Nov 14 2025| Nº. 182

Editorial

The COP30 summit opened this week in the Amazonian capital of Belém with both urgency and unease, as world leaders warned that a surge of climate disinformation threatens to derail fragile progress on global warming. At the opening session, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declared that the “battle for truth” is now as critical as cutting emissions, calling for COP30 to mark “a new defeat for climate denialists.” Twelve nations, including Brazil, Canada, France and Germany, signed the first-ever Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change, pledging to counter online falsehoods and protect journalists and scientists from harassment. The plan, launched jointly by Brazil, the United Nations and UNESCO, commits funds to investigative projects aimed at exposing the networks behind coordinated misinformation campaigns. Outside the conference halls, thousands of protesters filled the city’s streets demanding stronger pledges on deforestation and fossil fuel phaseouts.

While Lula sought to project moral authority abroad, fresh polling at home pointed to a more complicated reality. A new Genial/Quaest survey released Thursday showed his approval rating holding steady at 47%, but disapproval inching up to 50%. The same poll found that his electoral advantage over potential rivals in 2026 has narrowed across nearly all matchups. Analysts linked the dip to fallout from the October police raid in Rio de Janeiro, the most lethal in the state’s history, which 67% of respondents approved while 57% disagreed with Lula’s criticism of it as “disastrous.” Although he remains numerically ahead in every scenario tested, the margins have tightened: his lead over São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas, the most competitive far-right candidate, has fallen from twelve to five points. The data reinforce a pattern familiar to Lula’s presidency: strong international stature paired with volatile domestic opinion.

Against this backdrop, Brasília’s foreign policy team spent the week preparing for another round of delicate trade diplomacy. On the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada, Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira met briefly with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to discuss progress on tariff negotiations that have strained relations between the two countries. Vieira confirmed that Brazil had submitted a formal proposal on November 4 requesting a 90-day freeze on U.S. surtaxes before advancing to substantive talks. The Trump administration signaled that it would likely ease coffee tariffs, a move set to benefit Brazilian producers. Lula’s government remains intent on containing tensions with Washington while defending Brazil’s export interests. While few breakthroughs have arisen so far, the tone of the bilateral relationship has notably deescalated from the summer’s open hostility.

Highlights

• Renewed mandate. The Brazilian Senate approved this week the reappointment of the current Attorney General Paulo Gonet to a new two-year term. Gonet was nominated by Lula to occupy the position that ended up becoming key in the prosecution process against those involved in the failed coup attempt, including former President Jair Bolsonaro. Gonet needed 41 votes. He received 45. The vote was the closest since the return of democracy in Brazil.

• “Kids pretos”. The Supreme Federal Court continued this week the trial of six elite military officers accused of involvement in a plot to kill Brazilian authorities, including President Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The plan was part of the failed coup attempt of which President Jair Bolsonaro is also accused. The so-called "black kids" (kids pretos) even went so far as to write in detail the plot with which they intended to prevent Lula's inauguration.

• Debate on terrorism. At a time when far-right politicians are trying to broaden the definition of terrorism in the National Congress, one episode drew attention: a truck was hijacked and abandoned on a major highway in São Paulo with the driver inside the vehicle and an artifact left beside him, which appeared to be an explosive. The police closed the entire highway for five hours, paralyzing one of the main access routes to the country's largest city, until they discovered that the bomb was fake. No one claimed responsibility for the act, which mobilized public opinion for many hours, while legislation on terrorism and organized crime was being debated in Congress.

• Racial quotas. The National Council of Justice decided this week to increase the quotas from 20% to 30% for Black, Indigenous, and quilombola people in positions within the Brazilian judiciary. Today, only two out of every five positions in the Judiciary are filled by Black people, which is reflected in unequal sentences, with conviction and incarceration rates that penalize Black people more than white people in Brazil.

News from ABO and social organizations and movements:

Cerrado and Amazon. The Aliança Brasil Office was present this Thursday, November 13 at the historic COP30 in Belém participating on a panel in partnership with the Vladimir Herzog Institute, the Cerrado Network and Federal Congresswoman Dandara Tonantzin. The objective was to amplify the voices and solutions that originate in different areas and guide global decisions on climate and biodiversity, especially in the Amazon and Cerrado biomes. Learn more.

Race and climate. “Racial and Climate Justice” was the theme of one of the seminars held at Casa Folha this Thursday, November 13, sponsored by the Folha de São Paulo newspaper at COP30, with the participation of the executive director of Escolhas, Sergio Leitão. The debate addressed the challenges and paths forward for the Black population in Brazil within the environmental agenda.

