For Immediate Release

Nov 10, 2025

MEDIA ADVISORY: 

Belem, Brazil— World governments are using COP30 to advance carbon markets and gamble away the planet and our futures. But we are not commodities to be sold and traded. And neither is Mother Earth. Activists, frontline leaders and communities started Day 2 of #COP30 resisting the ‘Carbon Casino’ at the Climate Talks where rich nations and corporations gamble with Global South peoples’ lives, territories and the planet’s future. With swanky schemes like Carbon Market Alliance and The Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF)… Activists held the Global North accountable for putting profit over people.  

When: Nov 11, 2025, 8:00am – 9:00am Belem (GMT-3)

Where: COP 30 Blue Zone
Speakers: Tyrone Scott (War on Want/Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice), Janaina Uemura (Global Forest Coalition, Brazil), Thomas Joseph (Hoopa Nation, Indigenous Environment Network), Uli Siagian (WALHI/FoE Indonesia, Indonesia), Ali (Alliance of Non-Governmental Radical Youth, Trinidad), Wilmer Lucitante (Udapt/FoE Ecuador), Gideon Akoto (Friends of the Earth, Ghana), Neha Gupta (Woman and Gender Constituency), Amalen (Malaysia)

IMAGES (Credits mandatory) 

1. Bianka Csenki, Artivist Network: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1mhDwca8DjKEpcuyv6i3ibbfe9KKHCTXk?usp=sharing 
2. By Asian Peoples Movement for Debt and Displacement (APMDD) clicked by Jason Valenzuela and Jason del Rosario.: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipN0ur6VbW4mWeqehOdnS2yuPDZCM0ojfBPkVYSwsSdaCD8HsY30z5jskRjfv2_AjA?key=NEk5SENQZTJqWU42LXM2OTJUTTJGR2tRaDkyRWpn

(CONTACT Esthappen S, Communications Coordinator, Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (Whatsapp: +91 9820918910, Email: [email protected])

QUOTES (To be updated with additional quotes)

“I come from the Ecuadorian Amazon, a paradise of life that is now harmed by pollution and extractivism. In 20 years, carbon credits in my region have not stopped the destruction, and pollution continues to advance. We demand real solutions to protect our forests and biodiversity. Forests should be kept out of carbon markets and other such schemes.” Wilmer Lucitante, Udapt / FoE Ecuador

“Carbon markets fail to reduce emissions. They let corporations buy time while we run out of it, gambling our lives for their profits. Carbon markets are opening the door for false solutions and dangerous distractions like risky geoengineering scams. These market  driven mechanisms cause immense harm to our communities, ecosystems, biodiversity and our climate. They are a loophole that allows rich countries and corporations to keep polluting, while women in all their diversities bear the gendered cost of this. Women lose access to their forests and farmlands which are their sources of food and income. They also face higher risks of violence when displaced by carbon offset projects. Women’s care work which is invisibilised and unpaid, multiplies when ecosystems collapse. This is not climate justice, this is climate violence. We say “Hands off Mother Earth.” Neha Gupta, Women and Gender Constituency. 

“We took action today because the UNFCCC has become a casino where the Global North and polluting corporations gamble with our future — trading access to forests, rivers and communities for profit. While they spin the wheel on carbon markets, we’re demanding real climate solutions, led by the people and demanding justice for frontline communities across the Global South. We will no longer sit by whilst world leaders put profits before people and planet.” Tyrone Scott, War on Want/Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ)

“The carbon market is a misguided solution to addressing the climate crisis. This mechanism will only serve to further legitimize polluters’ emissions. The carbon market mechanism will also encourage large-scale land grabbing and lead to human rights violations.” Uli Siagian, WALHI / FoE Indonesia