A major focus of this year’s COP is on the Just Transition Work Programme. WILPF will amplify demands by our allies for the Belém Action Mechanism for a Just Transition (BAM) that meaningfully supports frontline communities, workers, and people most affected. BAM must centre care work, informal work, and gender responsiveness to ensure a truly equitable transition.  

Set in the heart of the Amazon Basin, COP30 provides an unprecedented opportunity to root global climate ambition in Indigenous traditional knowledge. This year’s summit is expected to host the largest delegation of Indigenous peoples in COP history, marking a significant moment for climate justice. 

Building on our collective advocacy from previous years, WILPF’s delegation will continue to highlight demilitarisation as essential for climate justice – a topic that is yet to make it into the official negotiations at the world’s largest climate talks. 

COP30: What is at stake? 

Trust in the multilateral system is rapidly eroding. While marginalised communities face devastating climate impacts, diplomats in suits gather each year in air-conditioned rooms to polish commas in texts that never leave the page. 

The ongoing failure of states parties to meet their obligations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) — to reduce emissions and phase out fossil fuel extraction and use — has set the world on a path toward catastrophic levels of global warming.  

As stated by the Climate Action Network (CAN), the largest global climate justice network, of which WILPF is a member, “COP30 represents a definitive test for the relevance of the multilateral climate regime.” 

Just Transition Rising 

Against this backdrop, CAN argues that “the just transition agenda becomes the essential connective tissue binding technical climate action and real-world legitimacy among people.” 

The concept “just transition” has its origins in the 1970s US labour movements who were concerned about the impacts of a fossil fuel phase-out on jobs and livelihoods. Since then, the term has evolved into a broader call for systems change.  

With a Just Transition Work Programme established at COP27, COP30 is the moment for implementation. We join our allies in calling for the establishment of the Belém Action Mechanism for a Just Transition (BAM) to coordinate a just transition internationally and equitably, supported by just transition principles, and ensuring clear sources of finance, amongst others. WILPF will support the Women and Gender Constituency (WGC), of which it is a member, in advocacy efforts to retain language on care work, informal work and on gender responsiveness in the just transition. 

We particularly challenge the proliferation of false solutions within the Just Transition debates, from corporate greenwashing attempts, the militarisation of so-called ‘critical’ minerals, to suggestions of debt-induced financing. The global just transition is an opportune moment to transform the current fossil-fuel fuelled systems of extraction and exploitation into economies that center community well-being, ecological regeneration, democratised renewable energy access.  There cannot be a just transition without an overall reduction of energy usage and consumption in the global north, and the abolition of harmful sectors across the globe— including the military-industrial complex —a sector that threatens people and the planet and that is at odds with a just transition. 

What Else Will be Discussed? 

As every year, the agenda for COP is dense, with many negotiation tracks set to take place in parallel. COP29 and COP30 Presidencies will present the “Baku-to-Bélem Roadmap” to mobilise 1.3 trillion in climate finance by 2035. It is important to ensure that climate finance is grant-based, accessible, and human rights and gender-responsive.  

COP30 will also see the negotiation of the Gender Action Plan – a vital support system for gender-responsive climate action. Other themes to be addressed include the Global Goal on Adaptation, Deforestation, the Global Stocktake, and continued work on the Loss and Damage Fund, amongst others. 

What about Peace?  

COP30 misses an opportunity to build on the growing momentum of integrating peace into the agenda from past COPs. COP28 adopted the Declaration on Climate, Relief, Recovery, and Peace, while COP29, launched the Baku Peace Hub. Both included official “peace days” — limited in substance, but at least offering some visibility to the issue. This year, even those symbolic gestures are absent. Although previous efforts to highlight peace at COPs failed to address the critical role of militarism in the climate crisis, they nonetheless provided valuable entry points for advocacy. 

There are still opportunities to continue work for demilitarisation at this year’s COP. At COP28, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made connections between the climate crisis and militarisation, he emerged from a high-level meeting stating: “It is unacceptable that the promise of $100 billion a year made by the ‘developed’ countries will not come to fruition while, in 2021 alone, military spending reached $2.2 trillion.”  

Other countries have made similar observations at COP29: 

• Nepal called for “the vast resources spent on arms [to] be redirected to mitigation efforts,”  
• Mexico called for dedicating “1% of military spending to a reforestation program that would restore 15 million hectares and capture millions of tons of carbon dioxide,” and  
• Panama noted that “Global military spending stands at about $2.5 trillion yearly. $2.5 trillion to kill each other is not too much, but 1 trillion to save lives is unreasonable.”  

These growing references by states to the link between militarism and the climate crisis offer important openings for advocacy to push demilitarization further onto the official climate agenda. 

Positively, COP30 offers expanding opportunities for civil society to push demilitarisation higher on the climate agenda. Across movements, there is growing recognition that militarism is a key driver of the climate crisis, and an increasing number of allies are integrating this understanding into their advocacy demands.  

COP30 will also mark the first Conference since Glasgow (COP26) to be held in a country that permits public demonstrations. The People’s Summit, taking place from 12 to 16 November, will foreground the perspectives and solutions of Indigenous, traditional, and marginalised communities. Its manifesto calls for “just peace” and an end to “wars, apartheid, colonisation, and the militarisation of life.” The Global Day of Action, on 15 November 2025, will see mass mobilisations in Belém and across the world—an important moment to demand demilitarisation as essential to climate justice. 

