Photo courtesy of Nupef
This article was originally published in Portuguese on the website of Brazil-based APC member organisation Nupef.
Nupef’s participation in COP30 marked a historic moment. For the first time, the organisation attended the Climate Conference as a UNFCCC observer organisation – an important step and a great responsibility. Being in the Amazon alongside Indigenous peoples, traditional communities, researchers, social movements, civil society organisations and representatives of states parties broadened understanding of how information technologies permeate bodies, territories and lifestyles.
From the very start of the conference, it became clear that technology and climate are inseparable. The inclusion of information integrity on the official agenda showed that debates on digital infrastructure, economic concentration and the political power of Big Tech have a direct impact on just transition, environmental protection and the sovereignty of peoples. As stated by Joara Marchezini, Nupef’s project coordinator, “There is a real space for coordinated action and pressure, which we had imagined before, but did not understand as deeply as we do now.”
With this understanding, Nupef’s participation throughout COP30 reinforced a central point: there is no climate justice without technological justice. This axis guided its involvement in panels, debates and activities, especially in the defence of environmental defenders. In different spaces, we reaffirmed the importance of ratifying the Escazú Agreement, which is essential in guaranteeing access to information, justice, public participation and protection against violence.
This perspective also guided Nupef’s contribution to the debate on “The Trap of Techno-Solutionism in the Climate Issue”. Oona Castro, director of institutional development at Nupef, warned that digital solutions are only effective when built with and based on communities: “Technologies can support responses to crises, but big tech companies have generated pressures and severe impacts, especially on Indigenous communities and lands.”
Through dialogue with different leaders, there is a clear understanding that technological expansion must take spirituality, culture and life into account – dimensions that are often rendered invisible in infrastructure projects. Chief Roberto Ytaysaba Anacé recalled that “when a data centre is installed in the Atacama Desert, there is life, presence and spirituality there,” highlighting the importance of a territory-sensitive approach. Maria Ednalva Ribeiro, vice-coordinator of the Movimento Interestadual das Quebradeiras de Coco Babaçu (MIQCB), reinforced that addressing climate change requires listening to and respecting Indigenous and Quilombola territories.
For Nupef project advisor Carol Magalhães, closely following the discussions led by traditional peoples and communities was a major learning experience: “The People’s Summit ahead of COP30 showed the strength of civil society, while the COP in the Amazon highlighted the clash between those who defend the responsible use of natural resources and those who exploit them in the name of ‘development’. Being in this space, where such different interests meet, was a formative experience.”
The power of community communication also emerged as a key element in the discussions in which Nupef took part. For the Rede de Agroecologia do Maranhão, for example, communication is a “tool for liberation and empowerment” – showing that technologies can strengthen territorial struggles when placed at the service of communities. Along the same lines, Ianny Borari, from the Escola de Ativismo, emphasised the need for a critical stance toward digital infrastructures: “You can use Starlink – but why not think about a layer of protection for it? There is harsh and ongoing exploitation in these territories, the result of a colonialism that never ended.”
These reflections directly resonate with the warning issued by Isadora Amaral from Luminate, for whom breaking with the idea that the Big Tech model is inevitable is fundamental: “Criticism is not enough – technological alternatives that build rights need to be validated.” Similarly, Débora Maria Carvalho from Transparency International recalled that Indigenous protection, technology governance and the advance of neoliberalism need to be discussed in an intersectional manner, with gender, race and class at the centre. On territorial dynamics in times of climate crisis, Maite Gauto from Oxfam warned that disputes related to energy transition, oil exploration and major infrastructure projects tend to intensify tensions with communities that are defending their ways of life.
Action in an urban space: a woman dances in a colourful skirt in front of demonstrators holding a banner reading “Amazon, we are all affected”
The COP30 People’s March brought together thousands of people on the streets of Belém
For Oona Castro, an important lesson that Nupef takes from COP30 is the certainty that “the organisation will need to study the issue of climate adaptation in depth in order to contribute more and better with our knowledge of communication infrastructures used by traditional peoples and communities.” She added: “It was very important to see how participation went far beyond the formal negotiations and to understand that this presence is part of the historical process for the inclusion of new themes and perspectives, including in global agreements.”
Nupef remains committed to a digital transformation that serves life, respects time, bodies and cosmologies, and strengthens the autonomy and sovereignty of populations.