African women raise their voice ahead of COP27 and call for climate justice

Both ENDS is present at COP30 to advocate for genuine access to climate finance for locally led, gender-just climate solutions and the mechanisms that facilitate this, including those for farmer-led restoration. Furthermore, the organisation participates to ensure the crucial connection between the climate negotiations and the trade and investment frameworks that shape them.

Learn more about the Both ENDS team at COP30 below, and find all the activities and side-events in which Both ENDS will participate.

Both ENDS is present at COP30 to advocate for genuine access to climate finance for locally led, gender-just climate solutions, and for the mechanisms that make these possible, including those supporting farmer-led restoration. The organisation also engages to highlight the crucial connection between climate negotiations and the trade and investment frameworks that shape them.

Below is an overview of the Both ENDS team at COP30 and a detailed look at the activities and side-events in which Both ENDS will participate.

Recently, many newspapers have written about Brussels’ rush to finalize the trade agreement between the EU and the South American Mercosur countries. According to the European Commission, national parliaments do not need to approve it because the trade part and the “political” part have been separated. This “splitting” means that the trade part can be approved as an EU-only decision by the European Council and the European Parliament, while national parliaments are sidelined and the political-cooperation part is postponed. Both ENDS and its partners are deeply concerned and are calling on the Dutch government to vote against this outdated agreement.

Both ENDS warns that the current debate on “simplification” of EU environmental law must not become an excuse to weaken or postpone urgently needed safeguards. In earlier contributions to the drafting of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), Both ENDS relayed the voices of local and Indigenous forest-dependent peoples, who consistently urged the EU to take responsibility for the massive deforestation linked to European imports. They underlined how this deforestation destroys biodiversity, undermines climate stability, and erodes their rights, livelihoods and cultures.

The Women Environmental Programme Burkina Faso (WEP BF or WEP) is leading the way in gender-just climate solutions, putting the power of advocacy directly into the hands of women farmers. “In Burkina Faso, women play a crucial role in food production and natural resource management, yet they continue to face systemic barriers to land ownership,” explains a WEP team member. “Despite legal provisions, deeply ingrained customary norms remain dominant, restricting women’s access to land as user rights only, which need to be mediated through male family members.” Without secure access to land, they face significant obstacles in sustaining their agricultural activities, improving local food security, and fully participating in their communities.

In the face of environmental transphobia, a form of discrimination where trans and gender-diverse communities are disproportionately impacted by environmental degradation,excluded from climate policies, and often met with stigma and exclusion by environmental justice movements, Grupo Orgulho, Liberdade e Dignidade (GOLD) has emerged as a bold and visionary force for change in Brazil. At the heart of this movement is Débora Sabará ,GOLD’s leader, a travesti activist who has fought tirelessly to place the perspectives andneeds of LGBTIQAPN+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex, Queer, Asexual, Pansexual, Nonbinary and other identities), Indigenous and Afro-Brazilian communities at the center of environmental justice conversations.

Across Mozambique, land represents more than just territory. It is the cornerstone of livelihoods, culture, and autonomy for many communities. When companies arrive, claiming large portions for mining, oil exploration or agribusiness, residents face significant challenges in asserting their rights. Mozambique’s Land Law (1997) grants communities user rights, ensuring they can occupy and use land for subsistence and cultural purposes.

This FCDO-supported project, part of the GAGGA programme, brought together 6 women-led community-based organisations from around the world to explore how they navigate the combined challenges of climate change, gender inequality, and conflict. Through a Feminist Participatory Action Research approach, the organisations documented strategies ranging from land rights advocacy to climate-resilient agriculture, highlighting how extractive industries, militarisation, and patriarchal systems drive exclusion and insecurity. Their findings are now informing donors and policymakers on the need to support grassroots women’s leadership. In the following interview, the project lead shares more about the research, key insights, and its broader impact.

Following Both ENDS & Kebekatche Women Development & Research Centre participation in Shell’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) and a formal follow-up in writing, the response received from Shell plc raises more questions than it answers.