{"id":140543,"date":"2025-11-18T21:37:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T21:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/140543\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T21:37:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T21:37:15","slug":"from-haiti-to-ethiopia-voices-of-climate-displacement-at-cop30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/140543\/","title":{"rendered":"From Haiti to Ethiopia: voices of climate displacement at COP30"},"content":{"rendered":"

At COP30 in Bel\u00e9m, Brazil, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM<\/a>) is pressing negotiators to make climate mobility a core part of adaptation plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople and communities who choose to stay must be safe, and those who decide to move must have the option to do so with dignity,\u201d Ugochi Daniels, IOM\u2019s Deputy Director General said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Across 80 countries, IOM runs projects that put local communities in charge of solutions. Ms. Daniels hopes COP30 will be \u201ca turning point to place human mobility as a key area of climate action,\u201d especially in national adaptation plans and financing for loss and damage.<\/p>\n

\u2018Ten seconds that changed my life forever\u2019<\/p>\n

For Robert Montinard from Haiti, this debate is personal. The 2010 earthquake lasted just 10 seconds, but shattered lives for generations. Seeking safety, he fled to Brazil as a refugee. Today, he leads the Mawon Association, helping others rebuild far from home.<\/p>\n

At COP30, Robert insists on one thing: refugee voices must be heard.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be part of the solution. We want migrants and refugees to be heard. Those affected by the consequences of climate change \u2013 refugees, Indigenous Peoples, Black communities, women \u2013 have the solutions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This week, Robert handed a proposal to Brazil\u2019s First Lady, Ros\u00e2ngela Janja da Silva, and Environment Minister Marina Silva. It calls for municipal climate councils, action against environmental racism, and community brigades to respond to disasters.<\/p>\n

He calls Haiti\u2019s plight \u201cclimate injustice.\u201d The same hurricanes that strike Florida, he said, leave destruction behind in his homeland \u2013 but while the US rebuilds swiftly, buildings ruined in Haiti\u2019s 2010 quake still lie in rubble.<\/p>\n

A crisis feeding conflict in Ethiopia<\/p>\n

From another corner of the Global South, Makebib Tadesse sees the same pattern in Ethiopia, where climate pressures are intensifying conflicts over land and resources.<\/p>\n

He described a \u201ccontinuous cycle of violence and displacement\u201d as food and water grow scarce. In northern Ethiopia, where he was born, the impact of climate change now rivals \u2013 or even surpasses \u2013 the devastation of the civil war from 1974 to 1991.<\/p>\n

\u201cClimate change is pushing people out of Ethiopia in ways we\u2019ve never,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Both Robert and Makebib are part of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR<\/a>) delegation at COP30, alongside Venezuelan Indigenous leader Gardenia Warao.<\/p>\n

\u2018Brazil\u2019s openness to refugees should be celebrated\u2019<\/p>\n

Giving voice to their message is Alfonso Herrera, Mexican actor and Latin America Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, formally known as the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe voices of refugees have been silenced \u2014 and they must be heard,\u201d he told UN News.<\/p>\n

Mr. Herrera has traveled across the region \u2013 from Mexico to Venezuela, Honduras and El Salvador -witnessing the human cost of climate displacement and the UN\u2019s efforts to restore hope through education and legal support.<\/p>\n

He believes Brazil\u2019s openness to welcome refugees deserves recognition, especially \u201cwhen so many other countries take the completely opposite attitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

As COP30 debates how to adapt to a changing planet, displaced people remind the world that climate action is not just about saving ecosystems \u2013 it\u2019s about protecting lives, preserving dignity, and ensuring no one is left behind by the rising tide.<\/p>\n

UN News is reporting from Bel\u00e9m<\/a>, bringing you front-row coverage of everything unfolding at COP30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At COP30 in Bel\u00e9m, Brazil, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) is pressing negotiators to make climate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-140543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}