COP30, which takes place from November 10 to 21, 2025 in Belém do Pará, Brazil, can be an opportunity to leverage the Right to the City and Climate Justice in building a multi-actor, multi-level partnership for climate action, led by communities, in alliance with local and regional governments.
There is a growing consensus on the role played by cities in climate action. However, the integration of urban, territorial and climate policies and strategies is still lagging behind.
We arrive in Belém as a collective with a clear position: there is no climate justice without the Right to the City! Check out the document below for the main points of the joint agenda of the Global Platform for the Right to the City for COP30:
Why focus on climate justice and the right to the city?
The Climate Justice framework recognizes the structural inequalities behind the causes and effects of climate change, which disproportionately affect historically marginalized populations, which often do not count with the adequate resources to adapt to these adverse events. Climate change is therefore also a matter of social justice.
%
OF GHG EMISSIONS COME FROM URBANIZED AREAS
%
IS THE PORTION OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE OCCUPIED BY CITIES
%
OF THE URBAN POPULATION IS ALREADY HIGHLY EXPOSED TO CLIMATE DISASTERS
Events
The GPR2C reinforces its commitment to the Right to the City and Climate Justice during COP30 by organizing and participating in different events. At the Urban Plenary, social movements and civil society organizations mobilize as a form of cooperation and collective resistance. In an official side event, panelists gather to promote community-led initiatives and climate justice in the IPCC Report on Climate Change and Cities.
At the People’s Summit, we promote the panel “Right to the City and Climate Justice: how to advance participatory governance towards cities and territories that care for people and the environment.” The relevance of the New Urban Agenda in combating climate change is the subject of debate at the Cities and Regions Pavilion. We also participate in the global unified march for climate action.
Check out the calendar of our actions at COP30 below.
Click on the links for each event for more information.
SIDE EVENT: Promoting community-led initiatives and climate justice in the IPCC Report on Climate Change and Cities
Tuesday, November 11, 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. BRT
Blue Zone COP 30 – Room 3
Parque da Cidade: Avenida Júlio César, s/nº – Val-de-Cans, Belém (PA)
URBAN PLENARY: Social movements and civil society organizations united for climate justice and the right to the city!
Tuesday, November 11, 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. BRT
NGO House: Rua Cônego Jerônimo Pimentel, 315 – Umarizal/Belém (PA)
PEOPLE’S SUMMIT – Panel Right to the City and Climate Justice: how to advance participatory governance towards cities and territories that care for people and the environment.
Friday, November 14th – Afternoon
Federal University of Pará
GLOBAL MARCH unified for climate action
Saturday, November 15th, Morning
Belém (PA)
The Relevance of the New Urban Agenda in Addressing Climate Change
Saturday, November 15th – 4:30pm – 5:30pm BRT
Cities and Regions HUB – Blue Zone COP30
Parque da Cidade: Avenida Júlio César, s/nº – Val-de-Cans, Belém (PA)
Advisory opinion of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on climate emergency, from the perspective of the right to the city
Monday, November 17, 2025 – 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m BRT
Human Rights Pavilion, COP 30 Green Zone
The road until here
For some years, we have been working on the connections between climate justice and the right to the city. Starting with the publication of our thematic document in 2020 and continuing to work with our members on local, national, regional and global initiatives. This work has intensified towards COP30, with great expectations from social and territorial movements about the outcomes of the summit in Brazil. In this context, since the beginning of the year, we have held 9 meetings in a task force dedicated to capacity-building, coordination and creation of a common agenda and strategy towards COP30.
See below the documents produced by the platform on climate justice and the right to the city.
Latin American Statement for the Right to the City and Climate Justice
The GPR2C has joined Latin America, Misereor, IIED-AL and Foro Ciudades para la Vida in a preparatory process over the past few months to discuss some of the key thematics and priorities from Latin American urban movements ahead of COP30. This process resulted in a joint regional position paper on the Right to the City and Climate Justice endorsed by dozens of organizations.
DOWNLOAD THE DOCUMENT
Climate Change Glossary
Provides relevant, systematized and accessible information on the concepts, structures and strategic actors of the climate change discussion for the advocacy work of the members and partners of the Global Platform for the Right to the City, with a view to advancing climate justice through a right to the city approach.
DOWNLOAD THE GLOSSARY
Thematic Paper on Climate Justice
Sheds light on the potential of the Right to the City as “one of the reference frameworks to guide equitable Climate Action and jointly create practical agendas to mitigate Climate Change, adapt to its impacts and ensure the restitution of rights lost in the past, preserving these rights for future generations”. The document proves that there are already substantial alternatives to working for Climate Justice around the world!
READ THE DOCUMENT
Transformative actions for social mitigation of climate change
In November 2023, the HIC Regional Office for Latin America (HIC-AL) held the Forum “The habitat crisis and climate change: from local responses to international debate” held by HIC-AL, 18 experiences (9 urban and 9 rural) were presented, showing how communities and organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean are facing the climate crisis from their territories.
Based on these presentations, HIC-AL carried out a process of systematization the cases in light of the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Click the link below to explore the 18 cases in image format and learn how, in different territories, these transformative actions for life, habitat, and climate are being built. Unfortunately the materials are in Spanish only for the moment.
LEARN ABOUT THE CASES HERE!
About the Global Platform for the Right to the City
The Global Platform for the Right to the City (PGDC) is a diverse network, created in 2014, which brings together social movements and organizations, academics, human rights defenders, NGOs and local governments committed to political action and social change through the promotion, defence and realization of the Right to the City at all levels, especially for people and communities affected by exclusion and marginalization.
What is COP30?
The United Nations Conference on Climate Change (Conference of the Parties) is an annual meeting at which world leaders, scientists, NGOs and representatives of civil society define actions to combat climate change. In its 30th edition, it is taking place for the first time in Brazil and the Amazon, with the most eagerly awaited topics being the preservation of the biome, adaptation indicators and climate finance.
