Loyola Marymount University faculty joined global leaders and climate experts in November for the 30th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), where conversations centered on climate justice for marginalized communities, inadequate global investment, and women and youth-led climate solutions. COP30 aligns with LMU’s United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Initiative as well as LMU’s Laudato Si’ Action Platform.
LMU faculty participated in COP30 from Nov. 10–21, 2025. They included: Chris Chapple, Marcus Crews, Jordan Frietas, Aidin Namin, Michael McNaught, Stella Oh, Junghoon Park, Jennifer Ramos, Mona Seymour and Shan Wang. As an established observer in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), LMU is among the institutions permitted to attend and observe the conference proceedings. Hosted by the government of Brazil, COP30 convened UNFCCC members to assess climate trends and advance global climate action.
One of LMU’s delegates, Michael McNaught, said he was particularly focused on issues of global investments and the representation of Indigenous and marginalized voices. As the coordinator of LMU’s Laudato Si’ Action Platform and integral ecology initiative at LMU’s Center for Reconciliation and Justice, McNaught reflected on the increasingly urgent challenges facing vulnerable communities around the world.
McNaught said listening to participants from regions such as New Zealand, Ecuador, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea underscored the shared nature of climate impacts. “It sounds like the same conversation we’re having down the street in Playa Vista,” he said. “But the effects there are being felt much more immediately. It really is a uniting problem, and that was quite an eye-opener to me as I listened to the rhetoric on a global scale.”
Despite robust discussions, McNaught noted the frustration many attendees expressed about the limited progress possible without substantial investment. “There’s a desperation in the voice,” he said. “We need to move ahead, and we’re absolutely stuck. We could keep talking, and we could sign other agreements, but at the end of the day, they’re not solving the problem. We need investment.”
He was encouraged, however, by the strong inclusion of Indigenous and marginalized voices in COP30 sessions. These communities disproportionately experience the consequences of climate change and often hold knowledge essential to sustainable adaptation, yet they are historically underrepresented in global policy spaces. After attending the conference, McNaught said he hopes to incorporate more Indigenous voices into LMU’s ecological renewal efforts.
“LMU could certainly play a similar role in terms of connecting with Indigenous populations and leadership in California and Los Angeles and animating their voices,” McNaught said. “Especially for the needs of the ecological renewal initiative, which is about understanding how we reanimate the voices of the Indigenous and marginalized communities in California and Los Angeles — the people who have taken the brunt of climate change effects.”
Stella Oh, professor of women’s and gender studies, also attended COP30 virtually, focusing on the intersections of climate change, human rights and Indigenous sovereignty. Oh noted parallels between the environmental challenges faced by Indigenous communities in Belém, Brazil — the conference’s host city — and those in Los Angeles, where longstanding social and economic inequities heighten vulnerability to climate impacts such as land loss, food insecurity and cultural disruption.
“Their participation is vital to thinking about holistic stewardship, as their traditional knowledge and leadership support effective, just and sustainable climate solutions,” Oh said. She highlighted remarks from Rande Camana Bayate of the Mansaka Indigenous Peoples, who noted that more than 900 Indigenous participants engaged in COP30 sessions and dialogues.
Oh also attended panels that examined how climate change intensifies human trafficking and forced migration. Climate-driven natural disasters and displacement, she said, increase the vulnerability of populations who may face exploitation, smuggling, forced labor and trafficking. As she continues to teach her course on human trafficking at LMU, Oh plans to integrate insights from COP30 into her curriculum.
“Delegates emphasized the need for gender-responsive financing, support for women-led climate solutions and protection of women’s rights in climate-impacted regions,” Oh said. “COP30 reinforced that empowering women is not optional but central to meaningful climate action.”
She added that some of the most compelling moments of the conference emerged from youth-led sessions. “The young speakers highlighted the urgency of climate action and challenged leaders to adopt more ambitious, justice-centered policies. Their energy and commitment made the sessions some of the most inspiring and hopeful moments of the entire conference.”
Though COP30 featured both frustration over stalled funding and hope for more inclusive global leadership, McNaught, Oh and other LMU attendees said the conference reinforced the need for bold, coordinated action. They agreed that sustained funding and a comprehensive approach to interconnected challenges will be essential to meaningful progress.
“Climate change and human rights issues are the same crisis,” McNaught said. “We keep attacking them as if they’re separate issues, but why do we never seem to resolve the problem? Because the tumors aren’t the issue; it’s the cancer. You have to get to the root.”
Written by Abby Alexander, ’27