Brazil‘s COP30 presidency has discussed the development of a global framework to realise the ‘Climate Mutirão’ initiative, which will seek to build a ‘chain of mobilisation’ and turn climate commitments into action.
The presidency made the announcement at an event during Panama Climate Week, which took place last week, following on from André Corrêa do Lago, Brazil’s COP30 president, introducing the concept of the ‘Global Mutirão’ in a recent letter.
‘Common objective’
“The Mutirão concept [has] gained traction,” commented Ana Toni, CEO of COP30. “People understand the concept — it’s collective action with a common objective. We know that climate action can’t be something we only think about for two weeks a year. It’s something we do every day by choosing what kind of transportation to use and what kind of consumer, voter, or energy user we are. Everyone can participate in the Mutirão daily, each with different responsibilities.”
At the event at Panama Climate Week, which was hosted by the UNFCCC and the Panamanian government, the COP30 presidency welcomed international civil society organisations into the Mutirão effort.
Tulio Andrade, head of strategy and alignment for COP30 Brasil, which this year takes place in Belém, described the Mutirão as an opportunity to create a mobilisation chain and connect global actions.
“The Mutirão unites us as human beings — it’s about cooperation, collaboration, prosperity, and community,” he said. “More than bringing an Indigenous and Brazilian perspective to climate action, it brings us together.”
Collective action
Elsewhere at the event, Lenon Medeiros, director of Visão Coop, shared a local success story from Queimados in Rio de Janeiro, where collective action helped to address a decade-long flooding problem, noting that many communities already have the solutions to address climate-related problems – they just need the support mechanisms to be able to scale them.
“We need to be empowered with resources and connected to people able to help this network of initiatives transfer these inventions to different types of ecosystems in various social contexts,” he noted.
The development of the COP30 Mutirão initiative has been shaped by a range of global thought leaders, including Irene Suárez Pérez, senior advisor at Global Optimism, Antonia Gawel, global director of sustainability and partnerships at Google; Sam Shang, Postdoctoral researcher in applied complexity at the Santa Fe Institute; Paulo Durrant, Deputy Head of the Breakthrough Agenda; Shankar Maruwada, CEO of EkStep Foundation; Fabro Steibel, Executive Director of ITS Rio; Iñaki Goñi, of ISWE Foundation; and others. Read more here.
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