KALLIED – COP30 Statement
Rebuild the Future: From Loss to Repair and Justice
A Global South Call for Climate Recovery and Resilience
- Our Shared Reality
From Beirut to Belém, Sana’a to the Sahel, the Global South is experiencing a convergence of crises: conflict, economic collapse, ecological breakdown, and democratic decline. The communities that contributed least to the climate emergency are those living its consequences the most: homes destroyed, rivers drying, soils exhausted. Civic space is shrinking, which is limiting the abilities to respond and advocate for climate justice.
Yet in every fragile context, people are rebuilding: women restoring water systems, communities finding local solutions, youth creating community energy networks, defenders protecting forests and land at great personal risk, indigenous peoples fighting for their right to know and participate. They are not waiting for permission. They are forging justice.
As we are at the COP 30, we ask ourselves several questions: Who will benefit from the finance mechanisms at the COP 30? How can we adopt a more holistic approach to the climate struggle, one that recognizes the power imbalances and free-market policies that disadvantage the Global South while benefiting the Global North? The question is not how much finance is mobilized, but how and who will benefit from the financial mechanisms and how will this COP 30 in Belem ensure that global south countries benefit from these mechanisms in a just, fair and accountable process.
- Our Vision for COP30
As COP30 convenes in the Amazon, the lungs of our planet, we, the organizations of the Global South working together in the Knowledge Alliance for Environmental Defenders, unite to demand that climate action be rooted in dignity, justice, and freedom.
We call for a politics of trust and territorial dignity, where global transitions are shaped by those who defend life and land — not by those who exploit them.
Our vision rests on four interlinked pillars:
- Democracy, Inclusion, and Just Transition: “Defending the environment is defending democracy.”
- Guarantee inclusive participation in all climate decision-making, especially for Indigenous peoples, displaced communities, women, and youth.
- Protect civic space and environmental defenders through recognition, legal reform, and psychosocial support.
- Advance a just transition that prioritizes people, not profit — ensuring that the shift to renewables and green industries does not deepen inequalities. We are committed to ensuring that our actions do not contribute to the greenwashing of a system that is already unsustainable.
- Value plurality and complexity — there is no single path to justice, but many intersecting struggles that deserve to be heard and respected.
- Finance under a Just Transition means channeling public and private investments in ways that simultaneously advance decarbonization, reduce structural inequalities, and protect social and labor rights. It requires shifting resources away from extractive and militarized economies and towards community-led renewable energy, public services, social protection, and climate-resilient livelihoods. Rather than treating finance as a neutral technical tool, a just transition approach recognizes it as deeply political, shaping who benefits, who bears the costs, and whose futures are made possible.
- The pursuit of a just transition cannot succeed by criminalizing land and environmental defenders nor by operating within legal frameworks that erode democratic principles.
- Justice for the Lost and Damaged
“Loss and Damage is not aid — it is justice owed.”
- Support adaptation finance for regions in the Global South facing environmental degradation, droughts, floods, sea level rise, and the compounded impacts of war. Conflicts devastate ecosystems and displace the communities that depend on them. Adaptation finance must help rebuild both people’s resilience and the environments they call home
- Fully fund and operationalize the Loss & Damage Facility, ensuring direct, grant-based access for communities in fragile and conflict-affected countries, and guaranteeing that these communities participate in all stages of projects funded by this facility.
- Recognize that defending collective land and territory is defending life, memory, and identity — and that civic space and environmental protection are inseparable.
- Support regional hubs (MENA, Sahel, Pacific, and Amazonia) that channel recovery finance directly to community-led initiatives.
- Finance that Rebuilds, Not Indebts
“Grants, not debt — finance the frontlines.”
- Financing should not be used to cover up bad practices or at the expense of the South; we are not «sacrificial zones.»
- Finance must restore sovereignty and self-determination, not reinforce dependency or external control.
- Define the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) with a goal of mobilizing at least $1.3 Trillion per year by 2035, with at least half dedicated to adaptation and loss & damage goal.
- Resilience Through the Water–Food–Climate Nexus
- Recognize that territorial defense is collective — protecting land and water means safeguarding culture, livelihoods, and peace.
- Support cross-regional solidarity between dryland, delta, and forest ecosystems — from the Mediterranean to the Amazon.
- Invest in agroecology, local irrigation systems, and water circularity as the foundation of adaptation.
- Integrate the water–food–climate nexus into national and regional reconstruction plans, guided by community knowledge.
- Our Collective Call
At COP30, we call for a global mobilization: a united front for climate and social justice and reconstruction.
From the Amazon to the Mediterranean, from the Sahel to the Mekong, our voices converge on one truth: justice must be at the heart of how we rebuild the future, both for our peoples and our planet
Every day that justice is delayed, families lose their homes, farmers lose their land and water, and defenders lose their lives. Justice delayed is justice denied. We should measure progress not only by the decline of greenhouse gas emissions , but also by the rights that have been protected.
We call for a global climate action that is fair, inclusive, and equitable for all nations. The Global South is not asking for permission; it is inviting the rest of the world to work together to reach justice.
Join Us
This campaign is led by Global South institutions and networks committed to climate justice, civic freedom, and environmental reconstruction that are united in the Knowledge Alliance for Environmental Defenders (KALLIED)
Endorse the call at www.kallied.org
Follow and share: #RebuildTheFuture #GrantsNotDebt #GlobalJustice #LossAndDamageJustice #DefendTheDefenders #GlobalSouthSolidarity
Initial Endorsers
- The Knowledge Alliance for Environmental Defenders
- Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
- Asuntos del Sur (Argentina)
- Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS – Argentina)
- Dala Institute (Indonesia)
- Moroccan Institute for Policy Analysis (MIPA – Morocco)
- The Policy Initiative (TPI – Lebanon)
- Observatorio Ciudadano (Chile)
- Asia-Pacific Network of Environmental Defenders (APNED)
and partners across the Global South.
