Cool Earth at BIEN: Cash in Hand, Forests Standing

What is the BIEN Congress?

This week we’re in Brazil at the 24th Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) Congress. Think of it as Glastonbury for people who believe distributing cash is the smartest way to change the world.

And they’re right.

Why Basic Income Matters for Climate Action

For years, Indigenous peoples and local communities have done the heavy lifting of protecting rainforest, the best carbon-storing, life-giving system on Earth. Yet they get less than 1% of global climate finance. One percent. The rest? Lost in red tape and endless meetings.

We’re here to change that.

Indigenous peoples protect much of the worlds biodiversity, including 1/3 of the worlds intact forests, but are currently on the frontlines of the climate crisis.

Cool Earth’s approach is simple: cash, no strings attached. Give people the means and freedom to make their own choices. Communities know how to keep rainforest standing because they’ve done it for millennia. What they need is the power and resources to keep going in the face of a climate crisis they didn’t cause.

That’s why BIEN matters. Basic Income isn’t just social policy, it’s climate action.

Cool Earth’s Role at BIEN 2025

This week our very own Patricia Quiñones will be speaking on panels alongside Indigenous leaders, campaigners, and allies from across Latin America and beyond. We’ll be sharing the stage with ONAMIAP and OMIAASEC, who are co-leading our Basic Income pilot in the Peruvian Amazon.

Together, we’ll show how unconditional cash is already working for people, nature, and climate.

Patricia Quiñones from Cool Earth, and Ketty Marcelo, president of ONAMIAP at the 2025 Basic Income congress.

Cash Works, for People, Forests, and Climate

Our message is simple: cash works.

It cuts poverty. It builds resilience. It gets money where it’s needed most without delay, middlemen, or endless forms. And it keeps rainforest standing.

Cool Earth is currently pushing for the UK government to send a portion of its international climate finance to go straight to Indigenous peoples and local communities. No detours. No strings. Just trust, respect, and direct support for the people protecting the best climate solution we already have.

Because sometimes the smartest ideas are also the simplest. Cash in hand. Forests standing. Future secured.