous communities, Brazilian youth groups, and activists from across the world joined the march in their thousands.

As the midday sun intensified, some sought shelter in a petrol station forecourt.

“Fossil fuels are still being burned. We know all too well what it’s like to live on the frontline of climate change,” Brianna Fruean, a climate activist from Samoa, a low-lying island extremely vulnerable to climate change, told the BBC.

“We are here after so many COPS, marching for justice, for the end of fossil fuels,” Ilan, from the non-governmental organisation 350, who lives in Brazil, said.

Some carried signs reading “demarcation now”, calling for indigenous groups to be given legal ownership of their territories.

Hundreds of indigenous groups live in the Amazon and are regarded by experts as the best protectors of biodiversity and forests.

Smaller sister protests have taken place around the world including in the UK.

Security was tight at the COP30 venue as police with riot shields guarded the entrance.

On Tuesday protesters carrying signs broke through security lines at the summit. The incident caused minor injuries to two security staff and some limited damage to the venue.

Representation of indigenous voices has been a flashpoint in these talks, some of whom have set up stalls outside the fenced-off COP30 venue to sell products to passing delegates.

The meeting was dubbed the “indigenous people’s COP” but many groups feel their concerns over deforestation, land protection and resource extraction in their homes are not being heard.

Negotiations continued at the COP30 talks on Saturday. Nearly 200 countries are meeting to try to make progress on tackling climate change.

Little progress was made in the first week of the talks, although some delegations say they are pushing for an agreed strategy to deliver on past promises to move away from using planet-warming fossil fuels.

President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva of Brazil is hosting the talks and chose the city of Belém to put the world’s focus on the Amazon.

But shortly before the talks opened last week, his government granted permission to the Brazilian state oil company to explore for oil at the mouth of the Amazon.

On Friday, analysis of attendee lists by the coalition Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) suggested a record number of delegates from fossil fuel companies are attending the meeting.

It suggests 1,600 lobbyists are in Belém, a 12% rise from the COP meeting last year.

It is common for business leaders to come to the talks to strike deals.

With the US strikingly absent from negotiations, progress has been slow. It is the first time the country has sent no delegation to the talks, after President Donald Trump branded climate change “a con”.

Earlier in the week a group of senior climate leaders wrote a letter calling on the summit to ensure the facts about climate change were “upheld.

Ten countries have signed an initiative called Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change at COP30, launched by the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change.

It aims to create international commitments to address climate disinformation and promote evidence-based information on climate issues.

On the core issues of how to tackle the root cause of climate change and how to help countries adapt to ongoing global warming, Brazil has promised the talks will deliver action to implement years of deals and pledges.

The talks continue into next week.