COP30 VIDEO: When We Say No to Fossil Fuels, We Say No to Fascism
On November 13, at COP30 in Brazil, experts from the U.S. Climate Action Network , including IPS New Mexico Fellow Feleecia Guillen, held a panel discussion about what’s needed to tackle the urgency of the climate crisis — including from the political leaders present.
“New Mexico is a sacrifice zone,” Feleecia said of her home state, whose Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham attended the conference. “Extraction, contamination, and exploitation have defined our economy for far too long.” Feleecia criticized her state’s leaders for “promoting hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, and the use of toxic fracking wastewater all under the banner of clean energy.”
“These are not climate solutions,” Feleecia argued. “These are lifelines for the fossil fuel industry, meant to delay a real transition.” But she credited “the people of New Mexico” who “are organizing to resist that agenda,” which she linked to President “Trump’s attacks on climate, democracy, and human rights.”
“The fight against fossil fuels is also the fight for democracy,” Feleecia argued. “Every time we say no to extraction, we are rejecting authoritarianism in all its forms.”
Feleecia also made a pointed call to other governors present at the conference. “Governors are here at COP30 presenting themselves as climate leaders. But leadership is not what you do on the global stage,” she said. “It’s about what you do when you go home and face your communities. If you say you’re against Trump, please, prove it. Phase out fossil fuels, invest in a just transition, protect communities instead of corporations.”
Watch the full panel below:
