What We Carry Forward

This is part of our “Letters from Belém” series — reflections written from afar as the world gathers for COP30 in Brazil. Though we’re joining virtually, our hearts are with those working for climate justice across the globe.

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Dear World,

COP30 has wound down, and the banners have come off the walls. The microphones have turned off, and the delegates have caught their flights home. The news cycle is shifting to whatever shiny thing appears next. That is how these moments usually end.

But something more important is happening underneath the noise. The world is choosing what to carry forward.

Every summit leaves two legacies. The first is made of promises. It is the official record, the declarations, the carefully negotiated paragraphs that often bend under the weight of compromise. The second legacy is made of people. It is the communities who refuse to wait for policy to catch up. It is the movements that turn hope into strategy. It is the daily choices that keep our shared home alive.

We choose that second legacy.

We choose:

• Indigenous guardians who defend their forests with knowledge deeper than any climate model

• Women restoring coastlines, one seedling at a time

• Youth demanding a future shaped by justice, not by extraction

• Farmers replanting fields after storms that tore through months of labor

• Ocean defenders who remind us that the sea is not a backdrop

We also stand with the Peoples’ Summit, which called for ending extractivism, honoring climate debt, protecting defenders, and centering Mother Nature in decision making.

These are the real climate architects. Their plans do not fit neatly into one document, but they work. They have worked for centuries. They will continue to work long after the last COP hashtag fades.

From Belém to Bohol, the message is clear: hope is not a feeling. It is a practice we return to, again and again.

The work continues, and so do we.

With steady courage, ClimateHope.us