Belém, Brazil — The African Coalition of Communities Responsive to Climate Change (ACCRCC) has joined global civil society groups in issuing a sharp warning over what they describe as the escalating corporate capture of the United Nations climate negotiations. Speaking at a high-profile side event during COP30, activists, community leaders, and human rights advocates condemned the growing influence of fossil fuel giants, financial institutions, and carbon market players within climate decision-making spaces.
The meeting—also attended by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change, Prof. Elisa Morgera—painted a troubling picture of climate negotiations increasingly shaped by corporate interests at the expense of vulnerable communities.
Speakers argued that corporate-led climate solutions have repeatedly failed, instead deepening inequalities and neglecting the historical injustices that underpin the climate crisis.
“We are witnessing the hijacking of climate negotiations by the same corporate actors responsible for the crisis,” said Patricia Wattimena, Coordinator of the Environment and ESCR Working Group. “Carbon markets and so-called ‘nature-based’ solutions are colonial scams—extractive systems dressed in green language. It’s time to reclaim our narratives and put communities at the center.”
Her remarks echoed broader frustration that fossil fuel lobbyists and carbon market actors continue to gain unfettered access to climate talks, even as frontline communities suffer worsening floods, droughts, and displacement.
Prof. Morgera stressed that any genuine climate action must be firmly grounded in human rights. She urged wealthier nations to support community-led initiatives and insisted that fossil fuel companies must pay for the closure and clean-up of industrial sites, compensate affected communities, and invest meaningfully in loss and damage.
ACCRCC officials emphasized that Africa’s grassroots communities—though least responsible for the climate crisis—continue to bear its heaviest burden.
“African communities have the solutions,” said Henry Neondo, Policy Advocacy and Influencing Advisor at ACCRCC. “Agroecology, local energy innovations, and traditional conservation systems are proven pathways to sustainability. But they are being sidelined while corporations dominate the agenda. We call for a conflict-of-interest policy to keep polluters out of negotiations.”
Neondo’s sentiments were reinforced by speakers from Latin America and the Asia Pacific region, who highlighted the urgent need for accountability, reparations, feminist climate approaches, and a reallocation of global resources—from militarization to climate justice.
The event culminated in the launch of a Pledge for Human Rights-Based Climate Action, co-developed with the Brazilian Special Envoy on Just Transition and Human Rights. The pledge aims to unite movements across continents, elevate local knowledge systems, and funnel resources into community-driven solutions.
Dr. Rosalid Nkirote, Executive Director of the ACCRCC, issued a passionate appeal to COP30 delegates to resist corporate pressure and place communities at the center of global climate policy.
“It is people who suffer mental anguish when they watch their homes, crops, livestock and livelihoods swept away by floods or wiped out by drought,” she said. “The path to climate justice begins where extractive power ends.”
As COP30 continues, civil society groups say the stakes have never been higher—warning that unless corporate interests are curbed, the world risks locking in another decade of failed climate commitments and deepening inequality.
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