Colour and song return to climate talks in Brazil

‘The answer is us’: Indigenous groups protestHere in Brazil, marchers revelled in their right to be heard, their voices rising in a city chosen precisely to focus the world’s attention on the Amazon and its defenders.Indigenous groups led much of the procession, their painted faces and feathered headdresses a vivid reminder of who stands on the frontlines of climate breakdown. Their banners spoke of mining threats, land invasions and agribusiness encroachment. “The answer is us,” read their signs, a tellingmessage to negotiators working behind fences at the conference venue.The march came at the halfway point of COP30, a summit already marked by tension. Indigenous activists had twice disrupted proceedings earlier in the week, demanding their voices carry weight in decisions that will shape their survival. Saturday’s peaceful procession channelled that urgency into spectacle, transforming anger into art and desperation into dance.The protesters’ energy stood in contrast to the slow grind of negotiations inside the conference halls. Delegates remained stuck on fundamental questions, on how to deliver the $300 billion in annual climate finance promised to poorer nations, how to ensure countries implement years of pledges, and how to respond to national climate plans that scientists say remain largely inadequate.Brazil, as host, has taken an unusual approach. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government has indicated it will not pursue a traditional cover decision, a grand agreement typically hammered out in the final hours of these summits. Instead, the focus is on implementation of existing commitments. What that means in practice remains unclear, even as the talks enter second week.The challenges are immense. The United States has sent no delegation, with President Donald Trump stuck in the fog climate denial. Meanwhile, analysis suggested a record 1,600 fossil fuel lobbyists are attending, a staggering 12% increase from last year. Against this backdrop, expectations for breakthrough agreements remain modest. Most hope for incremental progress on past promises rather than transformative new commitments.The talks are scheduled to conclude on November 21. Between now and then, negotiators must navigate four major sticking points, comprising climate finance, trade, transparency, and the inadequacy of national climate plans. These issues have been shunted into separate, so-called presidency consultations, a sign of how difficult consensus has become.Outside the negotiating rooms, the marchers carried their own message. Women in black lace veils mourned fossil fuels as if at a funeral. Rural workers demanded river protections. Youth activists held signs declaring “enough is enough” with theory and meetings. The crowd was a coalition of the threatened that included indigenous communities, small farmers, island nations facing rising seas, and young people inheriting awarming world.As the procession wound its way through Belém, it splashed vibrant paint across grey proceedings. Whether that colour and passion can penetrate the conference walls and shift the pace of negotiations remains to be seen. But for one afternoon at least, the streets belonged to those demanding that the world finally match its climate promises with action.



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