The Belém Declaration on Hunger, Poverty, and People-Centered Climate Action formed the thematic centerpiece of the High-Level Ministerial Event “Combating Hunger and Poverty for Climate Justice” at COP30, convened on the opening day of the conference. Endorsed by 44 nations, the declaration asserts that the adverse impacts of climate change are already disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations, threatening to reverse decades of developmental progress and deepening global inequality.
Declaration Outcomes: Commitments and Review Mechanisms
The Belém Declaration establishes three core commitments:
- Strengthen social protection as a foundational pillar for climate resilience.
- Support small-scale food producers, ensuring their viability and equity within the agrifood value chain.
- Promote just transitions for communities embedded in forest and environmentally sensitive ecosystems, safeguarding livelihoods and local economic structures.
A progress review is scheduled for 2030, coupled with calls for enhanced international cooperation and a harmonized climate financing architecture to support accelerated, coherent country-level action. As Minister Wellington Dias stated, the Declaration signals an imperative for climate finance to tangibly reach the people and territories at greatest risk, urging international agencies, climate funds, and multilateral banks to play an active role in implementation and results monitoring.
Strategic Alignment: Climate Action and Social Development
The Declaration calls on signatory countries to maintain robust investment in climate mitigation alongside a clear prioritization of adaptation strategies. It recommends a people-centered approach, emphasizing social protection, crop insurance, and mechanisms designed to enhance community resilience. Climate finance, according to the document, should be strategically channeled into initiatives that create sustainable employment opportunities and livelihoods for family farmers, traditional communities, and forest peoples—actors critical to food security and agricultural diversity.
During the COP30 opening, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reiterated Brazil’s commitment to climate action through its integration with social development and inequality reduction policies, recognizing that global warming jeopardizes food security and could drive millions into poverty and hunger.
Addressing Climate Injustice: Structural Calls to Action
Organized by Brazil’s Ministry of Social Development and Assistance in partnership with the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, the ministerial event highlighted climate injustice as a multidimensional crisis—human, economic, social, and unequal. Minister Wellington Dias underscored that combating hunger and poverty must be central to climate justice workflows, acknowledging family farming as a backbone of food systems and biodiversity.
Minister of Environment and Climate Change Marina Silva reinforced the criticality of inclusive social protection frameworks and targeted support for small-scale producers and family farmers, advocating for the opening of new markets and the rechanneling of financial flows toward developing economies.
Equity, Dignity, and Global Responsibility
Reflecting on the Declaration, Germany’s Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Reem Alabali-Radovan, emphasized the fundamentally unequal impacts of climate change. She stressed that the most vulnerable are those who have contributed least to climate disruption, reinforcing international climate protection as a matter of justice, equality, and human dignity—integral to both environmental stewardship and sustainable development.
