My name is Pang from the Philippines, delivering this intervention on behalf of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice, one of the Environmental NGOs.

We congratulate the room in streamlining indicators and are happy to support the work in finalizing this by COP30.

As movements representing grassroots communities in the Global South that are ravaged by climate impacts as we speak, we would like to remind Parties that your work here affects real lives. The lives of frontline communities comprised of Indigenous peoples, women, youth, smallholder food producers, workers, and other vulnerable groups who bear the brunt of the climate crisis. A crisis that was borne out of decades of exploitation, resource extraction, and plundering of the Global South by the Global North.

The adaptation finance needs of the Global South are 18x the current public finance flows, which are declining year on year. We warn that every dollar of adaptation finance withheld translates to a hundredfold loss and damage costs for the Global South and every year it is delayed translates to lives lost.

That all said, we urge you to strengthen indicators on the Means of Implementation to ensure that they track the public adaptation finance provision from developed to developing countries, ensure that the quality of this financing is grants-based and accessible, and whether it has been spent with the view of centering the most vulnerable grassroots communities. We also support Parties’ move to remove any indicators on ODA and national budgets as they are beyond the scope of the UNFCCC and help developed countries skirt their legal obligation to provide climate finance. 

Let us, as observers, remind you that people across the globe see through the delay and deception. You will be judged based on how you unlock real climate action and not simply whether you shortened a list of thousand indicators. We hope you proceed with the view of ensuring adaptation action on the ground is implemented and funded now, not later. Thank you.

Climate Action Network and Demand Climate justice, both ENGO constituencies, give a lot of importance to this JTWP delivering concrete outcomes as soon as possible, starting in Belem.

We have been reflecting since Baku on what actions taken here can make the lives and livelihoods of workers and communities better – we are happy to share them with all parties

In brief, they fit very well in your structure

Under Operationalisation of the WP and joining our colleagues from Trade unions, We have elaborated a proposal for a global JT mechanism to accelerate progress on the ground and support coordination of multiple initiatives within and outside unfccc, that would consolidate the WP as a knowledge sharing arm while opening also a coordination function for initiatives within and outside UNFCCC and an action arm, where many initiatives could be taken, such a help desk for countries and territories seeking support, capacity, technology

We recognize and appreciate how parties have been acknowledging the necessity of inclusivity, consultation, and participation of rights holders in JT measures and policies. We hope this recognition can be concretized through a COP decision calling on or encouraging all countries to establish these national participatory institutions, including but not limited to tripartite social dialogue mechanisms for trade unions

We do see here also the development of a guidance framework /principles as an important way to secure key human, labour and indigenous peoples rights and the participation of women, youth, workers, disabled people and people of african descent, our participation in JT initiatives at all levels, as well as the right to energy, water, food, among other key dimensions.

Under Support for JT pathways

We would like to encourage parties to recognise that the design and implementation of Just Transition policies, plans, programmes and practices will be supported with means of implementation and provided with new, additional, adequate, non-debt-creating, and predictable climate finance.

On Additional guidance, we think we should be clear on dimensions where JT plays a critical role, including on fossil fuels, renewables, critical minerals, agriculture/food systems, industry, transport, care economy, adaptation, among others)

________________________________________________________________________

My name is Pang from the Philippines, delivering this intervention on behalf of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice, one of the Environmental NGOs.

For many years, we have brought the voices of frontline agroecological communities into these negotiations, and they have repeatedly lauded the benefits of agroecology, which many Parties have echoed today. Yet we continue to see support for industrial animal agriculture and its expansion in the Global South. No more. Let this be the day that business as usual ends.

With utmost urgency, echoing the movements we represent, ENGOs share these key points:

FIRST – Agroecology is THE foremost holistic solution in agriculture, both as a mitigation and adaptation strategy.

Evidence from communities has proven that agroecology approaches, including agroforestry, are real climate solutions. On the one hand, agroecology strengthens climate adaptation. But agroecology also cuts emissions because, unlike industrial agriculture, it does not rely on fossil-fuel-based inputs or drive deforestation.

Beyond climate wins, agroecology also delivers on multiple SDGs, supporting biodiversity and restoring degraded lands, making it a key strategy for delivering on UN Conventions on Biodiversity and Desertification. Agroecology also boosts employment in agriculture, unlike industrial agriculture, which displaces human employment and consolidates land and wealth in fewer and fewer hands.

Our members are already implementing thousands of agroecology projects that show real proof of agroecology’s benefits. In Latin America, agroforestry transformed degraded land into a lush forest, improved climate resilience, and generated income for Indigenous communities. In Asia, community seed houses, intercropping, and rainwater harvesting protected farms from climate shocks. In Africa, communities practiced agroecological land restoration, knowledge sharing, and early warning systems.

Having achieved multiple co-benefits in communities across the world, agroecology is THE most cost-effective way to spend public funds to deliver on multiple wins.

NEXT SLIDE – Systemic approaches should look at opportunities up and down the supply chain.

