Published: 08:31 AM, 26 November 2025 Last Update: 08:38 AM, 26 November 2025
Climate conference stresses protecting indigenous tribes
Indigenous people filled the streets, paddled the waterways and protested at the heart of the venue to make their voices heard during the United Nations climate talks that were supposed to give them a voice like never before at the annual conference, reports The Associated Press. As the talks, called COP30, concluded on Saturday in Belem, Brazil, Indigenous people reflected on what the conference meant to them and whether they were heard.
Brazilian leaders had high hopes that the summit, taking place in the Amazon, would empower the people who inhabit the land and protect the biodiversity of the world’s largest rainforest, which helps stave off climate change as its trees absorb carbon pollution that heats the planet.
Many Indigenous people who attended the talks felt strengthened by the solidarity with tribes from other countries and some appreciated small wins in the final outcome. But for many, the talks fell short on representation, ambition and true action on climate issues affecting Indigenous people.
“This was a COP where we were visible but not empowered,” said Thalia Yarina Cachimuel, a Kichwa-Otavalo member of A Wisdom Keepers Delegation, a group of Indigenous people from around the world. The first paragraph of the main political text acknowledges “the rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as their land rights and traditional knowledge.” Taily Terena, an Indigenous woman from the Terena nation in Brazil, said she was happy because the text for the first time mentioned those rights explicitly.
But Mindahi Bastida, an Otomí-Toltec member of A Wisdom Keepers Delegation, said countries should have pushed harder for agreements on how to phase out fuels like oil, gas and coal “and not to see nature as merchandise, but to see it as sacred.”
Several nations pushed for a road map to curtail use of fossil fuels, which when burned release greenhouse gases that warm the planet. Saturday’s final decision left out any mention of fossil fuels, leaving many countries disappointed.
The Amazon rainforest is already at risk of a renewed surge in deforestation as efforts grow to overturn a key ban to protect it. Thick and healthy forestry helps pull carbon out of the atmosphere.
Carbon released through the burning of fossil fuels has contributed to climate change.
Countries are gathering at COP30 in an effort to reach agreements on how to try to limit global average temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels and keep them "well below" 2C.
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says a large body of scientific evidence shows that warming of 2C or more would bring serious consequences, including extreme heat, higher sea levels and threats to food security.
