Texas Impact

Beaman Floyd, a policy consultant for Texas Impact, discusses how a meeting about wildfire response at COP30 in Belém, Brasil mirrored the conversations in our own Texas Legislature.

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Climate litigation can be as complex and varied as the issue of carbon pollution itself. Litigation can seek to change government structures; punish polluters; regulate industries; or compensate for damages to health and property, among other goals. As precedents like those set by the International Court of Justice opinion become part of the global climate policy foundation, climate litigation is expected to become more influential in the policy decisions at the UNFCCC and other international policymaking bodies.

As Joy Reyes of the London School of Economics Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment explains, climate litigation is an increasingly valuable tool in the climate justice toolbox.

Ean Thomas Tafoya, GreenLatinos’ vice president of state programs, talks to Texas Impact Policy Fellow Dylan Le about his first COP this year in Belém, Brazil.

This year’s COP has been called by many the “Indigenous COP,” which has made Latin America, home to countless indigenous communities, a fitting location. For Ean, as a person with Indigenous roots from New Mexico, the continuity of Latino and Indigenous communities across the world is evident by their understanding of the importance of protecting the earth. From Ean’s home in New Mexico all the way to the vast waters of the Amazon, Indigenous and Latino communities are at greater and greater risk of environmental pollution and climate crisis.

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Every policymaking body—from the city hall to the halls of Congress—navigates a tension between inclusivity and productivity. Policymakers face intense pressure to include all stakeholders in their deliberations. At the same time, they face both real and manufactured time constraints. Nowhere is this tension more evident than in the United Nations climate negotiations, where the decisions must reflect a global consensus and the stakeholders include every person on the planet.

Regina Banks, Lutheran Office of Public Policy CA, ELCA, interviews Sriram Madhusoodanan, Director of Climate Advocacy & Policy at US Climate Action Network (USCAN), about what makes this COP different.

Being the first COP hosted in the Amazon, the question for many has been: What will become of the Amazonian people?

The deforestation and destruction of the Amazon is a perfect representation of the gaping hole that climate disaster will leave in the fabric of humanity. Much of indigenous philosophy is grounded in the belief that nature and humanity are inextricably linked. If the Amazon were to disappear, how could a culture built upon generations of environmental knowledge continue to thrive?

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The Global Ethical Stocktake is a worldwide shared examination of conscience. Organized by Brazil’s Minister for the Environment and Climate Change Marina Silva and the COP30 Presidency, the Global Ethical Stocktake calls the world to reflect morally and ethically about the current state of climate action.

The idea for the Global Ethical Stocktake was born at COP28 in Dubai, where the results of the first Global Stocktake were announced. The first Global Stocktake was a scientific and technical assessment of each party’s progress on climate mitigation and adaptation.

In the two years since, the idea to do a similar process for global moral and ethical thinking on climate change took shape.

Karenna Gore, director of the Center for Earth Ethics, sits down with Texas Impact’s Executive Director Bee Moorhead to discuss the Global Ethical Stocktake.

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Last Monday was Earth Information Day at COP30. Earth Information Day is a plenary briefing where all the UNFCCC science groups, including the World Meteorological Organization, the World Climate Research Programme, and others brief the COP delegates on the state of climate science. As a highlight of COP30, which is being dubbed “the COP of Truth,” Earth Information Day 2025 delivered some hard truths. It featured scary science, even scarier policy, and interesting takeaways for state and local governments.

Follow our coverage of COP30 on Substack and YouTube through the link in our bio!