Earth Revolution
With 2025 on track to be the second hottest year on record behind 2024, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will hold its 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, 10-21 November 2025.
The conference’s primary objective is to address the anthropogenic climate crises by implementing measures to limit global temperature rise to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, with a specific target of 1.5°C. Through the legally binding treaty signed by 196 countries in 2015, known as the Paris Agreement, the parties are obligated to establish and report on their greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets, collectively referred to as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and fulfill their financial commitments.
Indigenous Peoples, despite having no formal role in the UNFCCC negotiation process, will be present at the conference. A delegation representing Native Children’s Survival, led by our Youth Ambassador and Director of Programs, Ta’Kaiya Blaney, will carry a message of hope, wisdomkeepers’ teachings, and the warnings of our ancestors to COP30.
Why this matter is paramount: The primary driver of climate change is the combustion of fossil fuels, deforestation, and unsustainable agricultural practices, which release greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. These gases trap heat, leading to an increase in global temperatures. While 2024 is the hottest year on record, the last decade has experienced the highest temperatures, with the ten warmest years occurring since 2015.
In 2024, the global temperature surpassed the critical threshold of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Scientific consensus unequivocally asserts that surpassing this threshold will lead to severe and irreversible climate consequences. These consequences encompass accelerated climate change, intensified extreme weather events, unprecedented permafrost thawing, sea level rise, ecosystem collapse, food and water scarcity, severe health risks, economic repercussions, and the creation of uninhabitable conditions and climate change refuges.
The global trend led by the parties’ national interest underscores the pressing need for intensified climate action to mitigate further global warming and its associated consequences.
There are viable solutions to the climate crisis. However, continuing down a path of destruction and ecocide, depleting the world’s natural resources to support unsustainable lifestyles, and excluding Indigenous Peoples from the negotiation process, is not one of them. Survival depends on cooperation. Citizens can no longer depend on their governments alone to act.
The US, the second-largest greenhouse-gas emitter behind China, withdrew from the Paris Agreement in 2020, rejoined in 2021, and announced another withdrawal in 2025. Before COP30, Brazil, the host country, granted its state-owned oil company, Petrobras, the authority for exploratory oil drilling near the mouth of the Amazon River. President Lula defended this on economic grounds. The US Trump administration finalized a plan to open up and drill in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a protected wilderness area. These decisions without “Free, Prior, and Informed Consent” from Indigenous Peoples raise serious concerns about international human rights instruments, treaties, cultural safeguards, and the williness to cooperate in global efforts to address the climate crisis.
Inherently, we, the Indigenous Peoples, are caretakers of Mother Earth, defenders of the sacred. From time immemorial, our ancestors flourished with the natural world. While today we make up just 5% of the global population, we safeguard more than 80% of the world’s biodiversity.
The international community would be greatly benefited by drawing upon Indigenous wisdom and knowledge, traditional science, and our comprehension of the delicate web of life, recognizing the inherent sanctity and interconnectedness of all life forms. Respect, accountability, and adherence to natural law are paramount. Living in harmony with Mother Earth, rather than dominating her, is essential.
Let your voice be heard…Get involved!