Written by Karen Hildahl, Program Strategic Director for CDKN Latin America with Fundación Futuro Latinoamericano (FFLA)

What is a more inclusive and coherent model for the Conference of the Parties (COPs) for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)? This question kept floating through my mind as I travelled to the hot and humid Belem, Brazil for the 30th COP, known as the People’s COP.

I was asked by my team at Fundación Futuro Latinoamericano (FFLA) and CDKN to represent our work at COP30. We wanted to highlight how climate finance should respond to the needs and priorities of diverse people at the local level. We also wished to showcase the importance of integrating locally led ecosystem-based adaptation strategies that consider gender equity and social inclusion, such as our work with water funds.

At FFLA-CDKN, we see the need for approaches informed by a deep understanding of the local context, including climate and environmental problems and structural inequalities. We know that local actors most affected by climate change, such as women, youth and elders from local and Indigenous Peoples, need to determine their own responses. We have brought diverse actors together and observed the powerful impact of dialogue between local, Indigenous, and scientific knowledge. For example, the recent dialogue hosted by FFLA in Ecuador, part of COP30’s Global Ethical Stocktake, helped elevate community perspectives alongside scientific insights in shaping inclusive climate action. We have also seen how these types of processes among the water funds and local community actors can lead to more equitable, sustainable, and long-term outcomes, such as community led wetland conservation to ensure water supply for downstream agricultural activities during droughts. These types of collaborative measures foster climate resilience and help aid water and biodiversity conservation, that is founded in social justice. Exploring these topics encourages one to take a step back and look at our current structures designed to support responses to global challenges through multilateralism, such as COP.

Seeds of hope

There are countless positive aspects of these global conferences. Apart from advancing global agreements, on the sidelines there are opportunities to share lessons and ideas among colleagues, forge new partnerships for Southern NGOs like FFLA and participate in small but meaningful encounters that allow you to meet new people and consolidate existing relationships. A written message I received from a young Indigenous woman from the Amazon of Colombia, who approached me after an event on social justice, showcases how these encounters fill you with hope. It read: “Mother Earth will indicate the path that will sustain our common connection”.

It is also heartening to see an exponential increase in the diversity of participants and space dedicated to local and indigenous actors and topics related to social justice.

Moreover, groups around the world are showcasing countless inspiring initiatives, responding to greenhouse gas emissions challenges across sectors, including interventions on land-use change, transportation and energy. For example, Kara Solar is building solar canoes in the Amazon basin, reducing the use of expensive and polluting gasoline and diesel. Simultaneously, this decreases road expansion, and helps local communities to develop non-extractive projects. This concept has the potential to be applied to all bodies of water.

Others are working on adaptation and resilience, conserving and restoring critical ecosystems, and safeguarding water and food for millions.

One young woman, Ayisha Siddiqa, noted her frustration with finally getting a seat at the table only to be given a few minutes to speak, and how detrimental this process is for young people. In response, she put her energy towards creating the Future Generations Tribunal to collect legal evidence of how young people are affected by climate change and help hold corporations and governments accountable. She urges that just like rivers and whales, future generations deserve legal personhood and human rights, showing new ways of protecting our future.

During a Global Landscapes Forum side event, participants were asked to identify the absurd solutions we might look back on and wonder what we were thinking. Responses included “allowing billionaires to exists”, “not taxing the rich”, “market solutions” and “endless growth”, as well as “COPs with no will”.

In relation to this last point, during the official negotiations of this COP, issues related to the underlying causes of our crises, in particular the inability to reach a consensus on phasing out fossil fuels, faltered and stalled. So, in the face of this inaction, what does a different path look like, accounting for the energy and will outside of the official negotiations, both at COP and around the world?

Food for thought

COPs are so intense; pulling you in so many directions at once and yet, can feel stagnant. There is so much noise, with everyone seeming to say “look at me and what I am doing”. It makes you wonder whether anyone is truly listening.

There were many events I attended with around 10 people in the audience. Does it make sense to fly to a COP to present to an audience of 10? 100? 1000? 10,000? Is there a magic number? Why is it that in the year 2025 we are not livestreaming all the events, so they are open to people who want to watch around the world, rather than those with the privilege of a Blue Zone official pass?

Another question is whether we could consolidate all the Rio Conventions: those focusing on climate change, biodiversity loss and desertification, as well as UN Water conferences in one so that we stop working in siloes and approach our multiple crises in a more systemic manner? Considering the astounding resources and carbon emissions involved in bringing 50 thousand people together for these two-week events, can we move towards meetings every three years and use the time in between to advance real action rather than have demoralising negotiations annually that diminish collective hope and energy?

At COP30, I craved but did not find a collective space where we could coordinate among our countless grassroots initiatives to promote more collaboration and coalitions – aspects fundamental for the transformation we need in the face of multiple environmental and social crises. I surely missed out on so many exciting spaces happening on the sidelines, especially in the Green Zone. But how do we find one another? How can we break down barriers, connect the masses and harness our collective potential? Maybe something like the People’s Summit?

COP has more or less been working the same way for 30 years now. How can a more inclusive and collaborative space be co-designed?

Sowing a new model

With all the noise in these COP spaces, there is a need to intentionally allow for silence. In stillness, it’s possible to sense a different model beneath the surface, waiting to emerge. Our final CDKN-related event on social justice showed some of the seeds, like the recognition of ancestral knowledge, the dialogue among different types of knowledge, decolonising knowledge and ensuring space for Indigenous peoples in climate talks. The panellists and audience members spoke to the need to recognise global social and economic injustices, support equality and collaborate towards a living future.

With FFLA-CDKN, we have been exploring who holds the power and control and what are the root causes of the current crises we face. We are having conversations with local actors in the Global South related to their needs and perspectives in the context of climate finance, resilience, and transformative change. What is emerging is the need for local actors – Indigenous peoples, representatives of local communities, women, and youth – actors who have historically been marginalised and relegated to the periphery of the current system, to hold the power. Such a model moves away from profit and centres around human well-being and caring for the planet, applying principles of reciprocity, respect, pluralism and inclusion, among others.

Should it not be the people who have been historically excluded who lead the way for a different kind of model, for COP and for our global system, while those of us who have held the power step aside and support these processes? Change can be hard, uncomfortable and scary, but it is necessary. Now is the time to tend to these seeds and help them grow – and this is what CDKN-FFLA will be focusing on in 2026.