{"id":271622,"date":"2025-11-19T12:40:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T12:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/271622\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T12:40:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T12:40:21","slug":"african-activists-rally-and-challenge-cop30-agenda-dw-11-17-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/271622\/","title":{"rendered":"African activists rally and challenge COP30 agenda \u2013 DW \u2013 11\/17\/2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three years ago, when Nigerian activist OduduAbasi Asuquo received her invitation to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belem, Brazil<\/a>, she began preparing for an experience she knew would differ from previous summits.<\/p>\n

The reason, she says, was the People’s Summit, which was scheduled to take place in parallel to COP30<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, thousands of people gathered a short distance from the main COP30 meeting at the Federal University of Para\u00a0for the People’s Summit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“At the People’s Summit, we’re free to say how we really feel, without restrictions. There are no checks. At the COP, everything must be approved \u2014 even the T-shirt you wear,” Asuquo told DW.<\/p>\n

\"NigerianNigerian activist OduduAbasi Asuquo has denounced the toxic\u00a0pollution of Nigeria’s Niger DeltaImage: Tain\u00e3 Mansani\/DW<\/p>\n

She was surrounded by Indigenous people<\/a> from Black communities known as “quilombolas” who are descended from former Africans enslaved in Brazil, riverine groups, youth networks<\/a>, and socio-environmental movements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While COP30 negotiators refined official climate goals, the People’s Summit exposed injustices and demanded reparations, with hundreds of organizations, movements and networks from Brazil and abroad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asuquo took part in debates and highlighted the long-standing environmental devastation in her native Niger Delta<\/a>, a region of Nigeria that has been scarred by decades of oil extraction<\/a>.<\/p>\n

African voices demand climate justice<\/p>\n

From Nigeria<\/a>, Senegal<\/a>, Guinea-Bissau<\/a>, and Togo<\/a>, the activists<\/a> interviewed by DW offered a perspective often excluded from official processes \u2014 one that underscores the gap between high-level diplomacy and the daily realities of communities already living through the crisis.<\/p>\n

“People who live with the impacts should be at the [negotiation] tables,” Asuquo said. “But when we do manage to be there, our voices don’t matter. They let us talk, but at the end of the day they do what they always wanted to do.”<\/p>\n

She denounced the toxic\u00a0pollution<\/a> of Nigeria’s Niger Delta<\/a>, where between 9 million and 13 million barrels of oil have been spilled<\/a> since the 1950s, when crude was first discovered in southern Nigeria, according to an independent group of experts who conducted a study in 2006.<\/p>\n

“There are many cases of asthma, severe illnesses \u2026 skin diseases and deaths,” she said.\u00a0Participating in her fourth COP only reinforces a recurring feeling: “We are literally begging for our lives.”<\/p>\n

Senegal: Fishers at risk<\/p>\n

Further north along West Africa’s coast, Senegalese activist Ibrahima Thiam traveled to Brazil<\/a> to expose how coastal erosion and industrial pressures are destroying artisanal fishing \u2014 forcing entire communities to relocate.<\/p>\n

\"IbrahimaIbrahima Thiam documented the displacement of fishers caused by climate change at a photography exhibitionImage: Tain\u00e3 Mansani\/DW<\/p>\n

“Senegal depends on fishing,” Thiam told DW. “But many fishers are migrating, disappearing, or dying.”<\/p>\n

This year, he chose to attend only the People’s Summit.<\/p>\n

“My first COP, in Egypt, was disappointing,” he said. “When I saw a row of banks at the blue zone, I asked myself: what are banks doing here?”<\/p>\n

“But, here at People’s Summit I have the feeling of being with people who understand me better”, he told DW. “People with whom I can share the feeling of solidarity.”<\/p>\n

Guinea-Bissau: Knowledge as a solution<\/p>\n

From neighboring Guinea-Bissau, sociologist and environmentalist Miguel de Barros stressed the importance of a space led by civil society.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He believes the People’s Summit can leave a meaningful legacy for COP30 by bringing new perspectives on climate finance and public policy.<\/p>\n

Guinea-Bissau faces worsening coastal flooding<\/a>, desertification, and soil degradation \u2014 compounded by poor waste management and plastic pollution<\/a>.<\/p>\n

De Barros argues that ancestral African and Amazonian knowledge, combined with agroecology, can provide real pathways to address the climate crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Perhaps one of the legacies of COP30 will be how the deliberations of an entity like the People’s Summit can contribute,” de Barros told DW.<\/p>\n

\"MiguelMiguel de Barros hopes that world leaders will finally adopt robust strategies to confront major pollutersImage: Tain\u00e3 Mansani\/DW<\/p>\n

Togo: Criticism of the\u00a0Tropical Forests Forever Facility\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kwami Kpondzo, a Togolese activist and member of the Global Forest Coalition, arrived at COP30 with sharp criticism of the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF)<\/a>, a proposed $125-billion (\u20ac108 billion)\u00a0global conservation fund that would pay countries based on how well they protect their forests<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kpondzo considers the proposal insufficient.<\/p>\n

“Financializing nature won’t solve the problem. The causes are clear: mining, deforestation<\/a>, exploitation, extraction. The TFFF does not address these roots and may benefit investors, not communities,” he said.<\/p>\n

For him, while COP30 remains focused on targets and markets, the People’s Summit centers issues largely absent from the official agenda: historical inequalities, reparations, and community sovereignty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That is why OduduAbasi Asuquo, Ibrahima Thiam, Miguel de Barros, and Kwami Kpondzo share the same sentiment: the People’s Summit exposes the limitations of the official process and broadens the climate conversation by giving space to those who live the crisis every day.<\/p>\n

“In Dubai and Azerbaijan, we had no chance to mobilize,” Kpondzo said, referring to the\u00a0COP28<\/a> and COP29<\/a> gatherings in the UAE and Baku.<\/p>\n

“We thought [COP30] Brazil would be different \u2014 and here we finally have the chance to speak about what affects us and build solidarity,” Kpondzo said.<\/p>\n

\"KwamiKwami Kpondzo has criticized the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) Image: Tain\u00e3 Mansani\/DW<\/p>\n

Edited by: Keith Walker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three years ago, when Nigerian activist OduduAbasi Asuquo received her invitation to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-271622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}