In fact, IPCC says that food security under the climate crisis can only be achieved through the combination of supply-side and demand-side interventions. For example, on the supply side, high-consuming countries must reduce food waste, while on the demand side, they must reduce consumption of industrial animal-based food that drives deforestation and pollution.

NEXT SLIDE – We need to phase out industrial agriculture and initiate just transitions to agroecology.

We need to urgently end business as usual, phase out industrial agriculture, and initiate a just transition towards equitable/ humane / and agroecological food systems.

This transition can only be just if Indigenous Peoples, women, youth, people of color, workers, fishers, and farmers, who are currently exploited by industrial agriculture, are leading this new agroecological future. We encourage Parties to work with their colleagues in the Just Transition Work Programme to ensure that vulnerable groups have training, reskilling, social protection, and support for livelihood diversification.

NEXT SLIDE – Systemic approaches to climate action in food require a transformation of governance.

Deep reform of the governance of our food system towards democratic and equitable models is needed, with a strong accountability framework both at the national and global level, that ensures equal participation of vulnerable groups and no vested interests.

NEXT SLIDE – Agroecological approaches should be prioritised for scaled-up grants-based climate finance.

Scaled-up grants-based climate finance is essential to achieving our collective vision for systemic, holistic, and agroecological-based climate action in agriculture. We are looking forward to contributing to the next workshop on Means of Implementation, to ensure that financing is accessible and beneficial to vulnerable grassroots communities.

Thank you.

My name is Rachitaa Gupta and I am speaking on behalf of ENGO DCJ.

I voluntarily declare that I have no ties with fossil fuel industries (or other emission intensive industries) and no conflict of interest. There are nearly 1,800 fossil fuel lobbyists at COP29.

Every year half my country suffers from devastating heatwaves while the other half is ravaged by floods. And the very criminals who have polluted our world, my home, are now here to pollute these talks supported by the Global North countries. And they have been doing it for nearly 30 years.

We and our communities are being destroyed by wildfires, floods, typhoon, drought, climate crisis induced destruction and devastation. And we are not the ones responsible for it. It is you rich countries and your fossil fuel buddies. Your hunger and greed have looted our lands, our water, our forests, and with it our very future.

We are here for a finance COP. And it is turning into a bankrupt COP as you developed countries continue to deny your historical responsibility. 

We demand an ambitious NCQG of 5 trillion USD per year as new, public, grants based,  and non-debt creating climate finance.

You can’t lie to us that you don’t have the money. You provide 1 trillion USD in subsidies to fossil fuel companies and 1 trillion USD to your militaries. You would rather fund war, conflict, and genocide than climate action. You want us to instead sell our lands and resources as carbon markets to continue your imperialism and colonialism.

I now call upon our governments to stand up and stand strong against the dirty tactics of the rich countries. You are here representing millions of people back home. A bad deal—one that shifts the burden to Global South countries or dilutes the Global North’s obligations—is worse than no deal at all. Don’t let global north governments derail this process and sow division. Our power lies in our solidarity.

We simply cannot afford another shameful and empty outcome. We are asking for our very right to exist. Defund genocide, fund climate justice!

This is Pang from the Philippines, speaking on behalf of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice.

If you sense frustration in my voice, it is because I am trying to quell the raging anger of the communities from the Global South that I represent. The brunt of climate impacts is disproportionately borne by women, children, young, gender-non-conforming people, Indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, and small food producers in the Global South. But let us address the elephant in the room – this crisis was NOT caused by those who are suffering most but by an elite few governments and corporations. One Global North country, for example, has emitted more than any other nation on the planet since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

For years, the Global North has made lofty promises to finance climate adaptation, yet delivered little more than empty words. Now, they want to involve the private sector to offer loans instead of fulfilling THEIR obligations. Let me be clear: the private sector will not save us. It will not rebuild our homes after disasters or shelter those displaced by floods. Its goal is profit, not paying the climate debt owed to us. We reject the claim that public finance is unavailable—$16 trillion was mobilized for public COVID stimulus in 2020. Surely, a fraction of that can be raised for an existential crisis threatening billions.

It’s time to expose the Global North. They continue to make promises but avoid concrete commitments, refusing to talk about numbers. When they do engage, they hide behind financial instruments that delay action and shift the burden to the Global South.

Centuries of colonization, exploitation, and extraction of the Global North from our communities is the REASON for the climate crisis. So the time has come for you to pay the climate debt YOU OWE. We DEMAND climate finance of AT LEAST $5 TRILLION/YEAR as partial payment – part of this will enable the Global South to adapt to a new apocalyptic reality that we did not cause and will go to Adaptation Finance – but it will also be used to phase out fossil fuels, build resilience, ensure a just transition of energy and food systems, and pay for losses and damages. 

Every dollar you fail to provide for adaptation today will cost 10 times more in losses and damages tomorrow. And the blood of those losses will be on YOUR hands. WE ARE FED UP with your excuses. Global North, Pay Up $5 trillion NOW!

