Global — Today, prominent global leaders addressed pathways for climate action amid political inaction at the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network’s virtual Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice: Path to COP30 and Beyond. Last year marked the first time the global average temperature exceeded the critical 1.5°C threshold, which scientists have warned against to avoid worsening impacts of climate change. This record-breaking year has been coupled with an alarming attack on democracies and an increase in fossil fuel production.

Today’s opening panel, titled Global Voices for Climate Justice in a Time of Uncertainty, features Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, UK climate envoy Rachel Kyte, Former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Christiana Figueres, German lead for Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) at UN Climate Change secretariat Fleur Newman, and more.

FIND RECORDING OF ASSEMBLY DAY 2

Please see statements from speakers below:

Susana Muhamad, Former Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia, stated, “For the first time, we are going to be having COP30 in the Amazon which is the perfect juncture that speaks about the relationship between ancient cultures, nature, and climate. What I see from the COP process is that we talk about shifting away from fossil fuels but that is nowhere near enough what is required. It is a total contradiction to have one of the key biomes in the world that sustains life right now, and at the same time, make it a production site for fossil fuels. What is required is a whole system change and that means going into the heart of the economic system and power structure.”

Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland and Co-Founder of Project Dandelion stated, “It is central to going forward that we understand the importance of climate justice in tackling the climate and nature crisis; and that we have to have hope. And women leaders together bring that hope, because hope is action, and that’s what we are about.”

Rachel Kyte, Former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change stated, “We have to be able to hold two truths in our mind at the same time. First of all, we are making progress. The second truth is that we are not making progress fast enough, for enough of us. So we are at a point where we can see that a renewable energy revolution is underway. We can see that more investment is flowing into renewables than anything else but, also at the same time, we can see more investment going into fossil fuels. This does not mean that the analysis of what is going on in the energy revolution is wrong. It does not mean we should pull back. It does not mean that suddenly coal is going to be the solution again. It means that we should double down on what is working.”

Alice de Moraes Amorim Vogas, Program Director at the COP30 Presidency Team in Brazil, shared, “We have very few NDCs [Nationally Determined Contributions] and we are in June, when the deadline has already passed. We need to act fast and we need to be bold, way beyond the COP process because, at the end of the day, we are talking about deeper structural decisions to change our present and future.”

Fleur Newman, Action Empowerment Unit Lead (ACE, Gender and Youth), UNFCCC, Germany shared, “At its root, climate change is not an environmental issue per se; it is an economic and social issue that has climate impacts. A problem created by humans can also be solved by humans. We have an economic system that is built on the myth that we can simply ignore the source of all our wealth. One of my mantras at the moment is that we need to change the minds of decision makers or we need to change the decision makers, and that we can through public engagement and empowerment.”

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Coordinator of Indigenous Women and Peoples Association of Chad, Co-chair of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change, SDGs Advocate stated, “If we all get together, we can come to those spaces and tell them ‘women are active for real.’ On the way to Belém, we have five months, and we have many places we need to go and speak. It is not any government, any politician, it is not anyone who can stop us doing the work we are doing of justice. We have to go to Brazil and tell them that we need you to act on your NDCs and make them more ambitious and to cut emissions to let our communities live and let our people live in harmony with nature.”

Christiana Figueres, Former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (2010 to 2016) and Founding Partner of Global Optimism, Costa Rica shared, “We begin to understand that all the brokenness that we see out there in the world is very painful and at the same time, if we choose to, it can let in the light. We can see the opportunity in everything that we feel is a defeat. We can face defeats, but we cannot be defeated.”