“The Earth is on a tightrope.” That’s the message Greenpeace activists displayed on a tape suspended 30 meters high between two buildings in central Madrid. The aim is to make visible demands for “climate justice” on the occasion of the start of the Climate Summit (COP30) in Belém, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, this Monday, warning that the event is “a unique opportunity to stop deforestation and demand climate justice in a critical decade”.
Activists were walking on a 30-metre-high ribbon between two buildings on the corner of Plaza de España, on the corner of Calle Princesa, early this Monday morning. high line The length is 55 meters. “The tightrope walk symbolizes the urgency of moving forward firmly and not neglecting to take firm steps in the right direction,” they explain from Greenpeace, and also reminds the Spanish government that it must lead “an ambitious and courageous position in this COP, without succumbing to the false means of climate lag in the European Union and the global denialism of leaders like Donald Trump, which could plunge the planet into the abyss of climate change.”
With this unprecedented action, Greenpeace will alert governments gathered in Brazil and demand “a coal, gas and oil phase-out date, new taxes on the fossil industry and a plan to end deforestation by 2030.” “Although the planet is in a fragile ecological balance and warning signals are accumulating in the form of damage, floods, heatwaves and other extreme events, we have the necessary tools to avoid the worst-case scenario,” Eva Saldaña, Greenpeace Spain and Portugal Executive Director, told EFE.
“All we need is political will and international cooperation to prioritize the protection of lives over special economic interests,” said Saldaña, who will be attending COP30. That’s why “COP30 is an important opportunity to bravely stop this global ecological crisis.”
In the case of Spain, Greenpeace recalls that we cannot forget the impact of several extreme weather events, exacerbated by climate change, that have had devastating effects on populations, livelihoods and ecosystems. For example, the dramatic events of 2024 and this summer’s wave of bushfires. “We are trying to stay balanced and hopeful, but instead of stepping up climate action, the political class is taking slower, more uncertain and more hesitant steps,” they explain.
In a statement, the environmental group stressed that the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which will be held in Belem until November 21, 2025, marks a “critical moment for global climate action.”
In this sense, they recall that, 10 years after the ratification of the Paris Agreement, in which countries committed to preventing global warming from exceeding 1.5°C, this COP is “the first since global average temperatures exceeded their physical limits in 2024, an alarming indicator of the accelerating climate crisis.” “The world is in the midst of what the scientific community has called a decisive decade in the face of the climate emergency. There is an urgent need for world leaders to improve the climate change plans presented at COP30 in Belem,” Greenpeace reiterated, also warning about current efforts.
This ensures that even if current commitments are fulfilled, global warming is on track to rise by an alarming 2.3°C to 2.5°C, a far cry from the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C limit. Therefore, they believe that “ending the use of fossil fuels” is an important step.
Environmental groups have also made key demands for COP30, specifically calling for “a global response plan to address the ambition gap between what governments are doing and what they should do to limit global warming to 1.5°C”.
They therefore call for accelerating emissions reductions, especially in key sectors such as energy (including transitioning away from fossil fuels), agriculture, forestry and land use, in line with the principles of equity, justice and just transition.
They also call for a new five-year forest action plan under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to “halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030.”
Finally, they call for a new permanent item on the COP30 agenda to “increase the amount of international public funding that countries in the Global North have to provide and to promote taxation based on the ‘polluter pays’ principle to unlock greater public funding for countries in the Global South.”
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