Why It Matters: Militarism and the Climate Crisis 

COP30 unfolds against a backdrop of immense global suffering — from the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, to famine and mass atrocities in Sudan, to Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine, alongside numerous other devastating conflicts worldwide. These crises not only cause unimaginable human pain but also intensify the climate crisis and accelerate widespread ecological destruction.  

Estimates suggest that the first three years of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have contributed to global emissions more than the annual output of Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Slovakia combined, and the climate damage already exceeding US $43 billion. In Gaza, researchers estimated that the emissions from the first 15 months of Israel’s bombardment and reconstruction were greater than the annual emissions of102 individual countries. 

Even in so-called “peace times”, the global military is a major driver of the climate crisis, responsible for approximately 5.5% of total global emissions — more than double the emissions produced by the entire civilian aviation industry. Yet most countries report little to nothing of their military’s emissions in their reports to the UNFCCC. 

Militarism, armed conflict and the climate crisis all have direct and disproportionate impacts on women, LGBTIQA+ individuals, Indigenous peoples and other marginalised populations, including increased rates of gender-based violence to deepening poverty, increased likelihood of displacement to forced early marriage and more.   

Yet despite the vast consequences of militarism for people and the planet, military spending continues to escalate year after year. In 2024, military spending hit $2.7 trillion, with a 9.4% year-on-year increase the steepest rise since at least 1988. This spending exacerbates the climate crisis– with each dollar spent on the military generating more than twice the greenhouse gas emissions of a dollar spent elsewhere, while diverting valuable resources away from climate mitigation, adaptation, or addressing loss and damage. 

WILPF at COP30 

Although military spending and the broader impacts of militarism are absent from the official COP30 agenda, there remain key opportunities to continue centering demilitarisation within the COP space. Civil society—led by WILPF and its allies—will continue to pave the way in advancing this crucial agenda. 

This year, WILPF will be represented by WILPF Colombia (Limpal), a Section from the region working actively on climate justice. Valentina and Natalia will amplify our demands and support collective advocacy with the Women and Gender Constituency (WGC), Climate Action Network (CAN), Global Energy Embargo for Palestine and the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative and the WGC Peace and Demilitarisation Working Group, founded by WILPF in 2023.

Read more information about our COP30 delegates here.

WILPF’s Key Demands at COP30 

Adopt the Belém Action Mechanism (BAM) for a Just Transition.  

BAM must orient the entire international system behind people-centred transitions where workers and communities oversee decisions that affect their lives and livelihoods. Less than 3%  of multilateral climate finance is allocated to a ‘just’ transition activities. COP30 must recognise that designing and delivering just transition policies requires dedicated resources. We call for the re-allocation of military expenditure as a key source of finance for the just transition. We also call for a reduction in energy use and consumption in the Global North and the abolition of harmful sectors across the globe— including the military-industrial complex — sectors that threaten people and the planet and that are at odds with a just transition. 

Reallocate military spending to climate finance.  

Parties must explore innovative  sources for public finance. The “Baku-to-Bélem Roadmap” should focus on increasing available public finance from ‘developed’ countries through redirection of harmful financial flows, including military spending. On average, ‘developed’ countries have been spending 30 times as much on their military budgets compared to international climate finance. 

Accelerate an equitable fossil fuel phase out.  

The latest climate plans (NDCs) submitted by states parties expose a glaring and alarming ambition gap. Despite the clear mandate from the UAE COP28 decision, every fossil-fuel-producing ‘developed’ country omits a timeline to end coal, oil, or gas production. Along with our allies from CAN, we call on countries most responsible for the climate crisis to re-submit their NDCs before COP31. States must close the “military emissions gap,”and agree to set clear targets to reduce military emissions in line with the 1.5°C limit. As a partner of the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, we will also demand for COP30 to recognise the First International Conference for the Phase Out of Fossil Fuels set to take place in Spring 2026 in Colombia. 

We also further support and amplify the demands by our allies and partners, including the Climate Action Network (CAN); the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, the Global Energy Embargo for Palestine; the Women and Gender Constituency (WGC); as well as our members from the region, including WILPF Brazil’s manifesto for COP30 and WILPF Colombia’s (LIMPAL) priorities. 

Our events 

• 10 Nov, 11:00–11:50 (Moana Pacific Pavilion) 
  Militarism, Climate Change and the Pacific: Building Resilience, Peace and Justice (WILPF, CEOBS, Pacific Islands Climate Action Network, Alliance for Future Generations Fiji, Peace Boat). More information.
• 13 Nov, 16:30–18:00 (UNFCCC Side Event Room 4) 
  Disarming the Climate Crisis: The True Cost of Militarism (WILPF, Peace Boat, IPPNW, Peace Track Initiative). More information.

How to follow WILPF at COP30 

For all things WILPF at COP30, visit our dedicated page on wilpf.org. To stay updated on WILPF’s advocacy for demilitarisation, climate justice, and gender equality by following WILPF and LIMPAL Colombia on social media. 

• WILPF: Instagram | Facebook | X (Twitter) | Bluesky | LinkedIn  
• LIMPAL Colombia: Instagram | Facebook | X(Twitter) | LinkedIn  

Many COP30 sessions will be livestreamed via UN Web TV. You can access it here.