Ahead of COP31, taking place from November 9 to 20 in Antalya, Türkiye, Censat Agua Viva – Friends of the Earth Colombia presents seven key demands to advance a just energy transition, halt the expansion of extractive frontiers, and ensure that climate action upholds the rights of peoples and territories.
International climate negotiations continue to face a fundamental contradiction. While governments acknowledge the urgent need to reduce emissions, carbon offset mechanisms, investments in fossil fuels, and policies that deepen the extractive dependence of countries in the Global South remain firmly in place.
With more than 35 years of experience defending territories and advancing environmental justice, Censat Agua Viva comes to COP31 with a position statement outlining seven central demands.
- Review carbon markets and put an end to false offsets. We demand that carbon credits and certificates no longer serve as a means for polluting industries to avoid reducing their emissions or fulfilling their tax obligations. We call for effective oversight, environmental and social safeguards, and respect for community rights.
- Transform climate finance. We propose fiscal reforms that progressively eliminate fossil fuel subsidies and redirect public resources toward ecological restoration, productive transformation, and community-led energy initiatives, rather than prioritizing offset mechanisms.
- Recognize and repair ecological and climate debt. Industrialized countries must assume their historical responsibility through direct, public, and non-repayable financing. Peoples in the Global South must not continue accumulating debt to address a crisis for which they are not solely responsible.
- Halt mining expansion under the pretext of the energy transition. We demand that the growing demand for strategic minerals not be used to justify new forms of dispossession. The rights of peoples, ecosystem protection, and territorial autonomy must take precedence over the interests of global supply chains.
- Reject fossil gas as a transition fuel. Fossil gas makes a significant contribution to the climate crisis, including through methane emissions associated with its extraction, processing, and transportation. It is therefore urgent to halt the opening of new exploration and extraction frontiers, including offshore projects and unconventional hydrocarbon deposits, and prioritize alternatives that strengthen community-based energy management.
- Establish a binding roadmap to phase out fossil fuels. The transition requires clear targets and timelines to reduce fossil fuel production and consumption and halt the expansion of new extractive frontiers. It also requires sufficient international public financing that does not generate additional debt, monitoring mechanisms, and guarantees for workers’ transition, economic diversification, the strengthening of community-led energy initiatives, and the restoration and reparation of territories affected by extractivism.
- Effectively halt deforestation without commodifying forests. We demand effective non-market mechanisms that recognize community-based forest management practices and strengthen peoples’ capacity to protect their territories.
These demands are also directed at the Colombian State. Progress toward a planned phase-out of fossil fuels cannot be subordinated to renewed commitments to hydrocarbon exploration, mining expansion, and offset mechanisms.
For Censat Agua Viva, COP31 must contribute to transforming the structural causes of the climate crisis, guaranteeing the rights of peoples, and recognizing the alternatives already being built in territories.
There can be no climate justice as long as decisions continue to prioritize the profitability of extractivism over the sustenance of life.
Read Our Full COP31 Position Statement
Explore our seven demands, their underlying arguments, and the proposals we are bringing to this international forum.