Global Women Climate Leaders and Parliamentarians Demand Bold Action and Solutions On The Path to COP30

At a worldwide convening, women climate leaders call for immediate action to advance climate justice for a thriving future

CA, UNITED STATES, July 1, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Last week, as heat waves accelerated in countries around the world, over 125 climate justice leaders and experts from 50 countries gathered for the week-long forum, Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice: Path to COP30 and Beyond, organized by the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network. The Assembly took place ahead of COP30, where the international community will reckon with the waning support for climate action as climate impacts escalate and fossil fuel expansion continues, particularly in high-income countries.

Recordings of the Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice are available here. Please reach out to the media contact for recordings in Spanish, Portuguese, and French.

Throughout the week, parliamentarians, scientists, community leaders, and academics called for transformational shifts across sectors, including negotiating an end to fossil fuel expansion, implementing just transitions and well-being economies, ending deforestation, advancing the rights of nature, implementing feminist climate policies, and increasing women’s representation and leadership at all levels of decision-making.

Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland and Co-Founder of Project Dandelion stated, “It is central to going forward that we understand the importance of climate justice in tackling the climate and nature crisis; and that we have to have hope. And women leaders together bring that hope, because hope is action, and that’s what we are about.”

On the first day of the Assembly, more than 160 organizations from 45 countries released a global Call to Action, urging governments, financial institutions, and corporations to take effective and immediate climate action by enacting policies that match the scale of interlocking and accelerating climate and social crises.

Osprey Orielle Lake, WECAN Founder and Executive Director, stated, “As we discuss what lies ahead on the path to COP30 and beyond, this discussion is about more than ideas; it's about action—the kind of bold, collective action that builds power from the ground up, that holds governments and corporations accountable, and that insists on justice, not someday, but right now.”

At the opening of the gathering, Casey Camp-Horinek (Ponca Nation), Ponca Nation Environmental Ambassador and WECAN Board Member and Project Coordinator, stated, “This is a very very special time of change, of rebirthing the original instructions into a modern-day world.”

During the Assembly, speakers reflected on the path to COP30. They emphasized the need to uplift the leadership and lived experiences of women, especially those from grassroots, frontline, marginalized, and Indigenous communities, who are leading some of the most effective and scalable climate solutions today. On average, over 80,000 viewers a day joined the Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice across various digital platforms, with viewers reaching over 100,000 on multiple days of the Assembly.

Federal Deputy Célia Xakriabá (Xakriabá), representing the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil, and co-founder of the National Articulation of Indigenous Women Warriors of Ancestrality (ANMIGA) stated, “At this moment, as we approach COP, people are asking themselves what the alternative is to stop the climate crisis. There is no need to ask that question anymore. Financiers do not need to sit down and spend money to recognize the importance of direct financing for Indigenous territories. The UN already recognizes that it is the demarcation of Indigenous territories. It is one of the last solutions to stop the climate crisis.”

WECAN also released a new report, “How Local Community Power is Central to a Just Renewable Energy Transition,” highlighting effective, global community-led solutions to implement and address challenges to a worldwide Just Transition away from fossil fuels.

On advancing a just transition, Karabo Mokgonyana, Renewable Energy Campaigner for Power Shift Africa, stated, “A clean energy transition that leaves people behind is not just at all. A transition that deepens inequality, ignores local knowledge, or reproduces colonial, extractive, and patriarchal patterns is not regenerative. So when we say we want regenerative and just energy for all, we’re not just talking about switching to solar or wind, or adopting renewable technology, we are talking about shifting power.”

Tzeporah Berman, Chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, spoke on the effort by 800 parliamentarians to halt fossil fuel extraction across the globe, sharing, “Fossil fuels have been invisible for about 30 years in climate policy and climate negotiations. We know oil, gas, and coal are 86% of the emissions trapped in our atmosphere today, yet the power of the fossil fuel industry and their influence have really distorted the conversation. But, now, we have a proposal for a fossil fuel-free treaty, which is a companion to the Paris Agreement, to help manage the wind-down and stop the expansion of fossil fuels–not just in one place or two places, but everywhere.”

Speakers included notable youth leaders who called for bold climate finance and an end to fossil fuel extraction. Mitzi Jonelle Tan, Convenor for the Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines (YACAP), and a Global Coordinator of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, stated, “As we approach COP30, we need concrete, bold decisions and not just vague promises. We need a clear commitment to phase out fossil fuels, and this means ending all new exploration and extraction and ensuring a just transition away from these harmful industries. But just as important is the question of finance… Climate finance must be given as grants, unconditional, accessible funding that supports communities and countries in their transition to clean energy, resilience and recovery, so that includes funds for adaptation and funds for loss and damage. This funding must prioritize those most affected by the climate crisis because without justice and finance, we cannot achieve justice in climate action. COP30 must deliver on these demands, or it risks being yet another failure for those on the front lines.”

The Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International
www.wecaninternational.org - @WECAN_INTL

The Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International is a 501(c)3 and solutions-based organization established to engage women worldwide in policy advocacy, on-the-ground projects, trainings, and movement building for global climate justice.

Katherine Quaid
Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN)
press@wecaninternational.org
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