At the UN climate talks in Bali last December, the diplomatic atmosphere was broken just occasionally to reveal that climate change is a justice issue already affecting many of the world's people.

One of these rare moments was when Dr Angus Friday, Chairman of the Alliance of Small Island States, gave an impassioned speech in which he said that for people from small islands around the world, "the outcome of Bali is a matter of survival".

The voices of people calling for climate justice were louder than ever before in Bali – they were heard at the official UN side events, at the civil society forum being held outside the conference centre, at the women's caucus, at demonstrations inside the conference centre, and at the international day of action in Denpasar.

At the civil society forum, indigenous people, farmers, peasants and people from small islands spoke of the impacts of climate change on their communities. Ursula Rakova from the Carteret Islands in Papua New Guinea told the story of her people who are in the process of securing funding so that they can relocate to Bougainville. After years of battling rising sea levels, they now feel they have no choice but to leave. The relocation of people is a topic that is not discussed inside the climate talks, so organisations like Ursula's Tulele Peisa are forced to find funding to relocate themselves.

There were also stories of the impacts of some supposed "solutions" to climate change, such as the expansion of the biofuel (or agrofuel) industry. Indonesian representatives from the People's Alliance of the Archipelago talked about the dispossession of Indigenous people from their land as it gets turned into palm oil plantations. In another poignant presentation, Ana Filipini from the World Rainforest Movement showed pictures of deforested areas throughout the world, and finished off saying "If you do not want the whole world to become this, please help us".

Indonesia plans 20 million hectares of new palm oil plantations in the coming years, which has huge ramifications for land rights, greenhouse emissions, and loss of biodiversity. While the UN negotiations are attempting to address deforestation in the Majority World (or the 'developing' world), they do not focus on the drivers of this process. In fact, it is the demand for biofuels from industrialised nations which is driving the expansion of these plantations.

A diverse range of groups participated in the international day of action, held on the Saturday in the middle of the negotiations. Jubilee South called for industrialised nations to drop the debt owed by the Majority World. This would enable them to channel funds into adaptation projects, as well as contribute to a low-carbon path to development.

La Via Campesina, the international peasants movement, was also out in force, promoting positive solutions to climate change such as sustainable small-scale farming and local, decentralised energy systems.

In the conference centre itself, a number of protests were held which aimed to highlight the problems with some of the false solutions to climate change such as the use of biofuels and carbon financing, and the problems associated with the involvement of international financial institutions.

One such demonstration criticised the establishment of the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, which aims to include forests in carbon markets. Ironically, the World Bank is the largest carbon broker in the world, yet continues to provide substantial funds to fossil fuel projects despite its own Extractive Industries Review recommending it phase out the funding of these projects.

At the end of the two weeks, a diverse group of NGOs established an international network, Climate Justice Now! These groups are working on issues ranging from climate refugees to carbon trading and biofuels to trade and climate change. This network will continue to work to bring voices of affected communities to the negotiations, and to the world, so that we can create climate justice for all.

Emma Brindal is the Climate Justice Co-ordinator with Friends of the Earth, Australia.