27/09/2025
30th Conference of the Parties (COP30)/ United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) urged to link climate justice with reparations for historical crimes
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At the global climate summit in Brazil this November, known as COP30, hundreds of human rights and environmental organizations have called for reparations to be discussed and the historical causes of the climate crisis to be addressed.
Historical crimes like slavery and colonialism, the letter contends, led to asymmetrical contributions to emissions, increased vulnerability to disasters, global resource access disparities, and the continued exclusion of many people from climate decision-making.
"Reparatory justice is essential to achieving true climate justice," the signatories stated.
Earlier this week, organizations like the Caribbean Pan African Network and Brazil's Instituto Luiz Gama launched it. Since then, more than 240 organizations and public figures have signed it, including local Black Lives Matter chapters and Amnesty International USA.
The letter has the support of Colombia's environment minister as well. Next week, the United Nations and the Brazilian government will receive it.
The letter urged COP30 to address historical injustices and the need for reparations as part of any climate negotiations, stating that the climate crisis is not a recent phenomenon but rather the result of centuries of greenhouse emissions, extraction, dispossession, and racial violence.
According to the letter, it would be important for Brazil to lead this call since it received more enslaved people than any other nation and now has the largest population of African descendants outside of Africa
Africans, people of African descent, and Indigenous communities should lead the official climate justice and reparations space at the summit, it urged Brazil and COP30.
Additionally, it requested that Brazil actively promote these discussions at COP30 and include them in its political agenda.
Will the government of Liberia 🇱🇷 participate in this Conference since they are party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, having ratified it many years ago??
🌱🙌🏻
EHT Jabateh ✍️
Source: Reuters