Urban violence. Overcoming urban violence in Brazil with respect for human rights was the theme of a debate with the participation of Manoel Moraes, the general coordinator of the Center for the Defense of Human Rights (Cendhec). The program focused on the massacre in the Penha and Alemão complexes in Rio de Janeiro on October 28th, which was the largest massacre in the country's history, with 121 dead. Learn more.

Tragedy in Paraná. Ação da Cidadania launched a campaign to raise funds for the victims of the natural disaster that devastated entire cities in the interior of Paraná this week. Donations are used to purchase water, food, hygiene and cleaning items. Find out how to participate by clicking on the link.

Mandani. In his latest column for Agência Pública, James N. Green, president of the WBO's Board of Directors, analyzes Zohran Mamdani's victory in the New York mayoral race and other negative outcomes recently reaped by Trumpism. Read the column.

Feature Article

If Not Now, When? Human Rights and Climate

By Denise Dourado Dora*

COP 30 inaugurates an important moment to strengthen the human rights perspective in climate solutions. Celebrating ten years of the Paris Agreement – ​​an international treaty that establishes commitments from states to protect the environment and responsibilities regarding climate change – the Conference, taking place in Belém, has an enormous challenge ahead.

Science has already demonstrated that the increase in global temperature is interfering with all ecosystems. Climate emergencies – floods, droughts, hurricanes – have shown their impact on people, especially on more vulnerable groups, such as women and girls, who are more affected by climate emergencies and disasters, as studies show; indigenous peoples and traditional communities, who suffer from changes in their habitat and ways of life; and marginalized populations, where the intersection of racism in all manifestations of climate change has become increasingly visible.

Considering people in the climate debate, in connection with other threatened species, brings central ethical issues to the climate agenda: can we confront climate change that threatens the planet and all its living manifestations without thinking about modes of energy production and with the extraction of oil and minerals? Can we confront the impacts of climate change without considering the inequalities of the world? Can we think about containing global warming without addressing modes of food production, extensive agriculture, and deforestation? Can we imagine a new world since this one is on the verge of collapse?

The consistent action of civil society organizations and social movements on the climate agenda shows that the only way for us to survive is to rethink our ways of life and intense consumption, stop extracting oil and coal, stop releasing greenhouse gases responsible for global warming into the atmosphere, and incorporate human rights protection mechanisms into climate solutions. However, only now, with Brazil's presidency of COP 30, has a mandate been established for Special Envoys on Human Rights, Racial Equity, Women, and Indigenous Peoples and thematic days on justice and human rights have been created during COP 30, which expands opportunities for debates, alliances, and concrete proposals.

We also have two new developments: the recent advisory opinions from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2025. These opinions, resulting from consultations on the responsibilities of States to protect human rights in the context of environmental impacts and climate change, reinforce the concept of climate justice in national and international agendas. They also encourage the debate on the incorporation of all human rights treaties into the perspective of environmental protection in public policies, adaptation plans, and mitigation actions, as well as being an incentive to the use of human rights protection mechanisms in the UN system and regional systems in situations of human rights violations caused by the action or omission of States in climate policies. The use of these mechanisms, such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, or the committee on the rights of children, or the rights of women, should also be incorporated into the climate agenda, considering the effects that government inaction has produced on people's lives.

Elisa Morgera, the UN Special Rapporteur on climate and human rights, has affirmed the obligations of States to guarantee rights and act to prevent the collapse of the planet and humanity and will be at COP 30 participating in this debate on the connection between science, which unequivocally demonstrates the alteration of the planet's temperature and its causes; politics, with its leaders treating the effects of this temperature increase with varying degrees of seriousness; and the field of rights, which now considers the impact on people and their prospects for survival.

A call for a Global Climate and Human Rights Commitment – ​​the Sumaúma Pledge 2025 – will also be launched at COP 30, where States, companies, universities, and civil society can commit to concrete goals for the protection of human rights in the context of climate change. It is also expected that the COP 30 agreements will include mechanisms for a just energy transition with principles of respect for fundamental rights and non-discrimination, as well as a significant increase in concrete governmental actions to adapt to the new impacts of climate change.

Addressing climate is not meteorology: it is an ethical challenge to rethink the world and reinvent the way we relate to each other, to other species, and to nature.

*Denise Dourado Dora is the Special Envoy of the COP30 Presidency for Human Rights and Just Transition

Feature articles express the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or WBO.