Belém, Brazil – November 2025
Day one of COP30 dawned under the Amazonian sun — hot, humid, and charged with expectation. The world has arrived in Belém, a city that sits at the meeting point of land, river, and rainforest — and, this week, at the crossroads of global climate hope and anxiety.
Negotiations opened on themes as wide-ranging as adaptation, cities and infrastructure, water, waste, local governance, bioeconomy, and artificial intelligence. But beyond the formal sessions, the heart of the summit pulsed in conversations about justice, community, and care.
Finding Each Other in the Crowd
Josianne Gauthier of CIDSE captured the mood of those arriving early for meetings and side events:
“This space can be overwhelming, with expectations very high and taking you in so many different directions. I find it helps to seek out your people early, the ones you can count on to give you strength and keep you grounded.”
Her image of the Mutirão — the Brazilian word for collective effort — set the tone for the faith-based and civil society presence. “Because we can’t do everything,” she wrote, “this idea allows us each to do our part, to show up where we are most needed, and trust others to do the same.”
For CIDSE, that means supporting faith actors and civil society partners “in calling for justice and care to be at the centre of all the decisions made.”
Indigenous Voices Lead with Courage
Meanwhile, at the Cups of Courage event hosted by Project Dandelion, Indigenous women leaders offered a powerful reminder of what’s at stake — and who should be at the table.
Laura captured the day’s energy with humour (“sweatier than a spin-class instructor’s armpits at minute 42”) and admiration for the women she called “fabulous Dandelions.”
Among them, Marisol Garcia Apagueño challenged negotiators directly:
“We ask, who is adaptation meant for? We are telling those who are making decisions without us, we are the solution!”
Sara Omi raised another key question:
“I have been in rooms where they were talking about climate finance. But rarely did they mention how this would work for women, and even more rarely Indigenous women.”
And Cristiane Gomes Julião reminded listeners that climate knowledge comes from many sources:
“Our science is not more, it is not less. We need to work together.”
Her words echoed through the launch of the new Planetary Science Pavilion, where the need for partnership between Indigenous and Western science took centre stage.
Wisdom and Spirit at the Heart
From another corner of the COP, faith voices gathered under the banner of “Climate Wisdom.” Jane shared from the Brahma Kumaris’ series of reflections and interviews exploring the inner dimensions of climate change — what she called “a fantastic series… tapping into the faith-based network at COP30 Brasil Amazônia.”
Their daily broadcasts, along with inputs from Lorna Tevnan and other faith leaders, are helping to weave together spiritual insight and practical action — a kind of talanoa dialogue that places ethics, empathy, and shared responsibility at the centre of negotiations.
A Common Thread: The Power of Community
From the Indigenous women speaking truth to power, to the faith groups grounding action in care, to the civil society alliances working behind the scenes, the common thread on this first day of COP30 was the Mutirão — the sense that no one can do this alone.
In Josianne’s words, “We must each do what we can, show up where we are most needed, and trust others to do the same.”
As the negotiations move forward — on adaptation, technology, and the bioeconomy — it is this spirit of shared responsibility that may yet prove the summit’s most enduring contribution.