Belém do Pará, Brazil, November 2025
Two years ago, President Lula announced to the world that the 30th edition of COP, the United Nations conference on the climate crisis, would be held in the Amazonian capital: Belém do Pará, Brazil.
Since then, the processes of preparation of the international social movement, led by the Brazilian movement, for the People’s Summit, the alternative conference to COP, have begun. Within the climate justice movement, there is a tradition of organizing altersummits, counter-summits, or alternative parallel spaces during COP. These spaces serve to reject and denounce the unjust and denialist process of COP, creating and strengthening the popular power necessary to realise our own agenda: to halt climate collapse by leaving fossil fuels in the ground. This tradition was interrupted when, in 2022, the COP moved from Western “democratic” and covertly climate change-denying countries (such as the United Kingdom, where COP26 took place in 2021) to authoritarian and openly denialist countries (COP27 in the United Arab Emirates, COP28 in Egypt, COP29 in Azerbaijan).
In the debates that built the Summit, an elephant was in the room: it was well known that Lula had plans to move forward with new oil explorations. At the same time, in the Brazilian social movement, traumatised by the years of Bolsonaro’s presidency, few dared to criticise Lula’s progressive and left-wing government.
In August, the call for the People’s Summit was launched, written jointly by dozens of Brazilian organisations. The title was also officially released, with a particularity that summarises the victory of the government’s position in the debate described above: People’s Summit towards COP30, and not against COP30. In the international and Brazilian context, the hype continued regarding a COP in the Amazonian capital, Belém.
Despite the long preparation period, two years, the logistical difficulties were tremendous. There were not enough beds to accommodate the initially estimated 25,000 participants of the People’s Summit. According to several comrades, this is no coincidence: the Lula government, by promoting the wave of “progressivism”, ends up co-opting several social leaders into the government, emptying the movement. The result is an asphyxiation of free and independent social movements.
With the absorption of various movements into the summit itself and the transformation of the People’s Summit into an annex to the summit, social movements began to organize parallel meetings that would take place in Belém during the beginning of November: the II Latin American and Caribbean Ecosocialist Meeting, the Earth Charter meeting, activities at the People’s Embassy, various meetings of women, indigenous people, and quilombola communities; and, finally, the People’s Summit, which took place from November 12th to 15th.
A few weeks earlier, the Lula government announced authorisation for the exploration of new oil wells in the Amazon, revealing a huge contradiction between progressivism and concrete actions to curb the climate crisis.
At the Ecosocialist Meetings, and in general in Belém, one could hear from various quarters the discomfort of being challenged to criticise the Lula government without being marginalised. During the opening session of the Ecosocialist Meeting, the indigenous leader from the Lower Tapajós region, Auricélia Arapiun, reported receiving threats via WhatsApp messages minutes after openly criticising the Lula government during her speech regarding the new mega-hydroelectric project in the Lower Tapajós indigenous territory. (All our solidarity with comrade Auricélia, who courageously fights every day to defend her territory and her people.)
The day before the start of the Summit was marked by the Health and Climate March, in which we were present. At the end, a group led by indigenous people from the Lower Tapajós and young students from the Juntos collective invaded the Blue Zone (that is, the zone where only accredited individuals can enter and where negotiations take place) to denounce the farce that is the COP and to put the rejection of mega-projects, namely the new oil wells, on the day’s agenda.
On November 12th, before the opening ceremony of the Summit, we witnessed the launch of the new International Movement of People Affected by Dams, Environmental Crimes, and the Climate Crisis. The launch of this new movement was the result of a multi-day international meeting within the Movement of People Affected by Dams (at the Brazilian and Latin American levels, and with various delegations from Africa, Europe, and Oceania) and was attended by hundreds of people. Two ministers from Lula’s government spoke at the Movement’s launch panel.
The People’s Summit opened in the late afternoon of November 12th, with more speeches from ministers of Lula’s government – the same government that had announced new oil wells just a few weeks earlier. The Summit featured dozens of parallel sessions, cultural demonstrations, a popular fair showcasing the work of peasants in agrarian reform, and numerous spaces for dialogue and discussion. Simultaneously, within the COP’s Blue Zone, demonstrations led by ministers of Lula’s government were taking place. Outside, Munduruku indigenous people blocked access to the COP to denounce the circus unfolding inside, demanding a meeting with the government to address their demands for the protection of the forest and territory of which they are ancestral guardians and caretakers. In the words of the spokesperson: “no one enters and no one leaves, enough with the selfies”. At the same time, in the Green Zone (open to civil society), dozens of parallel events were taking place. In short: the spaces were completely fragmented and confused. The Summit, which, in the tradition of the movement, was meant to be combative, had the government present. Within the COP, protests were led by the government or, when that wasn’t the case, violently expelled. What was the government, and what was the movement? It was this indistinction that led to far fewer people than expected participating in Belém. Firstly, due to the dispersion of activities that could have resulted in a unified and combative process. Secondly, because the domination of the Lula government over the social movement in Brazil meant the stifling of autonomy and free criticism, leading to the failure of the logistical conditions necessary for thousands to be in Belém for the Summit (including accommodation, etc.).
We were in Belém from November 8th to 14th, first participating in the Ecosocialist Meetings in their entirety and then for only 2 days of the People’s Summit (November 12th and 13th). The Summit was attended by thousands of people from delegations all over Brazil, and several hundred from international delegations. Dozens of parallel sessions, dialogues, debates, cultural demonstrations, and discussion spaces took place. On November 15th, the final march gathered 7,000 people: but nothing new, and once again, with the Lula government at the forefront.
The biggest contradiction faced by the Summit and social movements in Brazil is precisely this: can denialism be left-wing? There is no such thing as good extractivism: either the exploitation of fossil fuels (especially in the Amazon) is a red line, or the movements are allowing themselves to be dragged along by the fear of halting climate collapse. For the first time in the tradition of social movements in Brazil, the parallel conference aligned itself with the official one. From a historical retrospective of the climate justice movement, we must ask ourselves: what is the purpose of parallel conferences, after all? Why are we surprised by the Lula government’s strangulation of the autonomous and independent participation and criticism of social movements? The Summit provided a space for the climate justice movement to come together. Organising a conference of this size with such precarious logistical conditions must have been an immense challenge. But now that the COP circus is almost over, we must ask ourselves: is this the time to abandon this space? How can we think about new moments of broad encounter that are critical of the institutional processes of capitalism and that are not afraid to do whatever is necessary to stop climate collapse?
