Periphery Groups Send Climate Letter to COP30 ^{CEFR B2}

A group of activists from peripheral neighbourhoods of São Paulo prepared a detailed document to present at COP30, the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Belém (November 10–21, 2025). The document, titled “Letter from the Peripheries on Commitments for the Climate – The Atmosphere is Tense!”, contains about 30 proposals and is signed by 50 collectives and 1,000 community leaders. The Peripheral Front for Rights organized the letter after social movements that worked together during the COVID-19 pandemic began to coordinate climate work.

The proposals address waste management, environmental education, decent housing, a solidarity economy and basic sanitation. They include concrete suggestions such as not expanding landfills in poorer neighbourhoods, creating a green currency for recycling, and holding polluters and public authorities accountable. The manifesto also highlights community-led actions: cleaning streams, reforestation, community vegetable gardens and farms, strengthening recycling cooperatives, expanding rainwater collection networks and local adaptation plans run by communities, and solidarity groups for storms and environmental support networks.

The letter calls attention to housing in Environmental Protection Areas (APAs), noting recent actions by authorities and judicial decisions against occupations in Greater São Paulo. Clair Helena Santos, 67, coordinator of the housing movement for Missionária-Cidade Ademar and Cecasul, was selected to attend COP30 and said housing is a channel for other human rights. Communities such as Cidade Ademar and Pedreira are especially affected because they lie near dams or sewage flows, and the construction of a bridge on Alvarenga Road over the Billings Dam affected aquatic fauna and plants.

Organizer Edson Pardinho, 50, who lives in the Dom Tomás Balduíno Settlement in Franco da Rocha, said the group plans to connect with people from other countries and marginalized regions of Brazil to present a project shaped by peripheries. Casa Ecoativa coordinator Jaison Lara warned that if COP remains dominated by diplomatic figures it will not take into account knowledge from peripheries, quilombolas, Indigenous and riverside dwellers; he also said he spoke to more than 200 children and stressed the lack of public policies focused on them. The manifesto further highlights work by social educators, culture collectives and teachers who raise awareness about SDOs (Sustainable Development Objectives) and environmental racism, and the Guaraní from the Tekoá Pyau Indigenous Village in Jaraguá called for protection of Indigenous peoples and said their survival is essential for environmental preservation.