Letter Cali to Belém: United action on climate, nature and food transformation – for our peoples

At COP16, over 70 global leaders – representing business, finance, science, civil society, Indigenous Peoples, and local communities – launch an open letter to Presidents Gustavo Petro and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recognizing their leadership in taking integrated action on climate, nature and food systems. Signatories express their support for the COP16 and COP30 Presidents to mobilize actors globally in a year of united action from Cali to Belém.

Read the copy below:

Your Excellencies President Petro and President Lula,

Society is in the grip of a socio-economic, climate and biodiversity crisis. People on the frontlines are already living through the nightmare of a warming and changing planet. 

Today, we have a historic opportunity to change course. Your leadership in the ecological transition can make the decisive difference. The world urgently needs to transition away from fossil fuels, halt and reverse nature loss, ensure food security, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

As hosts of COP16 and COP30, Colombia and Brazil can forge an enduring partnership that will guide the world by demonstrating the interconnectedness of climate and nature. Together, you can champion bold action to ensure our efforts to protect nature are aligned with climate action, while placing the urgent transformation of our food systems at the heart of our shared mission for a sustainable future.

Governments will be updating their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which are due in February 2025. With your leadership, we can make ‘peace with nature’ the principle that gives shape to these national climate action plans. 

We are a network of businesses, investors, scientists, Indigenous Peoples, youth and civil society organizations who are steadfastly committed to support and work with you on this ‘one year of united action on climate, nature and food’.We already have the foundations for necessary ambition: the commitments made under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the Paris Agreement, and its Global Stocktake – including the Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action and the Joint Statement on Climate, Nature and People – serve as our collective blueprints. We are ready to support your leadership in mobilizing all actors to deliver these three outcomes to protect what we love:

• Strengthen national climate plans to deliver a triple win for people, nature and food security by aligning decade-defining NDCs and national biodiversity strategies (NBSAPs) and integrating national food systems pathways across both – with clear policies and action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, including sustainable ocean management and by ending deforestation by 2030.
• Scale up investment for nature and food system transformation by aligning financial flows with the Paris Agreement and Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, delivering on its biodiversity finance commitment and at least tripling finance by 2030, prioritizing direct access to finance for farmers, Indigenous Peoples, and Local Communities. 
• Support the full and effective participation of farmers, Indigenous Peoples, and local communities across climate, food system and nature policy development, decision-making and monitoring, ensuring that these changemakers’ rights and contributions to unlocking sustainable development, economic prosperity and safeguarding of our planet are front and center.

COP16 to COP30 – both set against backdrops of the world’s most biodiverse natural landscapes – are our most powerful reminder that we need to act now to protect and restore what is sacred to us, in order to ensure thriving societies and economies. 

This is a moment of possibility and a moment of decision. You are the first generation of leaders to truly understand the dual climate and nature crisis, but also the last generation of leaders able to address it in a timely manner. Whether or not COP16 and COP30 make history is now within your grasp. We stand united with you to seize this moment.

Yours,

SIGNATORIES:

Global leaders: Christiana Figueres, Farwiza Farhan, Gonzalo Muñoz, Hiro Mizuno, President Juan Manuel Santos, Manuel Pulgar Vidal, Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, Mary Robinson, Monica Medina, Dr. Naoko Ishii, Paul Polman, Richard Branson, Wade Davis, Wanjira Mathai

Indigenous leaders: Alfredo Nurinkias, Cristiane Julião Pankararu, Enrique Salazar, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Juan Carlos Jinitiach, Joseph Itongwa, Josien Alioema, Levi Sucre, Oswaldo Muca

Scientists: Professor Carlos Nobre, Dr. David Suzuki, Dr. Gunhild Stordalen (EAT), Johan Rockström, Dr. Ralph Chami, Sunita Narain, Dr. Sylvia Earle, Professor Dr. Tom Crowther

Youth leaders: Force of Nature, Paloma Costa, Rede Brasileira de Biodiversidade e Clima (RBBC), Rede Brasileira de Jovens pela Biodiversidade (GYBN Brazil), We Are Family Foundation, Xiye Bastida, Youth4Nature

Business and finance leaders: AJE, Ajinomoto, Arauco, Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS), Daniel Vercelli (Manuia), Danone, David Atkin (PRI), Eva Zabey (Business For Nature), Frannie Leautier (Southbridge), IKEA, João Paulo Ferreira (Natura), Leah Seligmann (The B Team), Legal & General Group PLC, Maria Mendiluce (We Mean Business Coalition), Nestlé, Peter Bakker (WBCSD), Stephanie Pfeifer (IIGCC), Stora Enso, Sven Bruchfeld Engel (Polkura), Tim Christophersen (Salesforce)

Civil society & NGO leaders: Brian O’Donnell (Campaign For Nature), Coalizão Brasil Clima Floresta Agricultura, Dorothy Maeke (African Natural Capital Alliance), Felipe Arango Garcia (Transforma), Jean Oelwang (Virgin Unite), Jen Morris (The Nature Conservancy), Juan Lucas Restrepo and Ismahane Elouafi (CGIAR), James Lloyd (Nature4Climate), Juliana Uribe Villegas (Movilizatorio), Kirsten Schuijt (WWF International), Lawrence Haddad (GAIN), Lindsay Hooper (Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership – CISL), Martin Harper (Birdlife International), Mary Dixon (World Conservation Society), Michal Nachmany (Climate Policy Radar), Morgan Gillespy (Food and Land Use Coalition), Natalie Unterstell (Instituto Talanoa), Niki Mardas (Global Canopy), Planet Tracker, Sandrine Dixon (Club of Rome), Sherry Madera (CDP), SOS Mata Atlantica, The Planetary Guardians, Tom Elliot (Restor).

To know more about this effort please write to groundswell@globaloptimism.com