COP is a beautiful gathering of humanity. People from virtually every country on Earth, thrown together in common cause.
And so many of them are brilliant, passionate, and dedicating their entire lives to fighting the climate crisis. The more of them you meet, the more your hope grows that this fight can be won.
Here are two voices from COP30 in Belém, Brazil that are worth paying attention to.
Juan Carlos Monterrey-Gómez (Panama)
Panama's special representative for climate change is impossible to miss, partly thanks to his trademark hat, mostly thanks to his refusal to sugar-coat anything. At a conference Brazil's president has dubbed the "COP of Truth," his message lands hard:
"We are literally paying criminals to kill us [by] giving subsidies to fossil fuel producers."
His point? The science is clear. The reports are written. What's missing is the courage to act, to phase out fossil fuels and protect the forests, oceans, and biodiversity we depend on. As he puts it: "If we cannot even mention fossil fuels, if we cannot commit to protect forests, what the heck are we doing here?"
Ayisha Siddiqa (USA/Pakistan)
At just 26, Ayisha is a law student, a former adviser to the UN Secretary General, and the founder of the Future Generations Tribunal. Her question is a powerful one: courts have ruled that a stable climate is a human right, but how do we protect the rights of people not yet born, who will suffer the most?
Her team is now gathering testimony from young people around the world to build an international declaration on the rights of future generations.
"Who is a fossil-free world for?" she asks. "It's for future generations."
Why this matters for us
If you've ever felt overwhelmed by climate news, remember this: there are people like Juan Carlos and Ayisha in every corner of the world. Smart, fierce, refusing to give up. You are not alone in caring , and you're in remarkable company.
The road is long, but as Martin Luther King Jr said, the long arc of the moral universe bends toward justice. People like these are the ones bending it.
Read original article here: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/20/down-to-earth-cop30-belem-hope-optimism