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An estimated 30,000 people marched through the Brazilian city of Belém on Saturday, November 15, 2025, to mark the Global Day of Action for Climate Justice. The mobilisation, led by the People’s Summit and supported by civil society groups attending COP30, brought together workers’ unions, Indigenous communities, international networks, youth movements, and climate defenders from across the world.
Starting at Mercado de São Brás and ending at Aldeia Amazônica, the march transformed the city into a powerful call for urgent, fair, and justice-centred climate action. Participants gathered from 8:00am to organise themselves into blocs, before setting off along the route from 9:00am to 11:00am.
Additionally, over 100 marches, demonstrations and events were held in 27 countries around the world.
Demanding an end to the system that has fueled climate destruction in the Amazon to the rest of the world, the protesters condemned global economic inequality, environmental racism, and corporate impunity that have delayed action and denied justice to people in climate-vulnerable countries.
In Asia, around 10,000 people joined mobilisations in more than 40 cities and provinces in the Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal. In Africa, mobilisations were held in Kenya, Zambia, Benin, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the UK and Ireland, mobilisations were held in 16 cities, including London and Dublin. In Belém, around 70,000 from global and Brazilian movements participated in the Peoples’ Summit March.
Commenting on the march, Mohamed Adow, Director, Power Shift Africa, says: “Today’s march in Belém is a powerful reminder that sometimes the solutions to our biggest problems come from the most unexpected places. For too long, climate action has been shaped in closed rooms in distant capitals. But here in the Amazon, the people who have done the least to cause this crisis – Indigenous peoples, local communities, young people, and those on the frontlines – are showing the world what real climate leadership looks like.
“Their wisdom, their stewardship of nature, and their demand for justice offer the kind of solutions the world desperately needs. If governments truly want to tackle the climate crisis, they must listen to the voices from the ground and put people, not polluters, at the heart of climate action.”
Participants carried both distributed and self-made signs, with messages aligned to global climate justice demands. Visual creativity, movement solidarity, and chants for climate accountability defined the atmosphere throughout the march.
“Today’s mobilisation demonstrated the strength of global solidarity at COP30. With communities in Belém leading the way, civil society sent the strong message that climate justice is non-negotiable, and people everywhere are ready to demand it,” added Adow.
Tasneem Essop, executive director of Climate Action Network International: “We are done watching Big Polluters and the governments aligned with them decide our future. Real solutions are already alive in the territories – in the hands of Indigenous peoples, workers, women, and youth who defend land, water, and life every single day. On this Global Day of Action, we take to the streets of Belém with thousands of others to make one thing clear: the era of sacrifice zones is over. The world we need puts justice at the centre – not profit, not war, not extraction. People’s power is rising, and we are not backing down.”
Lidy Nacpil, coordinator of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development: “From Asia to the Amazon, we are mobilising to change the system that has kept our people hostage to climate destruction. On the streets of Belém, we are marching with thousands of allies for an end to the capitalist and imperialist order that has plundered our lands and exploited our people.
“Inside the COP, we are pushing for governments to adopt a global just transition mechanism, provide climate finance from the North to the South, and accelerate a fair transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Ultimately, we are fighting to end the system that has brought back-to-back typhoons to the Philippines, floods to India and Pakistan, and landslides to Nepal. System change is the only way forward – anything less is an injustice against our people.”
Leon Sealey-Huggins, senior campaigner of War on Want: “War on Want is in Belém to amplify the leadership and lived knowledge of our partners on the frontlines – those exposing false climate solutions and driving real, people-centred, just and popular transitions. We’re taking action across the UK and marching here in Belém to demand a Belém Action Mechanism for Just Transition – and to tell the UK government to stop blocking the demands of millions of workers, frontline communities, feminists and Indigenous peoples. The fight for climate justice is the fight for economic, social and racial justice. Wealth must be reclaimed from destructive industries and redirected towards life-sustaining futures. Through mass mobilisation, solidarity, and sustained organising, we are making it clear: This world is ours.”
Javier Andaluz, coordinator of Alianza por el Clima (Climate Alliance Spain): “Ten years after the Paris Agreement, we are still far from meeting the targets required by science, and our emissions continue to rise. In the face of this political inaction, we are taking to the streets once again to demand a just, urgent, and immediate transition, because if the necessary measures are not taken, it will be the most vulnerable populations who will suffer the most. Before it is too late, it is essential to establish a mechanism capable of ending fossil fuels and ensuring the financing and support needed for the energy transformation we require.”
Rachitaa Gupta, coordinator of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice: “Today we marched with thousands of people because our lives, our lands, and our futures are not negotiable. We marched because we in the Global South are being sacrificed for the profit of corporations and the political convenience of powerful governments. We reject carbon markets and every false solution that lets polluters keep polluting. We demand real, public climate finance, historic reparations, and protection of Indigenous, quilombola, coastal, and forest territories. Our solutions of agroecology, food sovereignty, and community power already exist. Today people marched in Belem to show that from the Amazon to Palestine, peoples’ power is rising, and governments must follow our lead.”
