‘Decisive battle’: Guterres calls for youth power in fight to phase out fossil fuels

By Felipe de Carvalho, in Belem

On Tuesday in Belém, ministers from Colombia, Germany, Kenya, the Marshall Islands, Sierra Leone, the United Kingdom and several other countries, voiced strong support for Brazil’s proposal to elevate the issue in this year’s round of UN climate negotiations.

The coalition called on negotiators to reinforce language around the fossil fuel transition in the draft text, slated for approval on Wednesday. Their aim: to accelerate action and keep global warming within 1.5°C.

Then a hush fell. The ministers listened as COP30 Youth Champion Marcele Oliveira stepped forward, carrying the urgency of an entire generation.

“Fossil fuels are destroying dreams,” she warned, calling the shift away from them “the most important climate justice mobilization of this generation.”

© UNFCCC/Zô Guimarães

COP30 Youth Climate Champion, Marcele Oliveira, speaks at the UN Climate Change Conference taking place in Belém, Brazil.

Protecting the future

Speaking with UN News, Ms. Oliveira stressed that children and young people must be at the heart of every COP30 discussion.

“We had a decision from the International Court of Justice stating that countries’ inaction on climate change constitutes an environmental crime. Therefore, we need to pressure countries to make better climate decisions, and this is also a priority,” she told us.

“Of course, we need to move away from fossil fuels, invest in forest protection, and protect those who protect them. And of course, for young people, recognition of collective action at the local level, led by young people, is very important.”

© UNFCCC/Kiara Worth

Guterres: A ‘decisive battle’

Later in the day, UN Secretary-General António Guterres met with youth delegates and offered an apology – one heavy with recognition. Past generations, he said, failed to contain the climate crisis. Scientific projections confirm temperatures will surpass the 1.5°C threshold.

Now, he urged young people to stand with him in what he called the “decisive battle” to ensure that this overshoot is as short as possible.

The transition from fossil fuels to renewables, he emphasized, is essential, and requires confronting powerful lobby groups that “put profits above the well-being of the international community and the planet.” Youth pressure, he said, is indispensable at COP30.

‘We just want to be children!’

Sixteen-year-old João Victor da Silva, from Brazil, told the UN chief: “We don’t want to be activists, we just want to be children and adolescents, but unfortunately adults are not making the right decisions.”

From Aruba, Nigel Maduro shared a painful truth: the beaches where he learned to swim are disappearing. Negotiations, he warned, move slowly – perhaps too slowly for his island nation, which faces soaring temperatures and rising seas.

Youth from several countries echoed the same plea: act now to secure a habitable future.

The Secretary-General agreed that greater youth participation – especially from Indigenous communities – would lead to better outcomes. He acknowledged calls for more direct, less bureaucratic financing for Indigenous peoples and pledged to improve conditions to make that possible.

© UNFCCC/Zô Guimarães

Children make their voices heard at the UN Climate conference in Belém, Brazil.

‘Protests are a defining feature of COP30’

Indigenous leader Txai Suruí described the youth meeting as one of the most hopeful moments of COP30. But she warned that the Amazon is dangerously close to a tipping point that could push the forest toward desertification.

“The protests are a distinguishing feature of this COP, because [though] some countries may not like them, but Brazil is a democratic country, and the protests also serve to ensure that these leaders actually make decisions in favor of life.”

Ms. Txai noted that corporate lobbying remains larger than all delegations combined – and certainly larger than Indigenous representation – creating an imbalance of voices. Yet she sees growing recognition of Indigenous communities as guardians of nature.  

A ‘just transition’

Meanwhile, for Ms. Oliveira, the transition away from fossil fuels must be just—an approach that “listens to, welcomes, and hears the territories.” Measures such as demarcating Indigenous lands, she said, are essential to ensure this shift does not further harm populations already affected.