Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) – Africa Climate Week marked a turning point: for the first time, local communities occupied official space at an event organized to discuss climate challenges and present solutions. The meeting highlighted a central impasse on the global agenda: how to transform the symbolic presence of these groups into effective decision-making power?
The meeting “Strengthening the Role of Local Communities in the UNFCCC Process”, promoted on September 3rd by the COP30 Presidency in partnership with the Platform of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (LCIPP), brought together representatives from different regions of the world around the same challenge: ensuring that local voices have real weight in global climate decisions.
In this context, LCIPP, created at COP21, reaffirms its importance as a space for exchanging experiences and disseminating good practices in mitigation and adaptation. By promoting dialogue and valuing traditional knowledge, the platform has been expanding the engagement of local communities in multilateral negotiations and reinforcing the strategic role of these groups in environmental preservation, food and water security, and building resilience in the face of the impacts of climate change.
The accounts presented highlighted the diversity of impacts already felt: pastoral workers subjected to forced displacement due to the loss of land and resources, communities affected by increasingly intense extreme events, territories threatened by erosion, and peoples pressured by deforestation. But the tone was not only one of warning. Community practices already underway were also shared, such as forest regeneration, protection of water sources, and local early warning systems, which are proving to be effective solutions capable of inspiring public policies on a national and international scale, as well as strengthening climate governance.
Decision-making processes
A central point of discussion was the demand for effective participation in the UNFCCC's decision-making processes. Many speakers reinforced the gap between discourse and practice. Without a qualified space for listening and action, the agenda risks remaining detached from the realities most affected by the climate crisis. The importance of cooperation between communities, governments, and civil society was mentioned, as well as the need for funding that reaches the grassroots level.
“Climate solutions should not be imposed from the outside, but built from territorial realities: our relationship with the forest can be part of the solution,” highlighted Joaquim Belo, COP30 special envoy for the Amazonian Society and director of the CNS.
In this same vein, the UNFCCC platform dedicated to indigenous peoples and local communities was highlighted as a step forward, but one that needs to be strengthened to ensure that community voices have a real impact on the definition of global goals.
“We don’t want to be remembered only when there’s a disaster. Our solutions exist, they work, and they need to be seen as part of global climate policy,” said Simon Apalochubakori from Uganda.
COP30, in Belém, was cited as the decisive space for transforming promises into concrete commitments.
“Communities cannot depend on intermediaries to access resources, and Belém will be an opportunity to ensure that community participation translates into tangible results,” said the president of the National Council of Traditional Peoples and Communities (CNPCT), Samuel Caetano.
The knowledge and resilience of local communities are strategic for addressing the climate emergency and need to be permanently incorporated into policies.
“Without local communities, there is no effective climate action. In Brazil, we have learned a lot about this by listening to our indigenous peoples, quilombola communities, and local communities who have cared for the land, water, and forest for centuries,” stated Edel Moraes, National Secretary for Traditional Peoples and Communities and Sustainable Rural Development of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MMA), who represented the Presidency of COP30.
Also present was the Secretary of Policies for Quilombola Communities, Traditional Peoples and Communities of African Descent, Terreiro Peoples and Gypsies of the Ministry of Racial Equality, Ronaldo dos Santos, who highlighted cultural diversity as a pillar of climate justice and a guiding principle of COP30.
This meeting is part of a series of dialogues and thematic workshops organized by the Brazilian presidency of COP 30 to broaden the participation of local communities in international climate processes. After Addis Ababa, during Climate Week, the program continues with a new round scheduled for October 13 and 14 in Brasília, at the pre-COP events, and culminates in December in Belém, in parallel with the conference.
These spaces for listening and exchange seek to strengthen the visibility of local solutions and bring community leaders closer to policymakers, ensuring that traditional practices and knowledge have an effective voice in global decisions.
The event concluded with a call to action. Representatives from the communities present made it clear that they do not want to be seen merely as victims, but as essential agents of global climate action. Their speeches echoed the idea that protecting territories, cultures, and ways of life is also protecting the planet's climate.
Africa's Climate Week thus reinforced the understanding that the fight against climate change will only be effective if it is inclusive, recognizing that the future of international negotiations depends on dialogue with those who already experience the effects of climate change on a daily basis.