The Earth Social Conference (ESC), the first international conference to boycott the COP, was held from 5 to 10 December 2023, and Climáximo was not only present, but was one of the main groups driving and organizing this conference, which boycotted COP28.
Why?
We decided to organize the ESC because we know that after every COP, regardless of the movement’s pressure campaigns, the global temperature, emissions and extreme climate events reach unprecedented levels. We know that the COP is not failing. It is managing to maintain the illusion that something is being done to solve the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced, while the governments and companies that gather at the COP every year continue to increase their capacity to kill us and destroy everything around us. We know that those who created this crisis are not going to solve it (just look at the non-existent results of more than 30 years of climate negotiations). Above all, we know that although they are to blame, it is we, the people, who have the responsibility to stop this crisis, by coordinating internationally and designing and implementing strategies that are suited to the task ahead of us of changing the system by 2030, by breaking with this system.
Before deciding to go ahead with organizing this conference, we sent a letter to hundreds of groups asking if they would commit to doing so with us. Given the enthusiasm and interest we received, we went ahead with this process and, months later, we joined hundreds of organizations and activists who supported the call to boycott COP28 and build the popular alternative. In December, after months of preparation, we took part with dozens of organizations and activists in the first Earth Social Conference in Colombia.
What happened?
The conference, which took place in one of the places most impacted by fossil fuel extraction in Colombia, was full of energy, flexibility and people and groups from different parts of the world and from different backgrounds, all committed to the fight for climate justice.
Before the conference, we organized webinars and open meetings about what kind of international coordination our movement needs. These moments contributed to what would become of the conference.
The program was divided into two parts. The first were public sessions (online and offline), based on four pillars: 1) What is the post-capitalist world we want; 2) What is the theory of change that will get us there; 3) What are the strategies we need to implement for this; and 4) How do we need to organize ourselves for this. Climáximo was at several of the plenaries and gave the sessions “Handbrake to Stop Climate Collapse” and “It’s time we try something new: Why are we boycotting COP?”.
The second part was internal meetings, where we discussed next steps and what kind of international coordination our movement needs. Thanks to an environment where we were able to build some trust, agree on the basics inherent to the purpose of the conference, and encourage new proposals and ideas, we were able to come up with concrete next steps for 2024.
Next steps reached
At the conference we decided to continue boycotting COP and that the next conference would be held in Mexico in 2024, with the commitment of local groups to organize it. We also decided to immediately start preparing the boycott for COP30 (in 2025) in Belém (Brazil).
In addition, some of the youth groups present at the conference committed to organizing various actions to create disruption in institutions, demanding an end to fossil fuels by 2030, leading to a student uprising in the year 2024/2025.
Finally, we reiterated our commitment to coordinating and planning internationally to achieve system change for climate justice by 2030 through ruptural approach.
Being attentive and available to help with the different follow-ups to the conference, Climáximo decided to invest more in building the international ruptural coordination.
Status for Climaximo in May of 2024
For various reasons, the next Earth Social Conference – the international conference to boycott COP that we organized for the first time in December in Colombia – will no longer take place in Mexico on the scheduled dates. The anti-COP conference “encuentro global por el clima y la vida” will take place in Mexico from November 4 to 9 in Oaxaca. Although it will be a very interesting anti-COP conference, it will not be held on the same dates as the COP, boycotting it, so we are understanding how we can continue the need for the international movement to confront the institutions that have declared war on us and the spaces where this war is being planned.
Five months after the ESC, we are continuing to work towards strengthening a coordination space that accepts the task of changing the system within the necessary timeframes.
We looked at this first Earth Social Conference as the beginning of a process, not just a conference. For it to be possible in the near future to bring together thousands of activists committed to changing the system within the timescales dictated by science, we know that we have a lot to improve and learn and that our movement needs to accept its responsibility for systemic change and take risks that could lead to a turning point in history. Climáximo will continue to do everything in its power to make this a reality. We continue to think of ambitious new proposals to make to the movement, knowing that we need to take risks in order to win.