{"id":143337,"date":"2025-11-20T10:24:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T10:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/143337\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T10:24:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T10:24:11","slug":"decisive-battle-guterres-calls-for-youth-power-in-fight-to-phase-out-fossil-fuels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/143337\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Decisive battle\u2019: Guterres calls for youth power in fight to phase out fossil fuels"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday in Bel\u00e9m, ministers from Colombia, Germany, Kenya, the Marshall Islands, Sierra Leone, the United Kingdom and several other countries, voiced strong support for Brazil\u2019s proposal to elevate the issue in this year\u2019s round of UN climate negotiations.<\/p>\n

The coalition called on negotiators to reinforce language around the fossil fuel transition in the draft text, slated for approval on Wednesday. Their aim: to accelerate action and keep global warming within 1.5\u00b0C.<\/p>\n

Then a hush fell. The ministers listened as COP30<\/a> Youth Champion Marcele Oliveira stepped forward, carrying the urgency of an entire generation.<\/p>\n

\u201cFossil fuels are destroying dreams,\u201d she warned, calling the shift away from them \u201cthe most important climate justice mobilization of this generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"COP30<\/p>\n

COP30 Youth Climate Champion, Marcele Oliveira, speaks at the UN Climate Change Conference taking place in Bel\u00e9m, Brazil.<\/p>\n

Protecting the future<\/p>\n

Speaking with UN News, Ms. Oliveira stressed that children and young people must be at the heart of every COP30 discussion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a decision<\/a> from the International Court of Justice<\/a> stating that countries\u2019 inaction on climate change constitutes an environmental crime. Therefore, we need to pressure countries to make better climate decisions, and this is also a priority,\u201d she told us.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, we need to move away from fossil fuels, invest in forest protection, and protect those who protect them. And of course, for young people, recognition of collective action at the local level, led by young people, is very important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Participants<\/p>\n

Guterres: A \u2018decisive battle\u2019<\/p>\n

Later in the day, UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres<\/a> met with youth delegates and offered an apology \u2013 one heavy with recognition. Past generations, he said, failed to contain the climate crisis. Scientific projections confirm temperatures will surpass the 1.5\u00b0C threshold.<\/p>\n

Now, he urged young people to stand with him in what he called the \u201cdecisive battle\u201d to ensure that this overshoot is as short as possible.<\/p>\n

The transition from fossil fuels to renewables, he emphasized, is essential, and requires confronting powerful lobby groups that \u201cput profits above the well-being of the international community and the planet.\u201d Youth pressure, he said, is indispensable at COP30.<\/p>\n

\u2018We just want to be children!\u2019<\/p>\n

Sixteen-year-old Jo\u00e3o Victor da Silva, from Brazil, told the UN chief: \u201cWe don\u2019t want to be activists, we just want to be children and adolescents, but unfortunately adults are not making the right decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Aruba, Nigel Maduro shared a painful truth: the beaches where he learned to swim are disappearing. Negotiations, he warned, move slowly \u2013 perhaps too slowly for his island nation, which faces soaring temperatures and rising seas.<\/p>\n

Youth from several countries echoed the same plea: act now to secure a habitable future.<\/p>\n

The Secretary-General agreed that greater youth participation \u2013 especially from Indigenous communities \u2013 would lead to better outcomes. He acknowledged calls for more direct, less bureaucratic financing for Indigenous peoples and pledged to improve conditions to make that possible.<\/p>\n

\"Children<\/p>\n

Children make their voices heard at the UN Climate conference in Bel\u00e9m, Brazil.<\/p>\n

\u2018Protests are a defining feature of COP30\u2019<\/p>\n

Indigenous leader Txai Suru\u00ed described the youth meeting as one of the most hopeful moments of COP30. But she warned that the Amazon is dangerously close to a tipping point that could push the forest toward desertification.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe protests are a distinguishing feature of this COP, because [though] some countries may not like them, but Brazil is a democratic country, and the protests also serve to ensure that these leaders actually make decisions in favor of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Txai noted that corporate lobbying remains larger than all delegations combined \u2013 and certainly larger than Indigenous representation \u2013 creating an imbalance of voices. Yet she sees growing recognition of Indigenous communities as guardians of nature. \u00a0<\/p>\n

A \u2018just transition\u2019<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, for Ms. Oliveira, the transition away from fossil fuels must be just\u2014an approach that \u201clistens to, welcomes, and hears the territories.\u201d Measures such as demarcating Indigenous lands, she said, are essential to ensure this shift does not further harm populations already affected.<\/p>\n

UN News\u202fis\u202freporting from Bel\u00e9m<\/a>, bringing you front-row coverage of everything unfolding at COP30.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Tuesday in Bel\u00e9m, ministers from Colombia, Germany, Kenya, the Marshall Islands, Sierra Leone, the United Kingdom and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-143337","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\/143337","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=143337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}