Interview: Both ENDS at COP30 for Climate Justice and Systemic Change

Fernando Hernandez: I’m going to COP30 as Both ENDS’ trade and investment policy lead, to connect climate negotiations with the urgent need to transform the economic frameworks that shape them. Over the past year, I helped convene the Entebbe and Accra processes, where civil society movements from Africa, Latin America and beyond called for investment rules that work for people and the planet. At COP30, in the heart of the Amazon, I want to ensure that those perspectives are heard — that we move from words to action, from abstract climate pledges to locally led, gender-just and rights-based solutions.

Daan Robben: I’m going to COP30 as part of GAGGA’s global call to advance gender-just climate action. Together with GAGGA, Both ENDS will organise five key side-events, hold in-person exchanges with key policymakers, and facilitate a delegation of GAGGA partners from all continents. I’ll also push for more attention to agroecology and locally led adaptation throughout the negotiations, while ensuring that Both ENDS partners have space to voice their demands. I’m also very keen to join the People’s COP and the large mobilisation of civil society around the official proceedings.

Yordanos Mulder: I’m going to COP30 as part of the Communities Regreen the Sahel Alliance. Through this programme, local organisations and farmers are restoring their lands, improving food security, and strengthening resilience in the face of climate change. Their work shows that locally led restoration delivers real and lasting impact when communities are in the lead. At COP30, together with our partners, I’ll advocate for an enabling environment for these types of initiatives to grow, and connect with others to strengthen a broader regional movement capable of meeting the scale of the climate challenges ahead.

Fernando Hernandez: My main message to negotiators is that we cannot achieve climate justice within economic structures designed for extraction and inequality. Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) and similar investment regimes still allow corporations to challenge environmental and climate regulations, draining public budgets and discouraging transition policies. Unless we address these structural barriers, every discussion on climate finance or just transition will remain superficial.

We need a new generation of investment and trade frameworks that dismantle corporate impunity, restore democratic control over public policy, and channel resources to women’s, Indigenous, and community-led initiatives. Only by transforming the underlying rules of the economy can climate ambition truly serve justice.

Daan Robben: Together with GAGGA, Both ENDS brings four key messages to COP30: to elevate the leadership and impact of grassroots feminist and environmental justice movements driving climate justice on the ground; to expose and challenge false climate solutions that violate human rights; to redirect resources toward gender-just, community-led action; and to amplify the voices of our frontline partners, recognising that no solution is just without their leadership.

I also believe that in the Adaptation and Climate Finance negotiations, much more attention should be given to agroecology. Negotiations do not occur on paper or in a vacuum; they are about people, planet, and justice. I want to hold negotiators accountable to make decisions that actually support those most in need — with solutions where these same people are in the lead.

Yordanos Mulder: As part of the Communities Regreen the Sahel Alliance, my key message is that it’s time to truly unlock the enabling environment needed to support and scale locally led climate solutions — such as community-led restoration. This means ensuring that climate finance mechanisms are genuinely accessible to local organisations, and that policies actively support their work — through concrete implementation of adaptation goals and a strong commitment to agroecology for climate-resilient food systems.

Fernando Hernandez, Daan Robben and Yordanos Mulder: A positive outcome of COP30 would show that governments are ready to act on structural transformation. It would include a clear political signal to phase out ISDS and other mechanisms that privilege investors over communities, and a roadmap to align investment and trade frameworks with the Paris Agreement.

It would also mean renewed commitments to fund locally led and gender-just climate solutions directly, recognising them as central to adaptation, restoration, and resilience. In short, success in Belém would mean moving beyond pledges toward an economic system that values care, cooperation, and ecological balance over extraction and profit.

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