We find ourselves at a historic turning point. The serious climate crisis we face is not an accident or a natural disaster, but the direct consequence of a predatory capitalist system that prioritises profit and war over life. Governments continue to make empty promises and offer false solutions. The 30th Conference of the Parties (COP) in Belém is marked by this contradiction between urgency and inaction, as well as by high expectations regarding the role of indigenous peoples at this event.

In this roundtable discussion, we seek to reflect on how different social movements and organisations in Latin America are positioning themselves in this context in order to bring about real and profound change, led by the peoples of their territories.

To this end, we are joined by four people involved in these struggles as activists and engaged researchers: Martin Vilea, member of the Latin American and Caribbean Platform for Climate Justice (PLACJC) and the Bolivian Platform on Climate Change; Flávio Leonel Abreu da Silveira, Professor at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), Department of Anthropology and Arthur Napoleão Figueiredo Anthropology Laboratory - LAANF; Victória Ester Tavares da Costa, Postgraduate student at UFPA Postgraduate Programme in Sociology and Anthropology (PPGSA); and Matilde Ventura, from the School Strike for Climate.