Four delegates of the Action Network on Forced Displacement represented the voices of displaced women leaders at this year’s COP in Belém, Brazil. They demand climate justice, rooted in the lived realities of those most affected by the climate crisis.
One Action Network delegate travelled three days from Papua New Guinea to Belém and back, another faced delay in the visa process, which called her participation into question. Those experiences are emblematic of the structural barriers that people from marginalised communities face, hindering meaningful participation. This is especially true for this year’s COP: flights and accommodation were expensive and the institutional funding cuts made it harder for people and organisations whose voices and expertise are needed the most.
COP30 officially took place in Belém, Brazil from 10 to 21 November. In the heart of the Amazon, over 50,000 actors from governments, civil society, activism, NGOs and industry negotiated mechanisms for accountability, climate adaptation and mitigation. Hereby, the participation of the Action Network delegation is a crucial contribution to acknowledging the intersectional nature of the climate crisis. As Stella Peris Wamuyu puts it, gender, displacement and climate change “are not separate issues but they are threads of the same story: When droughts and floods destroy livelihoods, women are often the first to feel the impact, because they walk longer distances for water, they eat last and when resources run out, they are the ones who hold families together”. Among being the founder of the Jani Initiative responsible for planting over 1,000 trees in Kenya, Wamuyu is a volunteer for the Kenyan Red Cross and has supported communities affected by flooding. With her engagement in crisis response, her words carry an existential weight.
Manal Bidar, another delegate of the Action Network and youth climate activist, has experienced climate-induced displacement herself, coming from a water-scarce community in Morocco. Nevertheless, she championed her experience in her work: as founder of the Moroccan Regional Youth Governments Initiative and the Moroccan Youth Climate Council she mobilises and empowers young people to address climate challenges.
“We represent the voices of communities who live the impacts of climate change daily, not as victims but as experts in resilience”, as Action Network delegate Anila Noor explains. Noor is an activist and researcher on women’s rights and peacebuilding from Pakistan. She is the founder of New Women’s Connector (NWC), a women- and refugee-led organisation that fosters empowerment and inclusion.
Together with Maryanne Rimbao, the four-women-strong Action Network delegation fittingly hosted a side event “Rooted in Resilience: Indigenous Women Leading Climate Justice and Just Transition amidst Displacement” at the Indigenous Peoples Pavilion. There, the Action Network delegates made a clear demand towards inclusion of indigenous voices and people with lived experience of displacement in climate policy negotiations. As Rimbao declares, “displaced women must be recognised as agents of change, not passive recipients of aid”. This is what Rimbao also echoes in her interview with BMZ’s minister Reem Alabali Radovan, in which she voices her hope that COP will be carried by civil society and people who are at the forefront of climate activism. This includes especially indigenous voices: Maryanne Rimbao is an indigenous human rights and environmental advocate herself. She is the founder and director of the Humanity and Nature Indigenous Women’s Association. At least symbolically, this year’s COP presented itself with a strong emphasis on including and platforming indigenous communities in conversations on climate change.
However, as the negotiations have concluded this year, the results and outcomes are modest: no mention of phasing out fossil fuels. The Action Network delegation expressed disappointment at both the results and a shift in tone of the negotiations. Overall, this reveals a shared concern that this COP reflects a broader crisis of multilateralism. The Action Network delegates noted a visible leadership vacuum, which led to a “struggle to find solutions” and weakened trust in the multilateral system, particularly for Global South actors. Still, there were minor achievements. The adoption of the Belém Action Mechanism was an important step forward amid a broader stagnation. A gender thematic day and a Gender Work Programme signalled important gender-related developments. And the agenda on women, peace and security and an acknowledgment of indigenous knowledge systems have been included as indicators in the final adaptation draft. This, albeit symbolic, exemplifies the importance of including diverse voices, such as those of displaced women, to reimagine multilateralism as more people-centred and effective.
“The Action Network on Forced Displacement’s perspective highlights why this work matters, and we take it seriously. We remain committed to approaches that put people and their rights at the center.” – BMZ
