“Current climate agenda is nothing short of disastrous as false solutions are promoted as climate mitigation tools” – warns Via Campesina
LVC Statement – COP 29
Baku, 21 November 2024 | As COP29 unfolds in Azerbaijan, the world faces a defining moment in the climate struggle, with global temperatures shattering records, increasingly severe and frequent extreme weather events, the looming risk of surpassing the 1.5°C warming threshold, and profound economic and social repercussions.
Over the past decade, powerful neoliberal governments, transnational agribusinesses, and multinational corporations have been pushing market-based and technology-driven solutions, falsely presented as the only way to save humanity. These solutions, cloaked in the rhetoric of a ‘green economy’, continue to perpetrate a capitalist-colonial-patriarchal vision that seeks to exploit the planet and its peoples for profit, commodifying nature and deepening social injustices. At the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), these forces—bolstered by the Paris Agreement—have sought to evade responsibility for the ecological destruction they have caused, while enabling further exploitation.Therefore, the UNFCCC, has increasingly become a space dominated by corporate interests and the Global North, which are more focused on protecting their own economic interests than on pursuing real solutions. They are burning down our house and no one else is coming for us, but ourselves. Solo el Pueblo salva al Pueblo, only the People saves the People that is why we maintain our commitment with discipline, militancy, rigor and unity
For La Vía Campesina and the communities we represent—peasants, rural workers, agrarian organizers, traditional rural and coastal communities, Indigenous peoples, and all defenders of Mother Earth—the current climate agenda is nothing short of disastrous. False solutions, including carbon markets, offset schemes, genetically engineered crops, geoengineering megaprojects, ‘Climate-Smart Agriculture,’ and ‘Nature-Based Solutions,’ are promoted as climate mitigation tools but fail to address the root causes of the crisis. These approaches reinforce an imperialist development agenda, deepening colonialism, patriarchy, and environmental degradation. Consequently, they fuel land grabs, human rights violations, and the erosion of cultural, ancestral, and territorial rights, threatening the very existence and culture of Indigenous Peoples, traditional communities, and peasants. All of these false solutions are a reflection of the devastating impact of capitalism; an economic model that extracts from Mother Nature as if there were no limits and exploits every form of life.
As emphasized in La Via Campesina’s Position on the Conference of the Parties (COP 16) of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and all COP’s that have preceded, our communities lead the way in agroecological peasant agriculture, defending peasants’ rights, and advocating for food sovereignty, biodiversity preservation, and genuine climate restoration initiatives.
We are in COP 29 to study, organize, strategize, agitate, mobilize, and practice international solidarity with the people’s of the world. We continue to this with discipline, rigor, militancy and unity. We promote and practice Agroecology as sustainable agrifood system that is capable of producing healthy food in harmony with Mother Earth for all the people, as a science rooted in ancestral and people’s knowledge, as a social movement where we organize collectively with discipline in the diversity that recognizes us, and as a way of life where we make sure we are grounded in principles and values that respect Nature’s ways and laws. We practice this real systemic solutions on a daily basis producing 70 percent of the food worldwide in approximately 30 percent of the available arable land. We fulfill the sacred responsibility of feeding the world, sustaining life while we continue to defend and steward and defend the natural commons. Women farmers are at the heart of this struggle. They are the backbone of small-scale agriculture, responsible for up to 80% of the food we consume and representing around 43% of the agricultural workforce. They are the guardians of seeds and the keepers of ancestral knowledge that nurtures the Earth.
We resist the industrial agrifood system, extractivist models, and corporate “greenwashing” schemes that commodify nature, erode traditional knowledge, and exacerbate the climate crisis and biodiversity loss. We call for systemic and structural transformation: equitable policies that recognize the rights of frontline climate communities, reparations for those impacted by climate damage, and the creation of funds to support and implement a just transition to agroecological production and low-carbon economies rooted in social and climate justice. Furthermore, ambitious policies on land reform and the protection of the rights of peasants and Indigenous peoples over their lands, waters, and territories are essential to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions while addressing the basic needs of populations, including the right to food. In this context, convening a new conference on land reform and rural development (ICARRD+20) is crucial for tackling the climate crisis. Finally, strengthening the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants in climate governance is vital for the effective implementation of environmental and climate policies. Small-scale farmers, especially women, play a crucial role in cooling the planet. It is essential to uphold their rights so they can undergo a just transition and continue applying agroecological practices that sustain life and mitigate climate change. The knowledge and wisdom of women farmers and the agro-ecosystem experience of small-scale farmers are the solution to the climate crisis. Their collective experience and commitment are what the world needs to reverse the damage done by industrial agriculture and environmental exploitation.
At COP29, we reaffirm our commitment to this vision. While the UNFCCC and its associated bodies remain largely captured by corporate interests, our movement continues to expose the limitations and injustices of the current climate framework.To address the climate crisis in a meaningful way, there must be a radical shift in how global climate politics are organized. This means dismantling the corporate control of the climate agenda and ensuring that the voices of Indigenous Peoples, small-scale farmers, and other marginalized communities are heard and respected. Climate justice cannot be achieved without confronting the economic structures that enable the extraction of wealth from the Global South and the destruction of the planet. A just transition requires systemic transformation that goes at the root of the problem while centering the rights of people and the planet over profit and market interests.
We remain united in the struggle for reparations for the climate and ecological debt, for meaningful actions to reduce emissions, for justice-based adaptation, and for a radical shift toward solutions that do not mortgage life to the market or technology. However, it is important to highlight that peasant agriculture develops and adopts technologies that are presented as viable alternatives to those used by capitalist agriculture, such as Agroforestry Systems, native seeds, and biofertilizers. Additionally, these systems are sustainable, contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and promoting the capture of these gases. It is also essential to emphasize that the structural problem of climate change is intrinsically linked to the capitalist mode of production.
The climate crisis is rooted in historical injustice, with Global North countries responsible for the majority of emissions since the 1850s. They evade their obligations under the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR) and continue to deny calls for reparations. This includes unfulfilled climate finance promises, failed carbon offset systems, and exploitative Debt-for-Nature deals. We demand grants, not loans, managed by local communities to fund a just transition based on food sovereignty, and a sustainable future that addresses the root causes of climate change.
As La Via Campesina and other grassroots organizations continue to affirm, food sovereignty, agroecology, and peasant rights are not only key to addressing the climate crisis but are also essential to rebuilding the social and ecological fabric of the world. By investing in the knowledge and practices of local communities, we can create a world where people and nature thrive together, rather than one driven by profit and exploitation. The fight for climate justice is inseparable from the struggle for food sovereignty, and it is through these interconnected movements that real solutions to the crises we face can be found.
The fossil fuel economy keeps fueling the genocide happening in Palestine and other places of the world. We maintain our daily actions in solidarity with all of the people that have lost their lives in this struggle. We read out loud all of the names of the thousands of Martyrs that have died because of this brutal genocide held by Israel and we will not rest until liberation, justice and peace is reached in Palestine.
Together with women, youth, men, elders, and gender-diverse people within farmers, peasants, Indigenous Peoples, rural workers, pastoralists, and coastal communities, we are cooling the planet through Food Sovereignty and Agroecology making sure that agriculture and food stays in the hands of the people and not in the hands of greedy multinational corporations and agribusiness. However, we need to scale this movement to halt the climate and environmental crises. The same forces that caused the crisis cannot be trusted to solve it! We demand that grassroots voices lead the way toward true justice and systemic transformation. Our fight is for a future that heals and cools the planet through agroecology and the power of the people!