International environmental nonprofit Stand.earth prepares to join climate negotiations at COP30

A delegation of staff from Stand.earth will soon be heading to COP30 in Belem, Brazil to engage in education and negotiation activities as part of the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference.

As an international advocacy organization, Stand aims to deliver large-scale change for the planet and its people by interrupting the systems that create climate crises, and challenging corporations and governments to treat people and the environment with respect.

Taking place from Nov. 10 to 21, COP30 is the 30th United Nations Conference of the Parties, an annual global meeting where world leaders, scientists, non-governmental organizations, and civil society leaders gather to discuss actions to tackle climate change.

Participating in collaboration with Indigenous partners and other allies, representatives from Stand’s Amazonia, Forest Biomass, and Fashion campaigns will be on the ground for both weeks to advance our shared vision for a climate-safe, equitable future, and advocate for environmental and climate justice policies that uphold the wellbeing of the planet and dignity of all its people.

Amazonia

Key focuses: Building on years of advocacy to protect the world’s largest rainforest, Stand’s Tropical Forests program enters COP30 with clear demands to influence negotiations and a keen understanding of the historic significance of this moment. As the first UN Climate Conference to be held in the Amazon region, COP30 comes at a time when fossil fuel development and other extractive activities continue to accelerate despite widespread international acknowledgment that the rainforest biome is at a critical tipping point.

To avert irreparable global damage, and ensure the rights and wellbeing of the Indigenous Peoples who have both both defended and depended upon this ecosystem since time immemorial, Stand joins our allies in the region in advocating for the establishment of Amazon Exclusion Zones that would offer protection in these territories against extractive industries.

Together with Indigenous partners, our Amazonia campaign will be using our platform at COP30 to advance calls for such exclusion zones in negotiation spaces, with particular emphasis on securing recognition of a de facto exclusion zone on the territories of of Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact (also known as PIACI territories). To this end, we will be providing strategic legal and communications support to our Indigenous partners to elevate their demands and increase their influence through negotiations.

Our team will also be leveraging the findings of Stand’s recent Banks vs. The Amazon report, which highlights the role that global banks play in driving oil and gas expansion in the region.

Key events: Our Amazonia campaign is hosting and participating in a variety of side events and press conferences over the course of the two weeks of COP30.

Side events:

• “Amazonia Free of Fossil Fuels: Indigenous Peoples Present Actionable Solutions” | 4:45 to 6:15 p.m. local time on Wednesday, Nov. 12 | Side Event Room 6
• “Post-COP30 Strategies for a Fossil Fuel Free Future” | 7 to 10 p.m. local time on Friday, Nov. 14 | Embaixada dos Povos (Av. Duque de Caxias, 852 – Belém)

Press conferences:

• “Exclusion Zones: The Beginning of the End of the Fossil Era at COP30?” | 3 to 4 p.m. local time on Friday, Nov. 14 | Press Conference Room 2 (Area D, Blue Zone)
• “Who Is Financing Fossil Fuel Expansion in Latin America and the Caribbean?” | 11:30 a.m. to noon local time on Saturday, Nov. 15 | Press Conference Room 2 (Area D, Blue Zone)
• “Amazon Free of Extractivism: Indigenous Peoples’ Response to the Negotiations at COP30” | 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, Nov. 18 | Press Conference Room 2 (Area D, Blue Zone)

Key experts:

• Amazonia Senior Campaigner Gisela Hurtado
• Amazonia Senior Climate Finance Campaigner Martyna Dominiak

Forest Biomass

Key focuses: Stand’s Forest Biomass campaign will be engaging at COP30 to increase understanding of and opposition to forest biomass as a carbon-intensive, highly polluting, and socially and environmentally unjust energy source. Currently, 55% of all renewable energy worldwide is bioenergy, and burning woody biomass for centralized energy generation is the predominant form of bioenergy — despite the fact that it emits as much or more CO2 than coal per unit of electricity. Aligned with scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and in collaboration with civil society partners, we will highlight the threats posed by utility-scale biomass and demand improvements in carbon accounting and reporting.

Key events: Our team is participating in a side event, “Not All Bio is Green: Warnings from Around the World,” from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, Nov. 11 that will unite voices from Asia, Europe, and the Americas to share first-hand lessons from communities and ecosystems affected by large-scale forest biomass and crop-based biofuels. The event is being held in collaboration with partners including Biomass Action Network of the Environmental Paper Network International, Solutions for Our Climate, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and Friends of the Earth Japan.

Together with partners, our team is also hosting a press conference, “True Climate Action Must Reject Forest Bioenergy: Evidence from Researchers and Civil Society,” from 3:30 to 4 p.m. local time on Wednesday, Nov. 12 in Press Conference Room 2 (Area D, Blue Zone) to highlight opportunities for country delegates to address critical carbon accounting flaws underpinning the expansion of harmful forest biomass energy.

Key experts: 

• Northern Forests Senior Campaigner Tegan Hansen
• Senior Campaigns Director Liz McDowell

Fashion

Key focuses: Stand’s Fossil-Free Fashion campaign will be participating in COP30 to advance demands for a just transition in the sector’s global supply chains. We will work with partners from key manufacturing hubs in Asia to socialize recommendations for brands, suppliers, and governments to catalyze a fair, fast transition off fossil fuels; and increase pressure on key influential bodies, like the UN Fashion Charter, to commit to including worker priorities, such as factory adaptation considerations, in their charter agreements.

Key events: Our team will be collaborating with Oxfam Bangladesh on a panel discussion on Nov. 19. Stay tuned for more details to be announced soon.

Key experts:

• Senior Campaigns Director Shayda Naficy