COP30 is fast approaching. The news is full of stories and reports designed to inform the negotiations and pressure negotiators to think more boldly. Grim reading for climate activists who follow the news!
COP30 is a bit different from recent ones. It is held in Brazil, in the Amazon, in a key climate regulating region, reported to be approaching a crucial tipping point. But Brazil is also a petro-state. Not a reliant on oil as the last two COP hosts, Azerbaijan and UAE, but experiencing tensions like many nations. This COP is also different in that Trump has removed the US from the talks.
Many of the news stories are data based, like this one from the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/29/rising-heat-kills-one-person-a-minute-worldwide-lancet-countdown. It describes a report led by UCL scientists, in which they have calculated that on average, 1 person a minute dies because of extreme heat. This is on top of the deaths from climate driven food insecurity; air pollution from traffic, wildfires and wood-fired cooking, and more.
This evidence aligns directly with our own experience in the UK. In the last three years, we have seen crop yields reduced because of a combination of flood and drought. We can all remember the winter when many Lincolnshire farms were under water from October to April, preventing sowing and planting. This year’s extended heat is still fresh in the memory, with 4 heat waves back-to-back, drought in Yorkshire and hosepipe bans. And who in Yorkshire can forget the images of the wildfire running across the North York Moors south of Fylingdales, running towards the coast road near Robin Hoods Bay? Do I need to add in Hurricane Melissa as well?
Any politician who tries to tell us that Climate Change is a scam and we need to burn more gas, drill more oil, re-open coal mines, is a politician aiming to make the world, and the UK, more deadly, less secure, poorer and hungrier. We really need to call them out.
There is no doubt that emissions are still rising, that too many emissions are not even counted (shipping, military, war, flying, to name four big omissions). There is no doubt that our weather is getting more extreme – rains are heavier, storm winds are stronger, heatwaves are hotter and more frequent, wildfires are more deadly. This year, carbon dioxide levels reached a record high of 431ppm in May, from a base level in 1850 of about 270ppm. We are now at Jurassic levels, and as we experience daily, the climate is shifting rapidly to a new state.
So what of the COP30 negotiations?
This year, countries are supposed to bring new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the talks, showing how they will accelerate their climate action. Unfortunately, Trump’s influence is significant. Recently, nations agreed a treaty to curb shipping emissions. It was never finalised, because Trump threatened tariffs on nations that signed up. NDCs are not looking promising.
Do we think that the same nations will have the steel to unite against Trump in their collective self-interest? Right now, we’re not confident on that.
So where do we stand? What can we do?
Firstly, it is clear that we are living in a time of jeopardy: climate impacts are increasingly visible, but regressive forces pushing fossil fuels and suppressing policies for climate action are being reinforced by biased, right-wing media. We really need to make our voices heard against the shouts from the fossil fuel champions.
To make our voices heard, we join with groups from across the region as the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Justice Coalition, to organise a rally along with millions of others globally, on the middle weekend of the COP negotiations. This year, Saturday Nov 15th. We will be in Leeds all afternoon, making the case for climate action, making the case to protect nature, making the case for a socially just transition to a zero-carbon future. We need to make this too big to ignore. We need to make our voices heard.
Will you join us?
We also need to write to our MPs telling them that we are going, telling them why we are going, and demanding that they pressure the government to deliver in the negotiations.
We might look back from 2050 and see this year as the year that climate action came to a head, when we broke free from vested interests to protect people and planet. But we might look back from a shrinking landmass as the seas rise, seeing this year as the year we lost.
It is up to us now. Up to us to make the case and make politicians listen.
Join us on November 15th, Merrion Gardens, Leeds, LS2 8JE, from 12 noon. Tell your MP you are coming. We will be heard! This world is ours!
