As COP30 entered its final hours, climate justice groups and frontline leaders on Thursday, November 20, 2025, staged an action inside the Blue Zone to call attention to the widening climate ambition, finance, and justice gaps blocking real climate progress.
Thursday’s action responded directly to concerns raised in civil society analysis – including an assessment of the COP30 Presidency’s latest draft – which warns that the current text still lacks: A strong commitment for a “transition away from fossil fuels” roadmap towards a fast, fair and funded phase-out of fossil fuels, the primary driver of the crisis, as well as adequate and accessible climate finance – COP30 must deliver real ambition, real finance and a real fossil-fuel phase-out – not symbolic gestures.
The action titled “Mind the Gap-ybara” brought together 100 stuffed capybaras, capybara headpieces, banners and signs such as “Capybaras for a Fossil-Free Future”, “No oil in capybara land” and “Capybaras want rivers, not pipelines.”
Short statements were delivered by spokespeople from the Pacific, Africa and the global climate movement, highlighting the urgency of closing these gaps before the COP ends.
Johan Rockstrom, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK): “The global curve of GHG emissions needs to bend next year, 2026, not at some undefined point in the future. We need to begin reducing CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels now, by at least 5% per year. This means getting as close as possible to absolute zero fossil fuel emissions by 2040 – and no later than 2045.
“It requires no new fossil fuel investments, the removal of all fossil fuel subsidies, and a global plan to phase in renewable and low-carbon energy sources in a just way while rapidly phasing out fossil fuels. Finance from rich countries to developing countries is imperative.”
Brianna Fruean, 350.org Pacific Council Elder: “This gap in ambition and action cannot be ignored. Our Pacific people are fighting tooth and nail to keep the world below 1.5 degrees and our islands above water. Why must we constantly be the bridge between the world and survival? Our elders deserve to rest and our young people deserve to thrive free from the climate crisis.”
Samuel Okulony, Director of the Environment Governance Institute (EGI) Uganda and an activist with the StopEACOP campaign: “I come from Uganda, a country on the frontlines of the climate crisis, where its impacts are part of daily life. For us, a fossil fuel phase-out is not a bargaining chip – it is the only just and central outcome we expect from this COP. I speak with the voices of thousands of frontline communities, Indigenous peoples, youth, and women who refuse to be ignored any longer. If this is truly the COP of truth, then it’s time to be honest about who caused the climate crisis and to finally put an end to fossil fuels.”
Savio Carvalho, Managing Director of Campaigns Networks, 350.org: “The Presidency’s draft text still doesn’t respond to the urgency outside these negotiating rooms. Without a strong mandate for a fast, fair and funded pathway to phase out fossil fuels, COP30 risks becoming yet another missed opportunity. People across the Amazon, the Pacific and Africa are sounding the alarm, and today’s action made that impossible to ignore. Governments must close the ambition, finance and justice gaps, because without them, there is no credible transition and no climate safety for anyone.”
Carolina Marçal, Project Coordinator at ClimaInfo Institute: “It is urgent that COP30 deliver a roadmap for the just and equitable phase-out of fossil fuels – the only real solution to contain the climate crisis. In the face of limited progress and growing distrust in multilateralism, Brazil must show leadership and rise to the level of the climate emergency. Clear, binding commitments are essential.”
