Community messages and the COP

Radical Listening - What key community messages can we bring to COP28

A loss and damages fund. A just energy transition. A seat at the table.

As the two-week UN climate conference comes to a close, negotiators are gathering in Dubai to try to hammer out an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

While those talks get underway, we are taking a look back to September when community leaders and others shared their own key messages for the global conversation.

Eli Virkina/If Not Us Then Who?

"The radical message we leave here is that it is important that Indigenous Peoples are actually part of this dialogue and decision-making table. "

- Valéria Paye, executive director of Podáali

Discussions and panels during the current climate summit, known as COP28, have focused on the need for direct climate financing to communities as well as ensuring that indigenous voices were heard at the global arena.

But an earlier event, sponsored by Tenure Facility at New York Climate Week 2023, gave speakers the opportunity to express their thoughts on what commitments they wanted to hear from COP28. Watch the video above to hear what they had to say.

Moderated by Maryam Pasha from TedxLondon, the panel featured UN Climate Champion Strategist Lina Dabbagh, Jing Tauli-Corpuz, managing director of policy at Nia Tero; and Rukka Sombolinggi, the secretary general of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago in Indonesia; and Valéria Paye, executive director of the Podáali Fund in Brazil, both Tenure Facility partners.

Articles

25 July 2025

Brazil

From the Territories, Indigenous, Afrodescendant, and Traditional Communities Set the Climate Agenda—Will the World Listen?

As COP30 approaches, Indigenous Peoples, Afrodescendant Peoples, and Traditional Communities—including Babassu Coconut Breakers (quebradeiras de coco babaçu)—are setting the terms for climate justice. Through organised Pre-COP gatherings, public communiqués, and formal declarations delivered directly to President Lula, these frontline communities are advancing a bold agenda to shape Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

12 June 2025

Colombia

Yuluka Protecting the Heart of the World : dialogue a key tool for the protection and recuperation of the Sierra Nevada

The Amazon Conservation Team Colombia (ACT), the National Commission for Indigenous Territories (CNTI), and Tenure Facility teams shared spaces of dialogue with the Kogui, Arhuaco, and Wiwa peoples in the heart of the Sierra Nevada. These meetings led to meaningful reflections and important lessons about how to care for and protect a deeply sacred territory.

22 May 2025

Liberia

CLDMCs at the Heart of Liberia’s Evolving Land Governance

Imagine two clans, Nimba County’s Gbosua and Zorgowee, locked in a long-standing dispute over their shared boundaries. The tension between them could have easily spiraled into deeper conflict, lasting resentment, or even violence. But Community Land Development and Management Committees (CLDMCs) stepped in, bringing a different kind of approach.
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