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2 weeks ago
22
Thousands of people have turned out in the streets of Belém to demand urgent action on the climate crisis.
It was the first major protest outside the annual climate talks since Cop26 four years ago in Glasgow, as the last three gatherings were held in locations with little tolerance for demonstrations – Egypt, Dubai and Azerbaijan.
The “Great People’s March” comes at the halfway point of contentious negotiations and follows two Indigenous-led protests earlier in the week.
Early in the day, below a huge inflatable globe, a large group of indigenous protesters, many with face paint and feathered headdresses, were chanting as they waited for the march to begin.
Raquel Wapichana travelled nine hours from Roraima to attend. She carried a sign saying: “Let’s struggle.” She said: “I am here for my people, my land, our rivers and our ancestors. We are constantly threatened by mining, by agribusiness and by land invasions. We must fight for our survival.”
The most gothic section of the march was a “funeral for fossil fuels”. A dozen “mourners” dressed in black rallied below two large ghoul puppets and three enormous coffins bearing the words “coal”, “oil” and “gas”. One woman, who gave the name Krishna and said she was an actor from Belém, looked like a figure from a Victorian horror story in a black lace veil and umbrella. “Our lives depend on getting rid of fossil fuels. Our children and our future depend on our struggle. Through my art, I am here to fight.”
One of the many anti-capitalist areas of the march was surrounded a large banner declaring: “The environmental collapse is capitalist: Lula, the energy transition with Amazon oil is a farce.” Nearby, a sound truck blared out the Spanish socialist anthem Bella Ciao. Among those marching here was Maria Melia of the Quilombola Movement of Maranhão. She said she was fighting for the Amazon and against a “hydrovia” water transport project that was cutting through the territory of her community.
There was support for Palestine visible everywhere also, including flags and chants. Classic Brazilian songs were blasting out of speakers, in particular the popular track Anunçiação by Alçeu Valença.
The talks still have one week to run, and it is unclear what the outcome will be. The Brazilian hosts have said that they do not plan to issue a cover decision – the agreement that is usually gavelled out at the end of the talks – but instead to focus on implementation. As yet no one is quite sure what that will look like.
Meanwhile delegates are also stuck on the “big four” issues on climate finance; trade; transparency; and how to address the inadequacy of nations’ recently submitted national climate plans - into a separate set of “presidency consultations”, that emerged as countries tried to agree an agenda last Sunday, before the start of the two weeks of talks.
The march today is expected to last for several hours.
