The Conference of the Parties under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change occurs every year in a selected country, during which the United Nations decision making body, represented by nations around the world, convenes with the aim of preventing ‘dangerous human interference with the climate system,” according to their website.
This year, the UNFCCC was held in Belém, Brazil, where recent University of New Mexico alum Feleecia Guillen spoke at a press conference organized by US Climate Action Network at the convention, during which she called on Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham after having spoken with her in-person at the convention.
Guillen graduated with a business degree from UNM this May, and was actively engaged with local environmental issues through UNM Leaders for Environmental Action and Foresight and Youth United for Climate Crisis Action. She is currently the New Mexico Fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies within the Climate Policy Program in Washington D.C., she said.
Other New Mexicans at the conference included Lujan Grisham, Julia Bernal from Pueblo Action Alliance and Acoma Pueblo elder Petuuche Gilbert.
Guillen said she was able to “confront” Lujan Grisham after the governor’s opening remarks at COP30, and tell her that her organization, NM No False Solutions, has been trying to meet with her to share their analysis about why nuclear and hydrogen energy is harmful to the NM community.
Lujan-Grisham’s office promised to set up a meeting for another time, according to a press release from NM No False Solutions and Pueblo Action Alliance.
Guillen said she felt overwhelmed as one of the youngest people in the room, and also struggled with the heat and humidity of Belém.
“Half the time you’re just trying to cool down,” Guillen said. “As someone from New Mexico, I am not accustomed to humidity.”
Guillen said she was in the venue when dozens of protesters breached security barriers.
“Things got very tense because people started arguing with the UN security,” Guillen said. “It set this fear within us of not knowing what was going on, we saw UN security running towards the entrance and we had completely no idea of what was happening.”
According to The Associated Press, Brazilian military personnel kept demonstrators from entering the site as protesters dressed in traditional Indigenous garb formed a human chain around the entrance.
“Their action was a direct response to the years of exclusion and tokenization within the UN climate process and it clearly made it visible indigenous people were among the most effective protectors of the forests, of our water systems, of biodiversity,” Guillen said. “It was just extremely powerful to see this group of indigenous people fight for their homelands.”
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Organizers met to strategize about artificial intelligence and how they would “uplift each other’s fights,” Guillen said.
“The Center for Biological Diversity did a press conference against AI, and it was so powerful as we think about Project Jupiter in New Mexico and also Blackstone wanting to come in to take over our electric utility, it’s absolutely intertwined, and I cannot stress the danger of data centers and AI,” Guillen said.
Project Jupiter is a proposed data center in Doña Ana County, though construction has yet to begin due to lawsuits alleging the project managers did not properly fill out forms to secure funding through government-backed bonds, according to Source NM.
In late August, Public Service Company of New Mexico announced it would be acquired by Blackstone Infrastructure, the energy and transportation arm of private equity firm Blackstone, for $11.5 billion, according to the Santa Fe-New Mexican.
Guillen said that from her perspective, COP30 did not deliver justice or live up to the scale of implementation that needed to deliver a just transition away from fossil fuels and that she saw several fossil fuel lobbyists at the conference.
“As young people, we have so much work ahead of us, not only to combat the climate crisis, but to combat historical injustices that have been done to our people since time immemorial, and, continue to build knowledge, to seek out political education opportunities,” Guillen said.
Leila Chapa is the social media editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at socialmedia@dailylobo.com or on X @lchapa06
Paloma Chapa is the multimedia editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at multimedia@dailylobo.com or on X @paloma_chapa88
Leila Chapa is the social media editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at socialmedia@dailylobo.com or on X @lchapa06
Paloma Chapa is the multimedia editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at multimedia@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @paloma_chapa88
