Colombian President Gustavo Petro speaks at the COP30 Climate Summit in Belém, Brazil, November 6, 2025. Photo: COP30.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro opened his remarks at Conference on Climate Change 30 (COP30) by criticizing what he called a “collective failure of humanity” to counteract the climate crisis. At the summit, being held in Belém, Brazil, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, the president decried that after nearly three decades of international summits, “the greed of the oil, coal, and gas lobbies has gone against life.”
“After 29 COPs and thousands of speeches, we are facing failure. Science measures it in degrees of temperature and the laws of thermodynamics. The greed of large energy corporations has been immoral and inhumane,” Petro said in his speech on Thursday, November 6.
He warned that the planet has already exceeded the 1.5°C temperature rise threshold, a limit considered critical by the scientific community, and cautioned that humanity is entering a phase of “climate collapse.”
According to him, the world went from talking about climate change to talking about a crisis, and now about a “point of no return” that could mean “the general death of existence on the planet. It is not a literary apocalypse. It is a real apocalypse.”
🇧🇷🌎 | Palabras del Presidente @petrogustavo en la apertura de la Plenaria de la COP30 Amazonía:
1️⃣ Ausencia de EE. UU. y negación de la ciencia. El mandatario cuestionó la ausencia de Donald Trump y su postura frente a la crisis climática, advirtiendo que sin descarbonización… pic.twitter.com/ebxycazrNg
— Presidencia Colombia 🇨🇴 (@infopresidencia) November 6, 2025
The Colombian president accused US President Donald Trump of denying climate science and being “against humanity. Mr Trump is wrong. If the United States does not move toward decarbonization, it is 100% wrong. By not coming here, he proves it: Trump is against humanity.”
Petro also questioned Europe, which he said was “wrong” to allocate ever increasing resources to the military industry instead of funding the energy transition. “Europe cannot continue to view Russia as its enemy. Its real enemy is the death of its own grandchildren from climate collapse,” he said.
In one of the harshest passages of his speech, Petro condemned “a new wave of threats of invasion” by Western powers.
He mentioned the cases of Gaza, Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil, pointing out that even the Colombian territorial waters of the Caribbean have been targeted by missiles launched by the US under the pretext of combating drug trafficking. “The same missiles that are falling on the children of Gaza today are falling on poor young people in the Colombian Caribbean. These are extrajudicial executions that violate international humanitarian law,” he criticized.
Petro accused Washington and certain European governments of using anti-immigration rhetoric and the “war on drugs” with policies “in the style of the Nazis,” aimed at winning votes while evading climate action.
He insisted that humanity needs to build an economy without oil, gas, or coal, and that the time to do so is growing ever shorter. Global progressivism must be clear that we cannot depend on fossil fuels. Fossil progressivism is false progressivism. Our banner must be life,” he said.
He proposed a $500 billion global investment agreement to harness Latin America and the Caribbean’s clean energy potential, especially in solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower sectors. “With $500 billion, we can generate 1,400 gigawatts of clean energy annually in Latin America and completely decarbonize the US energy mix,” he proposed.
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Petro called for the creation of an American electricity grid, from Patagonia to Alaska, interconnected with Africa, the Arab world, China, and Europe. “We can clean up the energy grid across the Americas, including the United States, without needing Trump for it,” he added.
He also announced an upcoming meeting in Santa Marta, Colombia, on November 9, with Latin American and European leaders to propose a global alliance for life.
Petro evoked the history of Santa Marta, the first city founded by the Spanish colonizers in South America, to symbolize the “reconciliation of civilizations.” “Five centuries later, we want to meet again without weapons. The dialogue of civilizations is human wisdom. The war between civilizations is barbarism,” he said.
The Colombian president highlighted the ecological interdependence of the Andes, the Amazon, and the Atlantic, and reiterated his commitment to reforest areas previously used for coca cultivation, turning them into living rainforest.
“This rainforest is the planet’s third climate pillar, a cathedral of global biodiversity. If the Andean foothills dry up, the Amazon will die, and with it humanity will die,” he warned.
Petro concluded his speech by stating that Latin America does not need the Global North’s “permission” to save lives, but rather human and solidarity-based alliances. “We do not need the North; we need humanity. We do not need Trump; we need agreements between peoples and civilizations,” he declared.
(Telesur)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/DZ
