[STATEMENT] Climate Justice Demands Protection for Those Who Defend the Planet
November 28, 2025
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) holds an annual Conference of the Parties (COP), where governments negotiate global responses to the climate crisis. The 30th COP or COP30, held this year in Belém, Brazil, was expected to be a historic moment, taking place at the doorstep of the Amazon and amid escalating climate impacts, shrinking civic space, and rising attacks on environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs). For the Asia Pacific Network of Environmental Defenders (APNED), the outcome of COP30 reinforces a truth we have long carried: there is no climate justice without the full participation and protection of EHRDs.
COP30 ended with a mix of gains and missed opportunities. One of the most significant advances was the adoption of a stronger Just Transition Work Programme (JTWP). After years of pressure from workers, Indigenous Peoples, and grassroots communities, the JTWP now carries clearer language on inclusive participation. This matters for frontline environmental defenders who experience the worst impacts of fossil fuel extraction, large-scale land use changes, and militarized development. A just transition must be shaped by those who protect land, water, and ecosystems and not by corporations or governments acting without accountability. However, there are still improvements that could be made and the challenge of actual implementation still remains.
Another positive development came through the improved Gender Action Plan (GAP). Feminist groups and women human rights defenders pushed for stronger gender commitments that recognize how climate change, violence, and resource extraction disproportionately harm women defenders. These revisions can help build gender-responsive protection measures which are especially crucial for Indigenous and rural women who face heightened risks on the frontlines.
But these gains are overshadowed by gaps that will dangerously limit the world’s ability to stay within a safe climate threshold. Once again, COP30 failed to deliver meaningful commitments and adequate finance for adaptation. Countries in Asia and the Pacific, among the most climate-vulnerable regions globally, continue to demand funds that never arrive or arrive too little, too late. Communities that are already hit by extreme weather events that affect livelihoods and results in loss of lives deserve more than vague timelines and empty promises.
Just as troubling, COP30 did not name nor commit to phasing out fossil fuels. Powerful interests once again blocked ambition, leaving the negotiations silent on coal, oil, and gas which are the very industries driving planetary collapse. Instead, the COP leaned heavily on carbon markets and offsetting schemes that allow polluters to continue business as usual. Without confronting fossil fuels head-on, global climate action remains performative and insufficient.
This year’s COP has also followed the pattern from past COPs in their lack of recognition of the dangers that environmental defenders face and commitments made to protect EHRDs from reprisals against states and corporations. While the inclusion of EHRDs in the development of policies is a welcome development, we cannot expect meaningful inclusion if EHRDs must still continue their work under adverse conditions of threats to their lives and freedoms.
These gaps continue to show the weaknesses that this supposed leading convention to combat the climate crisis possesses, whether consciously or inherently.
Yet in Belém, real leadership did emerge, not from governments, but from civil society inside and outside the COP. Across marches, assemblies, and dialogues, peoples’ movements demonstrated what genuine climate ambition looks like. Defenders from Asia and the Pacific stood in solidarity with Latin American communities to highlight the escalating violence against EHRDs. The Philippines, Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico remain among the world’s deadliest countries for defenders, according to recent civil society reports. Many of those killed were Indigenous leaders, forest protectors, anti-mining activists, small fishers, peasant leaders, and young environmental advocates.
Alliances including Peoples Rising for Climate Justice (PRCJ) also drew attention to climate imperialism and militarism, issues largely absent from official negotiations. They exposed how military operations, foreign-backed extraction, and geopolitical competition contribute to environmental destruction while placing defenders in grave danger. Militarism is both a driver and enabler of environmental plunder, fueling the repression of communities resisting environmentally destructive projects.
Amid these conditions, the launch of LEAD (Local Environmental Action Defenders) at COP30 stands as a testament to the persistence and courage of frontline movements. The initiative recognizes EHRDs as key actors in achieving climate goals, acknowledges the grave risks they face, and reflects global momentum toward stronger protection mechanisms. It is a step toward institutional recognition that defenders are essential in safeguarding ecosystems, upholding environmental rights, and achieving climate justice.
However, COP30 also revealed that symbolic gestures and strategic messaging are not enough. Hosting the COP in a country known for powerful Indigenous resistance at the edge of the Amazon created powerful imagery, but the final outcomes remain far from what is needed. Without firm commitments to phase out fossil fuels, ensure just transition pathways, protect land rights, and recognize and protect EHRDs as indispensable actors, COP30 risks being remembered more for optics than substance.
APNED urges governments and international institutions not to rely on negotiations alone. COPs may offer important platforms, but they will never be enough on their own. Real solutions to the climate crisis—solutions rooted in justice, sustainability, and collective survival—come from EHRDs in grassroots movements, Indigenous communities, workers’ organizations, women defenders, and youth advocates who continue to defend their territories and rights despite repression. These should be supported and not met with repressive measures and violence. Protecting EHRDs is not a peripheral issue. It is central to the fight for a safe climate and a just world.
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