{"id":81937,"date":"2025-10-29T08:18:28","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T11:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=81937"},"modified":"2025-10-30T18:05:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T21:05:41","slug":"cop30-must-engage-with-and-walk-alongside-the-favela-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=81937","title":{"rendered":"COP30 Must Engage With and Walk Alongside the Favela [OPINION]"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\"Morro<\/a>
Morro da Mangueira. Photo: Brenno Carvalho \/ Ag\u00eancia O Globo 2020<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

For the original article by Preto Zez\u00e9 published in O Globo, click here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

For an ecological transition to be just and effective, it must start where the State fails to reach\u2014or only shows up with repression and neglect.<\/h3>\n

Climate change<\/a> is, first and foremost, an urban crisis. The most violent and visible effects of the climate crisis are concentrated in cities: floods<\/a> sweep away lives and histories, heat waves<\/a> suffocate neighborhoods lacking green spaces, landslides<\/a> expose the abandonment of favelas, and inadequate sanitation<\/a> becomes a vector for disease.<\/p>\n

If the impact is urban, the solution should be as well. The problem is that many cities still treat the environmental agenda as distant, technical, confined to conferences and reports<\/a> in English. But it\u2019s present in open-air sewers, flooded streets, lack of shade, precarious transport, and trash piled up where there should be public squares, care, and life.<\/p>\n

We must abandon the idea that the green agenda is separate from the urban and social. For the ecological transition to be just and effective, it must start where the State fails to reach<\/a>\u2014or only shows up with repression and neglect<\/a>. This requires more than planting trees: it requires planting power<\/a>. Because the root of the problem is political and economic.<\/p>\n

Any master plan is a map of political choices<\/a>. Who gets to live where? What can be built? How much goes to roads and how much to bike lanes? How much to sewage, drainage, culture, housing, coastal protection? These decisions are not neutral\u2014and almost never made by those who live where impacts hit hardest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Symbolic participation is not enough<\/a>. The favela must participate with quality and power: power to influence the budget, to decide its own direction, to transform the space where it lives. Because participation without power is mere spectacle. And a budget without participation is imposition.<\/p>\n

An example of this is how \u201cclimate resilience\u201d is conceived. The term is trendy, but the concept remains elitist. People talk about sustainable neighborhoods, yet the green favelas<\/a> that already exist are ignored\u2014communities that recycle out of necessity, share as part of their culture, invent solutions due to lack of resources. These practices are neither copied nor funded, and are often criminalized.<\/p>\n

What would a truly resilient city look like? One that listens to those who already live at risk. One that turns roofs into solar panels<\/a>, alleys into rain gardens, vacant lots into community gardens<\/a>, and rooftops into cultural centers<\/a>. A city that redefines zoning based on climate justice<\/a>, not just speculation. One that distributes greenery, water, wind, and shade as rights\u2014not privileges for the few.<\/p>\n

This calls for a different model of governance: integrated, transparent, participatory. And a rethink of where and how decisions are made\u2014especially budgetary ones. Without a budget, any plan is just pretty paper. Today, much of urban decision-making happens without listening to those who will be most affected.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to flip the switch. The climate debate must leave air-conditioned offices and walk down the overheated quebradas<\/em>. Swap cold charts for maps of human affection. Listen to the favela resident<\/a> before the UN<\/a> consultant.<\/p>\n

COP30<\/a> must engage with and walk alongside the favela. Because the future of cities will be defined by climate\u2014and it will only be just if it is collective.<\/p>\n

\n

Support\u00a0<\/b>RioOnWatch<\/i><\/b>\u2019s tireless, critical and cutting-edge hyperlocal journalism, online community organizing meetings, and direct support to favelas\u00a0<\/b>by clicking here.<\/a><\/b><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas For the original article by Preto Zez\u00e9 published in O Globo, click here.\u00a0 For an ecological transition to be just and effective, it must start where the State fails to reach\u2014or […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":245,"featured_media":81948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1288,3477,335,3527,452,1330],"tags":[1448,472,3406,3540,1396,2436,223,78,182,3702,2970,1781,535,1724],"writer":[3818],"translator":[3819],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-81937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-highlight","8":"category-climate-justice","9":"category-policies","10":"category-representation","11":"category-rio20","12":"category-translation","13":"tag-favelasareassets","14":"tag-climate-change","15":"tag-climate-justice","16":"tag-cop","17":"tag-criminalization-of-poverty","18":"tag-environmental-justice","19":"tag-favela-as-a-model","20":"tag-floods","21":"tag-government-neglect","22":"tag-just-transition","23":"tag-landslides","24":"tag-opinion-2","25":"tag-sanitation","26":"tag-solar","27":"writer-preto-zeze","28":"translator-monique-murad-da-cunha"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/245"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81937"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81949,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81937\/revisions\/81949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/81948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81937"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=81937"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=81937"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=81937"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=81937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}