I am Rachitaa Gupta from the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice. I voluntarily disclose that I have no ties to the fossil fuel industry or other emission intensive industries and no conflict of interest and invite others to also disclose the same as they speak. We want to highlight the new report that has just come out that shows there are nearly 1800 fossil fuel lobbyists at this COP and we know when they come here it is only to influence and prioritise their profit rather than people’s interests. We cannot ignore the contrast between shrinking of meaningful space for rightsholder constituencies on one hand, and the vastly increasing power and influence of the polluting interests like the fossil fuel lobbyists over this process on the other hand. For us, enhancing observer engagement requires ensuring that that engagement does not come at the cost of introducing conflicting interests that risk the integrity of the very UNFCCC objectives and process, and that displace the lived experience and expertise of rights holders. We call on your support to convene a public, formal way for observers to engage in dedicated, constructive, deep dialogue with parties on this topic, and to take all possible measures to safeguard against the undue influence of polluting interests.

We reiterate all the points made by our comrades in the rights based constituencies. We all know that this is a crucial COP since it is called “finance COP”. We hope to see ambitious public finance commitments from the parties, especially the developed countries who have the historical responsibility. We condemn the priorities of the countries around the world, especially rich countries choosing to fund and fuel genocides, war, and conflict around the world rather than funding climate action and justice. These issues are deeply interlinked- there is no climate justice on occupied land, and these same actors are perpetuating both the climate crisis and the genocide and systemic violence happening around the world.

We are all gathered to be part of discussions and negotiations that have serious implications on our lives and communities in the global south. Yet we gather here year after year with no meaningful progress or solutions for our communities back at home who are at the frontline of this crisis yet least responsible for it. We insist on more accountability from the rich countries to deliver on the commitments that they make here year after year. As you know Data compiled by the UNFCCC Secretariat shows that developed countries have fallen far short of their formal pledges to reduce deadly greenhouse gas emissions, fulfilling only about one-quarter of the cuts urged by scientists. The pushing of article 6.4 in the opening plenary and the agenda is deeply problematic since it. It is also a strong attempt to bring in false solutions like carbon markets and speculative and untested technologies of geoengineering that are used as dangerous distractions from real emission cuts that need to happen urgently and immediately.

And we call on you to strengthen the disclosure requirements instituted last year, in time for strengthened measures to come into place for COP29 registration. Specifically, we request that all observer participants be required to disclose who is funding their participation in talks before receiving theri registration. We urge you to initiate the process of conflict of interest policy and an accountability framework. We strongly believe this lies within the remit of the secretariat, and is the type of bold action that is needed now. A type of boldness that has also been echoed by the UN Secretary General in his comments earlier this year. The world is looking to you to give a strong signal that this hall of climate action is not overrun with the very actors that have caused the climate crisis. We cannot afford another COP with an empty outcome.

My name is Paloma Jofre, I am speaking on behalf of ENGO-DCJ. I voluntarily declare that I have no ties with fossil fuel industries (or other emission intensive industries) and no conflict of interest.

I come from the Wallmapu, Mapuche territory in South America, where our communities and our land cannot afford more extractivism, we cannot afford more false solutions. 

We may be in week 2 of this COP but really we have been at this same juncture for nearly 30 years. When are you all gonna wake up?! Wake up.

There are nearly 1,800 fossil fuel lobbyists at COP29—why are they here? To protect their dirty business and derail negotiations. We know who’s to blame for the climate crisis: you, rich countries and the fossil fuel industry.

We demand an ambitious NCQG of 5 trillion USD per year in public and non-debt creating climate finance. Don’t say you don’t have the money. You just choose to spend it on war, conflict, and genocide and in supporting big polluters.

I now speak to our governments. You represent millions of people suffering from the climate crisis, stand up for our survival. . A bad deal—one that shifts the burden to Global South countries or dilutes the Global North’s obligations—is worse than no deal at all. Don’t let global north governments derail this process and sow division. Our power lies in our solidarity.

We simply cannot afford another shameful and empty outcome. We are asking for our right to exist. Defund genocide, fund climate justice!

My name is Natalia Figueiredo. I’m from World Animal Protection, based in Brazil. delivering this statement on behalf of one of the ENGOs, the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice DCJ:

We are pleased that the online portal is open to observers and urge considerations to make it more accessible – including more translations and ensuring quick uploads onto the portal. We also would like to urge the joint work to add a moderation function to the portal so voices and solutions are equally represented, and conflict of interests prevented.

Civil societies should not just be observers but active participants in this process, as our networks represent frontline groups, we have both the expertise and legitimacy for this. We are looking forward to using the portal and sharing case studies of small food producers, with gendered approaches and community-led solutions. These solutions have been created, tested, and implemented by frontline groups relying on agriculture for their livelihoods. We urge the joint work to make these solutions central to the workshops 

As we speak, the climate crisis is devastatingly impacting the global south. In my country, Brazil, we continue to suffer from its impacts, with fires in the Cerrado, droughts in the Amazon, and floods in big cities, which have had disastrous consequences for our lives. 

We urgently need agreements on the portal’s modality, including measures to avoid conflicts of interest, so we can move on to meaningful conversations about the workshops in the lead-up to COP30 in Belem.