Belém, Brazil — Greenpeace joined more than 40,000 people at the Global Climate March in Belém to end the first week of the UN climate conference, today.
Activists carried messages demanding respect for the Amazon and to make polluters pay using a giant climate polluters bill showing projected loss and damage attributed to top oil and gas corporations[1]. The Global Climate March was organised by civil society organisations and Indigenous Peoples groups from several parts of the world.
Carolina Pasquali, Executive Director, Greenpeace Brazil said: “We are tens of thousands here today, on the streets of Belém, to show negotiators at COP30 that this is what people power looks like. Yesterday we found out that one in every 25 COP30 participants is a fossil fuel lobbyist, proportionally a 12% increase from last year’s COP. How can the climate crisis be solved while those creating it are influencing the talks and delaying decisions? The people are getting fed up – enough talking, we need action and we need it now.”
Abdoulaye Diallo, Co-Head of Greenpeace International campaign, Make Polluters Pay said: “We are taking to the streets because, while governments are not acting fast enough to make polluters pay for their climate damages at COP30, extreme weather events continue to wreak havoc across the globe. That is why we are here, carrying the climate polluters bill, showing the projected economic damages of more than US$5 trillion from the emissions of just five oil and gas companies over the last decade. Fossil fuel companies are destroying our planet, and people are paying the price. Negotiators must wake up to the growing public and political pressure to make polluters pay, and agree to new polluter taxes in the final COP30 outcome.”
Rômulo Batista, Forest Solutions Project Co-Lead, Greenpeace Brazil said: “From the Amazon to the Congo Basin to Indonesia, our world’s tropical forests are vital in the fight against the climate crisis. Yet, they continue to be destroyed, and Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPs & LCs), the true protectors of our forests, are outnumbered in the negotiations. We are here in solidarity with IPs & LCs, who must have their voices heard, their territories protected, and their rights guaranteed.”
At COP30, Greenpeace is calling for a Global Response Plan to address the 1.5°C ambition gap and accelerate emissions reductions in this critical decade; a new, dedicated 5-year Forest Action Plan to end deforestation by 2030; and the establishment of a new standing UNFCCC agenda item to drive New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) delivery, particularly scaling-up public finance from developed countries, and advance polluter-pays taxation to unlock scaled-up public finance for developing countries.
ENDS
Notes
[1] The quantification of economic damages since 2015 was provided to Greenpeace International by Prof. James Rising of the University of Delaware and Dr. Lisa Rennels of Stanford University. The analysis uses data from the Carbon Majors Database and the SCC methodology. The SCC was used by former US administrations and policy analysts to assign a dollar value to future damages from an additional ton of CO₂ between the year of its emissions through to the year 2300.
Emissions data for the oil and gas companies was provided by the Carbon Majors Database, which in turn sources emissions data from publicly available company reports.
Belem, Brazil — Greenpeace has called on negotiators at the end of week one at COP30 in Belém to accelerate and implement climate and forest promises by ensuring they agree on an action plan to end deforestation and close the 1.5°C ambition gap.
Jasper Inventor, Deputy Programme Director, Greenpeace International said: “At this COP we are still hoping it will deliver a global response plan to bridge the 1.5°C ambition gap and that needs to involve a roadmap, or a plan, to phase out fossil fuels, an action plan to end deforestation and much needed climate finance. We’ve seen progress in week one, but we need an outcome that leads to change and not just another roadmap to nowhere.”
“We must ensure COP30 delivers a clear plan to phase out fossil fuels and one that fast-tracks renewables. But it must also make polluters pay for climate damages and a just transition, with clear timelines and an immediate fossil-fuel decline to keep the 1.5°C limit alive. COP30 must deliver an outcome that accelerates real action.”
The UNFCCC’s updated annual report card, the NDCs Synthesis Report 2025, exposed the glaring lack of ambition, projecting only a 12% reduction in emissions by 2035. This was far short of the 60% global reduction needed (compared to 2019 levels).[1]
Greenpeace carried out a projection in the UN venue with images of climate impacts, urging country delegates to act now.
A growing ‘forest gap’ was also exposed in the 2025 Land Gap Report, underscoring the urgent need for an action plan to implement the UNFCCC’s 2030 target to end deforestation.[2]
An Lambrechts, Biodiversity Politics Expert, Greenpeace International, said: “It’s clear we are failing to protect our forests, but as they’re a critical piece of the 1.5°C solution, COP30 must result in an action plan to end deforestation by 2030.”
“While we’ve seen some cautious steps week one, after worldleaders travelled to the first COP ever in the Amazon, governments must now ensure this pivotal COP delivers for people and forests by ensuring forest destruction finally comes to an end.”
At COP30, Greenpeace is also calling for a new standing UNFCCC agenda item to drive NCQG delivery, particularly scaling-up public finance from developed countries, and advance polluter-pays taxation to unlock scaled-up public finance for developing countries.
Anna Carcamo, Climate Politics Specialist, Greenpeace Brazil said: “This COP has been called the COP of Implementation and the COP of truth. To live up to those names, it must deliver climate finance that is real, accessible, and fair. Developed countries must provide public climate finance to developing nations to put climate action into practice – from NDCs and adaptation measures to the response to loss and damage. For millions, it is not a question of opportunity – it is a question of survival. Climate finance is, above all, a matter of climate justice.”
