GAIA at COP30 | Climate Finance, Methane Reduction & NDCs

Climate finance for community-led zero waste that centers on people, science, and fast action

Climate finance must empower communities and waste pickers–delivering fast, fair, and effective zero waste solutions that protect the people, the planet, and the future generations everywhere.

At COP30, we call on:

Policymakers to fully implement national climate plans that move toward zero waste and away from harmful technologies, following the waste hierarchy. This means working with communities to design waste management systems and collect accurate data on waste generation—essential to cutting methane emissions and driving real change.
Financiers must also shift: prioritize grants over debt, channel funds directly to local implementers, follow the waste hierarchy, and integrate environmental and social justice in all projects. Without this shift, money risks reinforcing harmful technologies instead of cutting methane and supporting real change in the waste sector.

Climate finance must reach those most affected by the crisis and those leading solutions, such as waste pickers and waste workers. Decisions on waste and climate affect us all—done right, no one is left behind; done wrong, the most vulnerable pay first.

Climate finance must back zero waste solutions that cut methane and deliver a just transition for waste pickers.
Climate finance must directly empower community- and waste picker-led zero waste solutions, ensuring fast, equitable, and sustainable methane reduction.
We do not have time to put the money into trial and error. Community- and waste picker-led zero waste solutions are the fastest, most effective, and sustainable way to cut methane emissions while creating social, economic, and environmental benefits.
The solution is in our hands: cities, financiers, and communities must work together to support community-led waste management that centers people, science, and fast action, ensuring no one is left behind.

A global network of climate & zero waste experts whose experiences weave an inspiring story of climate action through waste methane emissions reduction, centered on environmental justice.

At COP, we are elevating zero waste stories from the ground through events, direct engagements with allies, and traditional and digital media work. Want to get the latest information from COP?

Learn from GAIA experts from around the globe how climate finance for waste methane reduction centered on science, people, and fast action provides the most benefit.

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GAIA@COP30 LATEST RESOURCES

NDC TRACKER

GAIA NDC Tracker

POLICY BRIEF: CHILE NDC

POLICY BRIEF: INDONESIA NDC

POLICY BRIEF: SOUTH AFRICA NDC

GAIA TECHNICAL GUIDANCE SERIES FOR POLICYMAKERS AND FINANCIERS ON FAST ACTION ON WASTE AND METHANE

Managing organics with waste pickers: a briefing for policymakers (Coming soon)

POLICY BRIEF: CLIMATE FINANCE FOR ZERO WASTE AND JUST TRANSITION

ZERO WASTE BUSINESS MODELS SERIES

(EN) Building Community Resilience and Green Jobs through Organic Waste: Climate Benefits and Economic Model of Just Organic Waste Management in Accra

ZERO WASTE BUSINESS MODELS SERIES

(EN) Building Community Resilience and Green Jobs through Organic Waste: Climate Benefits and Economic Model of Just Organic Waste Management in Quezon City

FINANCIAL ANALYSIS OF SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT BUSINESS MODELS: CASE STUDIES IN INDONESIA AND BRAZIL

(ID) Bahasa-Indonesia-Analisis-Finansial-Model-Bisnis-Pengelolaan-Sampah

CUTTING METHANE EMISSIONS THROUGH ZERO FOOD WASTE SYSTEMS

Case Study: Greeners Action (Hong Kong) – Coming soon.

GAIA@COP30 REGIONAL LENS

AFRICA

GAIA Africa has been working with members to mainstream organic waste management across the region. In doing this we have been supporting members to develop roadmaps on how best to manage organic waste in their local contexts to further strengthen this call within their countries NDC. Along with this, we are calling for climate finance for action on waste methane and a just transition diverting finance away from false solutions such as waste-to-energy incineration and other waste burning technologies. Our work in the region is also centered on supporting waste picker movements to ensure they have the right enabling systems to support their organizing in the region while rejecting waste colonialism practices that are designed to undermine waste pickers and Africa society as a whole.

Photo by End Plastic Pollution, Uganda.

ASIA PACIFIC

At COP30, GAIA Asia Pacific calls on governments in the region to adopt NDCs with ambitious methane emission reduction targets from the waste sector. By preventing food loss and food waste and promoting the decentralization of organic waste management, we forward just alternatives to false solutions, such as waste-to-energy incineration. We will push for the integration of waste pickers and waste workers into zero waste systems as an important element of just transition.

We will also encourage and safeguard genuine zero waste pathways, recognizing them as essential for climate justice.

GAIA AP will promote and facilitate the Cities Methane Pledge, position our Zero Waste Academy as a regional knowledge hub, and convene stakeholders to build momentum for accelerated action to lower methane from organic waste and oppose policies that drive the proliferation of harmful end-of-life management to problematic waste streams such as plastics, EV batteries, and the ongoing waste trade.

We recommend systemic changes in the financial architecture of climate finance, including encouraging direct climate finance for cities to establish people-centered waste reduction and recovery solutions.

LATIN AMERICA & THE CARRIBEAN

Latin America will be well represented at the COP through its wide array of projects which are opening the pathways to demonstrate that zero waste is possible, impactful, and offers a virtuous circle of benefits for the community, the environment, and the systemic view of residues. Ranging from food loss and waste, waste pickers involvement, organic waste valorization through black soldier fly, anaerobic digestion, and composting, passing through agroecology; the Latin American region shows resilience, resistance to false solutions, and advocacy to make things happen in the most positive way. Communities are empowered, and aware of the climate commitments the region has ahead and are watchful of its developments.

Read Metano, residuos y justicia climática en Latinoamérica.

US & CANADA

As the world turns its attention to COP30, GAIA’s Methane Reduction & Environmental Justice Cohort is showing what community-led climate action looks like in practice. Across our region, cohort members are tackling methane emissions in frontline communities through a wide range of justice-centered projects.

Zero Waste Detroit is leading community education campaigns on composting and zero waste infrastructure. The Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust is connecting Indigenous ecological knowledge to local composting programs. Slingshot is providing leadership training and organizing support to over 10 New England communities fighting landfill emissions. GreenLatinos, Brookhaven Landfill Action & Remediation Group (BLARG), and South Baltimore Community Land Trust (SBCLT) are advancing waste diversion, citizen science, and policy advocacy in Colorado, New York, and Maryland, while partnerships like Minnesota Environmental Justice Table & CURE, Californians Against Waste Foundation & Valley Improvement Projects (VIP), and JOIN for Clean Air & Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) are building statewide and regional campaigns for organics diversion, methane reduction, and community air monitoring.

Collectively, these projects show that meaningful climate action starts by empowering frontline leadership at the local level with solutions rooted in the communities most affected by pollution. Our cohort’s work demonstrates how effective waste reduction strategies can be replicated and scaled, providing a clear roadmap for justice-centered climate action. Learn more here.

[Photo: GAIA’s U.S. Methane Reduction & Environmental Justice Cohort at the Woodland Plantation in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, the historic site of the largest slave revolt in the U.S. South and the birthplace of jazz pioneer Edward “Kid” Ory. Today, the Woodland Plantation hosts temporary exhibits on the 1811 Slave Revolt and the plantation-to-petrochemical through-line.]

ZERO WASTE EUROPE

Zero Waste Europe will participate in COP30 to present strategies for mitigating methane emissions by diverting biowaste from landfills and ensuring proper pre-treatment of waste through biostabilization and improved sorting to recover recyclables still commonly present in mixed waste.