In the context of the COP30 Belém Climate Summit taking place in Brazil, we interview Ilan Zugman, Director of 350.org in Latin America, to provide his insight into the event. teleSUR
00:00And in this context, we invite Ilan Sugman, who is director of 350.org and also is a master's degree in environmental management with a focus on sustainable development.
00:13Hello, Ilan. Welcome to From the South.
00:17Hello, Alejandra. Nice to be here.
00:20What, in your view, makes COP30 a pivotal moment for humanity regarding climate change?
00:26Well, COP30 is happening in a crucial moment of our world.
00:33We are seeing climate impacts getting worse, like floods, fires, terrible droughts, hurricanes, like the one, Melissa, that just happened in Central America.
00:45So climate impacts are intensifying and world leaders are uniting here in Belen this week for the Leaders' Summit.
00:56Next week, the negotiations will start for two weeks.
01:00And COP30 is really a crucial moment for us to get together, to see some new commitments.
01:06We need, of course, commitments that follow implementation with bolder actions, with clear deadlines and roadmaps.
01:15We heard enough of empty words without resulting in concrete actions.
01:19So we know what's needed.
01:22Science is very clear.
01:24In order for us to overtake, do not hit the planet more than 1.5 degrees, we need to phase out fossil fuels, coal, oil and gas urgently, and have just energy transition fast and funded.
01:40So we are not going to accept anything less than this.
01:43This is a crucial moment.
01:46And I'm here in Belen, as many leaders from the civil society, to follow the negotiations and to add pressure on climate leaders.
01:55Anila, also, there are growing calls for climate justice.
01:59What does that mean?
02:00And how can it be achieved in global negotiations?
02:04Of course.
02:06Well, that's a great question.
02:07And climate justice, it means that the countries that emitted the least cannot pay the price for the countries that are the highest emitters.
02:17So countries from the global north that are historical, the biggest emitters of CO2 and methane that are putting us in this crisis,
02:29are the ones that need to pay for the transition from the global south.
02:34So we need justice in the negotiations.
02:37This is not easy to be achieved because negotiations can be quite technical sometimes.
02:44But with the pressure from the movements, from the civil society, there are important negotiations that will happen in the CO2,
02:52like the one about just transition, the one about adaptation.
02:56And we need a just transition.
02:59We need that countries that emitted the most pay for the transition of the countries least responsible for the climate crisis.
03:07And we also need money from those countries to pay for adaptation.
03:12Countries from the global south are not ready to face hurricanes, to face terrible fires, droughts.
03:19So we have lots of people dying, people losing their lives.
03:23Food systems are being compromised because of the climate weather events.
03:28So that's an urgent need.
03:31And that will be climate justice.
03:34And one last question.
03:35You were speaking about greatest emitters.
03:38I wanted to ask you about the United States, which is historically the largest emitter of greenhouse gases,
03:44did not send a high-level delegation to this summit.
03:47With COVID-30 taking place at such a critical moment, as you were mentioning,
03:51do you think global momentum on climate action can be possible without the U.S. fully engaged?
03:59Yeah, that's a crucial moment.
04:03And although high-level delegation from the U.S. are not coming,
04:08we have lots of involvement from states, from the U.S., from governors that are highly involved.
04:14So although the current president from the United States does not believe in climate change,
04:21this does not mean that the energy transition is stopping, that climate action is not moving forward.
04:28And this is an opportunity to invite for a higher collaboration between other countries like Brazil,
04:34like China, like the European Union, South Africa, United Kingdom.
04:40So the U.S. is not here with the highest-level delegation.
04:44But there are many other countries that can collaborate and put the U.S. in isolation in the climate agenda.
04:52So we think that's totally possible for negotiations to advance,
04:57even without the U.S. high-level presence.
05:01As we are already seeing, countries arriving, putting new commitments.
05:06So things are not stopping just because there is a climate denier leading the U.S. now.
05:11Thank you, Ilan, very much for your time here from the South in this context.
05:16My pleasure. Thanks so much for the invitation.
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