COP30 opens in Brazil with urgent call for climate action

The Belém Climate Summit opens on 10 November 2025.

Thousands of diplomats and climate experts are gathering in Belém, Brazil, for COP30 – the latest round of UN climate talks. Their mission is clear: turn promises into action and agree on stronger plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

After decades of pledges and annual summits, from Kyoto to Sharm el-Sheikh, the planet continues to heat up. Pressure on governments and businesses to act—not just talk—has never been greater.

Holding COP30 in Belém, on the edge of the world’s largest tropical rainforest, underscores the stakes: the Amazon is both a vital carbon sink and a frontline in the fight against deforestation and climate change.

This year’s summit aims to shift gears. Delegates will review national climate plans, push for $1.3 trillion a year in climate finance, adopt measures to help countries adapt, and advance a “just transition” to cleaner economies.

‘Time for implementation’
COP30 has been billed as a turning point—a moment of truth and a test of global solidarity. The summit opens against a stark backdrop: scientists warn the planet is on track to temporarily exceed the 1.5°C warming limit set by the Paris Agreement.

That overshoot could be brief if countries act quickly to cut emissions, adapt to climate impacts, and mobilize finance.

Speaking at the Leaders’ Summit, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said: “It’s no longer time for negotiations. It’s time for implementation, implementation, and implementation.”

Under Brazil’s presidency, COP30 will focus on an action agenda of 30 key goals, each guided by an “activation group” tasked with scaling up solutions. The effort, called a mutirão—an Indigenous term meaning “collective task”—reflects Brazil’s aim to highlight Indigenous leadership in climate action.

Financing the transition
Action agendas at COPs rely on voluntary pledges rather than binding law. Yet the scale of change needed is immense: at least $1.3 trillion in climate investments per year by 2035. Without urgent action, global temperatures could rise 2.3–2.8°C by century’s end, leaving vast regions uninhabitable due to flooding, extreme heat, and ecosystem collapse.

A central feature of COP30 will be the Baku-to-Belém Roadmap Report for $1.3 trillion, prepared by COP29 and COP30 presidencies. It outlines priorities for mobilizing resources, including strengthening multilateral climate funds, taxing polluting activities, and converting sovereign debt into climate investment—potentially unlocking $100 billion for developing nations.

The report also calls for dismantling legal barriers, such as investment treaty clauses that allow corporations to sue governments over climate policies—disputes that have already cost $83 billion across 349 cases.

Key agenda items
Delegates will review Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the climate plans nations submit to cut emissions. To stay below 1.5°C, global emissions must fall 60% by 2030. Current NDCs would achieve only a 10% reduction.

With 196 Paris Agreement parties, only 64 had submitted updated NDCs by September. Preparatory talks in Germany emphasized that this ambition gap must be closed at COP30.

The summit will also approve 100 global indicators to track adaptation progress, ensuring measurable and comparable results. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warns adaptation finance must increase twelvefold by 2035 to meet developing countries’ needs.

COP30 will advance the Just Transition Work Programme, designed to ensure climate measures do not deepen inequality. Civil society groups are calling for a “Belém Action Mechanism” to coordinate just transition efforts and expand access to technology and finance for vulnerable nations.

Why COPs matter
The Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change remains the leading forum for tackling the climate crisis. Decisions are made by consensus, driving global cooperation on mitigation, adaptation, and finance.

Over the years, COPs have delivered landmark agreements. The 2015 Paris Agreement aimed to keep temperature rise well below 2°C, striving for 1.5°C. At COP28 in Dubai, nations committed to a just, orderly transition from fossil fuels and to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030. COP29 in Baku raised the annual climate finance target for developing countries from $100 billion to $300 billion, with a roadmap to $1.3 trillion.

Together, these efforts under the UNFCCC framework have helped avert a projected 4°C temperature rise by century’s end.

COP30 runs from Monday, 10 November, to Friday, 21 November, in Belém, Brazil.