Protest on Varied Fronts Marks Halfway Point of Climate Talks

Some wore black dresses to signify a funeral for fossil fuels. Hundreds wore red shirts, symbolizing the blood of colleagues fighting to protect the environment. And others chanted, waved huge flags or held up signs Saturday in Brazil on what's historically the biggest day of protest at the halfway point of annual United Nations climate talks. Organizers with booming sound systems on trucks with raised platforms directed protesters from a wide range of environmental and social movements. Marisol Garcia, a Kichwa woman from Peru marching at the head of one group, said protesters are there to put pressure on world leaders to make "more humanized decisions," the AP reports.

The demonstrators walked about 2.5 miles on a route that took them near the main venue for the talks at COP30. Protesters earlier this week twice disrupted the talks by surrounding the venue, including an incident Tuesday in which two security guards suffered minor injuries. A full day of sessions was planned at the venue, including talks on how to move forward with $300 billion a year in annual climate financial aid that rich countries agreed last year to give to poor nations to help wean themselves off fossil fuels, adapt to a nastier, warmer world and compensate for extreme weather damage. Many of the protesters reveled in the freedom to demonstrate more openly than at recent climate talks held in more authoritarian countries, including Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt.

Youth leader Ana Heloisa Alves, 27, said it was the biggest climate march she has been part of. "This is incredible," she said. "You can't ignore all these people." Alves was at the march to fight for the Tapajos River, which the Brazilian government wants to develop commercially. Pablo Neri, coordinator in the Brazilian state of Para for the Movimento dos Trabajadores Rurais Sem Terra, an organization for rural workers, said organizers of the talks should involve more people to reflect a climate movement that is shifting toward popular participation. The Trump administration did not send a delegation to the talks.