In September 2025, Greenpeace East Asia’s Beijing office presented the exhibition Lighting the Future: People’s Hope and Power in China’s Green Energy Future at the 25th Pingyao International Photography Festival (PIP). Curated by Na Risong, Art Director of Image Gallery, and featuring photographer Chu Weimin, the exhibition showcased aerial photographs of China’s renewable energy landscape—solar farms, wind turbines, and hybrid energy projects—alongside stories of people and communities living amid the country’s massive energy transformation. The exhibition drew widespread attention, receiving both the PIP Outstanding Photographer Award and the Outstanding Curator Award.
Stepping into the exhibition hall, visitors were first greeted by a breathtaking photograph: a temple perched high in the mountains, framed by the rhythmic silhouettes of wind turbines — an image that seems to merge past and future, nature and technology.
Photographer Chu Weimin has spent the past three years documenting China’s clean energy transition using drones. His most striking images resemble Chinese traditional Shanshui ink paintings — mountains and clouds now joined by rows of turbines. In these surreal, poetic landscapes, wind farms rise from mountains like brushstrokes and an ancient temple stands quietly against a backdrop of renewable infrastructure.
“I started out just shooting landscapes,” Chu recalls. “But when I traveled to places like Guizhou, Yunnan, and Qinghai in 2022, I kept seeing wind farms and solar power plants appear in my camera frame. I realized this is the story of our time — and almost no one is documenting it in a systematic way.”
For Chu, drone photography was essential. “From the ground, it’s hard to grasp the scale of these power plants,” he explains. “But when you rise into the air, you can see the geometry, the rhythm — and their relationship with the mountains, the desert, the sea.”
His project deliberately spans diverse terrains, ranging from the deserts of Qinghai to the coasts of Zhejiang and the rural villages of Shandong. In Gansu’s abandoned copper mine, wind turbines now rise next to a hillside temple built decades ago by miners praying for safety. In Ningbo’s tidal flats, rows of solar panels coexist with fishing boats. In rural Shandong, villagers install rooftop solar to power their homes — and even their electric scooters.
Beyond the monumental landscapes, China’s energy transition is also reshaping livelihoods and local economies. According to recent research, the clean energy sector has become one of the most dynamic engines of national growth, contributing nearly 40% of GDP growth in 2023.
Chu’s photographs capture glimpses of this transformation at the human scale. In Shandong, villagers install rooftop solar panels that not only power their homes but also generate extra income. “Many of the farmers told me their electricity bills have dropped to almost nothing,” Chu recalls. “Some even use solar power to charge their scooters or run small workshops.”
These scenes—quiet yet profound—reflect how renewable energy is no longer just a national project of heavy industry, but something deeply connected to people’s everyday lives.
In places like Qinghai’s Tala Desert, Chu also observed how solar projects can reshape ecosystems. Panels reduce heat and wind, allowing grasses to regrow beneath them. In partnership with herders, sheep graze under the panels, turning the site into a working landscape.
While his photographs center on landscapes, Chu’s travels also brought him into contact with people living within this transformation. Some villagers welcome solar projects as new sources of income — working as security staff, leasing land, or installing panels for household use. Others express concerns about noise or misconceptions about radiation. “People’s reactions are complex,” Chu notes. “This is real change happening on the ground, and not everyone experiences it the same way.”
Shanshui for a new era
What makes Chu’s work distinctive is not just what he photographs, but how he frames it. Drawing inspiration from classical Chinese Shanshui painting, he overlays a traditional visual language onto modern infrastructure. He enhances tones and textures to evoke the feeling of ink on paper, but without altering the underlying reality of the images.
“Shanshui paintings aren’t just about describing landscapes,” Chu says. “They’re about harmony between humans and nature. But today, harmony doesn’t mean returning to a pre-industrial world. It means finding new ways for human development and the environment to coexist.”
In this sense, Chu’s “new Shanshui” embodies the very spirit of the exhibition title. In his images, mountains, turbines, and sunlight flow together like brushstrokes in motion — revealing a nation’s search for balance between people and planet, tradition and innovation.
A future seen today
Greenpeace has a long history of collaborating with photographers to document China’s energy story—from coal pollution to community solutions. This year’s exhibition marks a new chapter: a nation in the midst of the world’s largest clean energy transition.
“We want to show the world that China’s energy future is not just about heavy industry or government megaprojects,” says Zhang Kai, Deputy Program Director of Greenpeace East Asia. “It’s also about landscapes, communities, and people’s everyday lives.”
Chu plans to continue documenting the evolution of China’s energy transition — exploring new storage technologies, emerging landscapes, and the changing relationship between people and energy.
His lens doesn’t just capture infrastructure. It offers a glimpse of what a low-carbon future might look like—not decades from now, but already unfolding across China’s deserts, coasts, and villages today.
Qilin Liu is an International Communications Officer for Greenpeace East Asia, based in Beijing.
Protecting and restoring tropical forests—including the immense diversity of species and the carbon they store—is fundamental to addressing the biodiversity and climate crises, as well as ensuring a habitable planet for future generations.
The key lies in the hands of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPs & LCs), who have been the most effective protectors of ecosystems, curbing deforestation and recovering degraded areas. Direct access to financing has proven essential, as well as promoting a decolonised approach to conservation, along with the fundamental recognition of the rights of IPs & LCs.
In this report published during COP30, a selection of existing Indigenous and local communities-led Forest Solutions are presented, examples to be strengthened and multiplied:
