COP 30: A marketplace where capitalists pretend to be “sustainable”

A socialist response to the climate crisis demands the expropriation of resources for the benefit of the working class.

COP 30 is taking place at a time when the climate collapse is accelerating. Science shows us that we are facing a catastrophe of civilizational proportions; that is, a disaster capable of disintegrating society, annihilating productive forces, and generating an unprecedented historical regression.

In the last 30 years, all COPs or environmental conferences have failed, and the biggest example of this is that greenhouse gas emissions have not stopped growing, reaching record levels. The Paris Agreement (COP 21, 2015) emerged with the goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C, requiring a 40% reduction in emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2050. However, this agreement has never been fulfilled and, currently, the U.S. withdrawal under Trump and the lack of concrete actions from all countries maintain the scenario of failure.

The capitalist hypocrisy became explicit in the last two “oil COPs”, held in Dubai and Azerbaijan. These conferences turned out to be true marketplaces for oil and mining companies, absurdly including companies like Braskem – responsible for the disaster in Maceió – and Vale – responsiblwe for the crimes in Mariana and Brumadinho -, which engaged in intense green marketing (greenwashing) to mask environmental destruction.

The failure of the COPs shows that capitalism is incapable of solving the climate crisis. We need a class-based and socialist program, uniting urban workers, indigenous people, quilombolas, and peasants – the true defenders of the environment. The struggle must be for the end of fossil fuels and for an energy transition controlled by workers and communities. The climate agenda must be brought into unions and social movements, as the working class suffers from this environmental catastrophe. An international socialist revolution is necessary to expropriate the bourgeoisie and overcome private property.

Below, we present some points to serve as a basis for a socialist program to confront the environmental catastrophe. It is a proposal that should  be expanded and discussed with all those  who wish to participate and collaborate on a program that surpasses capitalism.

A Revolutionary and Socialist Program to Face the Environmental Catastrophe in Brazil

1. End the use of fossil fuels, energy transition under workers’ control

• Immediate reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the end of fossil fuels.
• No new oil frontiers—like the Equatorial Margin—nor new thermoelectric plants!
• Expropriation without compensation of all energy companies and energy resources, placing them under workers’ control.
• 100% state-owned Petrobras under the control of workers, re-nationalization of Eletrobras and the privatized renewable energy companies.
• Development of a democratic energy transition plan controlled by workers and communities, based on renewable energies.

2. Break with agribusiness and predatory mining

• Expropriation without compensation of agribusiness, large mining, and all polluting and destructive companies of the biomes.
• End of public credits and state subsidies to agribusiness.
• No to hydropower and the paving of BR-319, which pushes the Amazon to collapse!
• Recovery of deforested areas and devastated biomes by agribusiness.
• Radical land reform, with expropriation of large estates, technical and financial support to small producers, and transition to a popular, agroecological agriculture free of pesticides, focused on the food sovereignty of the people.

3. Defense of peoples and territories and the end of the latifundio system

• Radical land reform that eradicates large-scale latifundio farming
• Immediate reparation and demarcation of indigenous lands, titling of quilombola territories and protection of traditional communities.
• Recognition and reparation of populations affected by environmental crimes.
• Guarantee of the right to self-defense for all communities and activists fighting for environmental protection, in the face of the bosses and state violence.

4. De-commodify water and common goods

• Water is not a commodity!
• Re-nationalization without compensation of privatized public water and sanitation companies.
• End of projects that privatize aquifers and water resources in favor of large corporations.
• Against the installation of data centers that consume energy and water on a large scale, worsening the water and energy crisis.

5. Against the “financialization” of nature

• Total rejection of carbon credits and other “green compensation” mechanisms that turn ecosystems into financial assets and expel communities from their territories.
• No agreement with speculative “green” capital: nature is not a business, it is the basis of life.

6. Ecological and Socialist Urban Planning

• Develop a popular climate change adaptation plan, with public investment in infrastructure and disaster prevention.
• Combat wildfires, landslides, floods, and supply crises, with coordinated work among communities, scientists, and workers.
• A green revolution in cities: ecological urban planning, free and quality public transport, expansion of green areas and dignified housing for the working class.

7. Against planned obsolescence and for social control of production

• Prohibition of planned obsolescence in all sectors of industry, with worker and popular control over production.
• Plan for ecological reindustrialization for durable and recyclable products, reducing resource use.

• Guaranteed right to repair, with free access to manuals, combating technological monopolies..
• Research and innovation under collective public control, focused on material efficiency, reducing the consumption of natural resources, and increasing the durability of products.