Statement from global climate justice groups

As we sit in the now nearly empty halls of COP28 in Dubai, governments are locked up in rooms, secretly negotiating texts that will either protect millions of lives or effectively sign the death warrant for so many around the world—communities of color, Indigenous Peoples, frontline and local communities, small peasant farmers, youth, and women. We are shut out, silenced, and left in the dark, even though it is many of our communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis that will be most directly impacted by what those in these halls do, or do not, deliver.  

But we know enough from what we have witnessed play out over the past two weeks during this round of UN climate talks to guess what is underfoot. And we know enough from having attended 28 COPs, all of which have failed to deliver the action needed to curb global emissions to Real Zero and implement a just transition along with the needed climate finance. We know enough, because we travel from around the world every year to stand for justice and to resist, while those in power, the political elite, and polluting corporations use this process to orchestrate their ‘get out of jail free’ card.

COP28 is in overtime, but we are here to say—time’s up. 

Time’s up to spend hours upon hours “taking stock” when we know we are grotesquely off track and nowhere near the mark. 

Time’s up to deliver the fast, fair, funded, false solutions-free fossil fuel phase out—of all fossil fuels—alongside the needed finance and technology for implementation, and without the use of adjectives like ‘unabated’ that mask the intent to actually ramp up fossil fuels.

Time’s up to announce the long overdue delivery of climate finance that those on the frontlines are owed. Finance that is public, community-controlled, and in line with each government’s fair share of climate action. There’s no point having ambition and setting lofty targets without a means for implementation for the Global South. 

Time’s up for Global North governments like the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, Norway, Japan, and Australia to cease their climate bullying while proclaiming themselves climate champions, and to stop denying doing their fair share of climate action as the actors that are overwhelmingly responsible for the climate crisis. 

Time’s up to reject dangerous distractions and false solutions that are unproven, risky, do not meaningfully reduce emissions, cause great harm, and delay the needed end to the fossil fuel age. No more carbon markets, offsets, geo-engineering, nature-based solutions, nuclear, carbon capture and storage, and hydrogen—all of which continue to enable the extractivist, racist, colonial, capitalist system that has perpetuated the climate crisis. 

Time’s up to finally enact just transitions that meet the urgent needs of the Global South and respects workers rights. A just transition that does not take into account historical responsibilities means nothing. 

Time’s up for Big Polluters, including the fossil fuel industry and industrial agriculture, to no longer be given the pen to write the rules of climate action, or the power to bankroll these talks and manipulate what happens here. We can no longer allow this process to be poisoned from the inside with Big Polluters’ profit and greed-driven motive. 

Time’s up on the complicit silence of the world while not far from Dubai, children, women, elderly, and men are being murdered by heinous acts of crimes against humanity, enabled by the same Global North actors that are here blocking every meaningful outcome these talks could and must deliver. We are over having to shout reminders that there is no climate justice without human rights, and no climate justice on occupied land. 

There is no more time for delaying and stalling. There is now only time for acting—urgently, fairly, and justly. The words “fossil fuels” in a text are meaningless if the rest of those pages are riddled with loopholes that not only enable but exacerbate the era of fossil fuels. Climate action is weakened if those who are most responsible are not held to account to lead by example. A phaseout is useless without the tools needed to actually achieve it. Climate action is pointless if it condemns billions to death and destruction. 

The Global North as perpetrators of the climate crisis are painting themselves as the victims trying to deliver a package here in Dubai. But what good is a package of false solutions, empty finance, and meaningless promises? COP28, now in overtime, risks setting a death trap for communities around the world. 

Climate Justice Now.  

From the undersigned organizations:

ActionAid International 

Alianza Socioambiental Fondos del Sur

Alliance Nationale de lutte contre la Faim et la Malnutrition ACFM Niger 

Artivistnetwork.org

Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD)

Association Nigerienne des Scouts de l’Environnement ANSEN 

Biofuelwatch

Casa Socio-Environmental Fund • Fundo Casa Socioambiental Brasil

Climate Emergency Fund

Climate Justice Alliance 

Colectivo VientoSur (Chile) 

Connected Advocacy for Empowerment and Youth Development Initiative 

Corporate Accountability

Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa 

Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)

Debt Justice UK

Debt Observatory in Globalisation (ODG) (Barcelona)

[Earth]

EcoEquity

Ecologistas en Acción (Spain)

Emerger Fondo Sociambiental Colombia

Entertainment & Culture Foundation

ETC Group

Fondo Ñeque Ecuador

Fondo Tierra Viva Centro América

Fondo Socioambiental Semilla Bolívia

Friends of the Earth International

Friends of the Earth U.S.

Fridays for Future Spain – Juventud x Clima

Fridays for Future USA

Fundação Grupo Esquel Brasil 

Gaia Coalition Network

Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA)

Global Forest Coalition

Global Justice Now

Grupo Ambientalista da Bahia

Help Initiative for Social Justice and Humanitarian Development 

Hivos 

IBON International 

Indigenous Climate Action

Indigenous Environmental Network

Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL)

International Student Environmental Coalition

ISPN – Instituto Sociedade, População e Natureza-Brasil

Konsorsium Pendukung Sistem Hutan Kerakyatan (KPSHK)

Oil Change International

Oil Watch Africa

PFC Family Office

Reacción Climática (Bolivia)

RedTailed Hawk Collective

Re:wild Your Campus

Pudú

The Zetkin Collective

Third World Network

TierrActiva Peru (TAP)

Viernes por el Futuro Perú

UKYCC

War on Want

WhatNext?

Women Donors Network

Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN)

World Animal Protection

Zero Hour

350 Côte d’Ivoire

350.org

7 Directions of Service

Photo Credit: Ja Valenzuela, APMDD