Camille Etienne: the incredible project to join the COP30 in a sailboat

On October 5, 6 activist women will take their sails for Belém, Brazil, to reach the COP30. An extraordinary expedition, supported by Amnesty International, which will also be the subject of a video documentary. Meeting with Camille Etienne, one of the activists at the helm!

How was the idea of ​​crossing the Atlantic to sail, with this team was born?

It was Adelaide Charlier (activist for climate justice in Brussels, editor’s note) who had the idea of ​​the project. She had already crossed the first time to join COP25 in Chile, which had finally been canceled due to social troubles. She worked to set up this trip for many months, and I joined her a little later. As for the team, it has formed naturally, taking into account our complementarities. The crossing will be an opportunity to discover yourself more; Sailing being a formidable human laboratory: without comfort, without sleep, we reveal our real personalities. These weeks of navigation will also be the occasion for deep debates, far from the permanent requests of networks and the Internet connection.

Why did you choose an exclusively female crew?

Women are the first victims of the climate crisis: they are overrepresented among the displaced climatic, suffer more natural disasters, and remain widely dismissed from the places of decision. In COPs, parity is far from being reached. However, these are men who decide politicians whose consequences will mostly strike women. The sail, too, remains a very masculine environment, in any case in its media representation. Crossing in female crew is reverse this logic and showing that we have all our place, on the oceans as in negotiations.

The sea is the last space of freedom not delimited by a state. It is also an international solidarity space.

Beyond the symbol, what is the objective of your presence in Belém?

There are several. First, we will be present at the top of the peoples, which takes place on the sidelines of the official negotiations. We find there activists and local associations, indigenous peoples … We organize actions to draw attention to key subjects, we weave links and we give a resonance box to local votes. We will also try to integrate the blue zone, where the official negotiations are played out. There, the challenge is to obtain accreditations to integrate the delegations of our respective countries and weigh – modestly – in the discussions. It is important that civil society is represented. Faced with the climate emergency, we can choose the empty chair policy … We decided to show our presence.

You talk about COP30 as “the last chance COP”. What makes this meeting so crucial to your eyes?

Because it stands in Brazil, in Belém. It is rare that COPs take place in countries in the global southern (Editor’s note: country of Africa, Latin America, Asia or Oceania called “Development”), directly affected by climate change when they did not cause it. There, the indigenous populations and local activists will be very present, and it is essential: they are the ones who undergo the consequences of warming on the front line. It is also a COP-BILAN: 10 years after the Paris agreement, it is clear that the situation has worsened. Conference after conference, degrees continue to climb.

However, participating in a COP remains an obstacle course …

Yes. It has become a very closed and very expensive event. The prices of hotels reach stratospheric heights, sometimes excluding budget even for diplomatic delegations. This is de facto de facto NGOs, activists, or the least rich countries. We will go around this obstacle by sleeping directly on our boat, which will serve as a floating hotel.