Saturday marked by protests in Belém
This Saturday, the Zero de Portugal association joined thousands of activists and indigenous people in a march in Belém to draw the attention of COP30 negotiators, gathered in this city in the Brazilian Amazon, to demand climate responses.
“A huge mobilization, a giant appeal, so that politicians in the second week can really provide answers in terms of action and implementation to the enormous climate crisis we are experiencing and which is also clearly felt in Portugal today”, stated the president of Zero, Francisco Ferreira.
In statements sent to journalists, this activist from Portugal said that this Saturday’s demonstration in Belém, Brazil, was “without a doubt, one of the biggest climate marches that has taken place at these United Nations conferences”.
“We need decisions that reach people, which are what we call a fair transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy and the tens of thousands of participants actually made this same appeal”, he reinforced.
At the beginning of the march, a giant balloon, shaped like the globe, attracted attention in what was a festive walk, with music, near the market in the city that hosts the UN climate conference, from Monday until the 21st.
The “Global March for Climate Justice” had “the participation of more than 30 thousand people from all over the world”, according to the People’s Summit movement, and crossed the city, with 1.4 million inhabitants, on a route of approximately four and a half kilometers, between Mercado de São Brás and Aldeia Cabana, organized into blocks of Social, Internationalist and Just Transition Movements, and with a scheduled stop every few blocks from the place where COP30 takes place.
The UN conference is protected by dozens of soldiers and barriers, some with barbed wire, and is marked by the absence of the United States of America (USA).
For the first time since COP26, in 2021, in Glasgow, Scotland, civil society can express themselves freely and without fear of being subject to arbitrary arrests.
The last three UN climate conferences took place in Egypt, Dubai and Azerbaijan, countries where no non-governmental organization (NGO) considered it safe to demonstrate outside the COP venue, which is protected and administered by the United Nations.
According to the Portuguese activist, the demonstration had great emphasis on the Brazilian Amazon forest, which “is being slowly eaten by agribusiness and also by mining”.
Francisco Ferreira also highlighted that there are “investments in fossil fuels in many parts of the world that do not stop happening” and, in reality, what we are seeing is an “increase in the use of coal, oil, natural gas, which must be avoided”.
“This is so that we do not continue on this path of an increase of 2.5 degrees, 2.6 degrees, in relation to the pre-industrial era”, stated Francisco Ferreira, who revealed Zero’s “enormous satisfaction in being” at this demonstration in the city that hosts COP30.
A march that, in his opinion, was “perfectly peaceful, very colorful, full of music, contrasting with what is the reality, mainly of the most vulnerable people, who cannot deal with the enormous costs” in the wake of the climate.
“Extreme meteorological events that affect the whole world, but where populations globally, obviously, have more and more difficulty in dealing with floods, droughts, the rise in sea water levels that take away their territory”, he indicated.
This Saturday’s protest also included support for the Palestinian cause, with the presence and display of Palestinian flags, although the main highlight was the climate with a focus on the Amazon rainforest and indigenous peoples.
Brazilian indigenous communities demand to have a voice and greater participation, to be heard and understood, within discussions that have already been interrupted twice by protesters.
The first was on Tuesday night, when they invaded the COP site and clashed with security forces. The second was on Friday morning, when other indigenous protesters blocked the main entrance to force high-level meetings with Brazilian authorities.
Brazilian authorities significantly reinforced security this week at Parque da Cidade, the venue for the event, in an effort to avoid disturbances.
