Countries are ‘still in the climate fight’, the United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell said
The 30th annual UN climate summit (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, showed that international cooperation on the issue is still “alive and kicking”, United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell said.
“We knew this COP would take place in stormy political waters,” the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said.
“Denial, division and geopolitics has dealt international cooperation some heavy blows this year.”
He said countries had chosen unity, science and economic common sense, adding: “I’m not saying we’re winning the climate fight. But we are undeniably still in it, and we are fighting back.”
Stiell noted that this year, there had been a lot of attention on the United States stepping back.
“But amid the gale-force political headwinds, 194 countries stood firm in solidarity — rock-solid in support of climate cooperation … [they] said in one voice that ‘the Paris Agreement is working’ and resolved to make it go further and faster,” he said.
“We see progress in a new agreement on just transition, signalling that building climate resilience and the clean economy must also be fair … We see it in the agreement to triple adaptation finance, ensuring more countries have the support they need,” Stiell said.
“For the first time, 194 nations said in unison [that] the global transition to low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilience is irreversible and the trend of the future.”
COP30 showed that momentum exists “but not yet at the scale or speed required to secure a safe and just future”, said Albert Nordström, an associate professor at the Stockholm Resilience Centre.
Despite the world facing escalating climate impacts, the conference failed to deliver a roadmap for a fossil fuel phase-out, strengthen accountability mechanisms, or set binding timelines to operationalise the Global Stocktake — designed to assess the global response to the climate crisis every five years.
“Adaptation finance was diluted, with the pledge to triple support delayed until 2035 — far too late for climate-vulnerable nations already losing up to 10% of GDP each year. In the end, COP30 delivered incremental progress, not the decisive pivot required by the implementation decade,” Nordström said.
Yet, there were some positive outcomes.
“In the big picture, COP30 sent several meaningful signals. The negotiations held together — no small feat in a fractured geopolitical landscape — and the outcome reaffirmed the 1.5 °C limit as the non-negotiable foundation for all credible climate pathways.”
A new just transition mechanism was established, providing a formal platform to integrate equity, social protection and decent work into the global transition, “though robust financing remains unresolved”.
Brazil and Colombia advanced external roadmaps for the phase-out of fossil fuels and for deforestation, forming an emerging coalition of nearly 90 nations pushing for accelerated climate action.
Forest finance reached a record $9.5 billion outside the UNFCCC process, highlighting the growing influence of ‘corridor diplomacy’ and coalitions of the willing, Nordström added.
With an increasingly fractured geopolitical backdrop, COP30 showed some baby steps in the right direction but failed to rise to the occasion given the scale of the climate crisis, said Mohamed Adow, the director of Power Shift Africa.
“Among the green shoots to emerge was the creation of a Just Transition Action Mechanism — a recognition that the global move away from fossil fuels will not abandon workers and frontline communities,” Adow said, warning however that “roadmaps and workplans will mean nothing unless they now translate into real finance and real action” for the countries bearing the brunt of the crisis.
Belém restored some integrity to the Global Goal on Adaptation, removing dangerous indicators that would have penalised poorer countries simply for being poor, he said.
However, he flagged the worrying slow pace of finance negotiations. “The promise to triple adaptation lacks clarity on a base year and has now been delayed to 2035, leaving vulnerable countries without support to match the escalating needs frontline communities are facing.”
While COP30 was supposed to have a big focus on raising funds to help vulnerable nations adapt to climate change, European nations have undermined these talks and “stripped away the protections poor countries were seeking in Belem”.
He added that even though COP30 “didn’t achieve what we hoped, the very fact that fossil fuels, trade and the needs of the vulnerable are on the agenda is welcome”.
WWF International noted that countries meeting at COP30 approved a set of modest actions, including a decision to implement a just transition mechanism.
“In addition, outside of the formal negotiations, Brazil will lead a science-based international discussion on roadmaps for transitioning away from fossil fuels and ending deforestation,” it said.
Given that this was the first climate summit since the world experienced a full year above 1.5°C, these advances were insufficient to drive the urgent, transformative action needed to avert devastating climate effects and protect people and nature, the organisation added.
“Despite the Brazilian presidency’s efforts and support from at least 86 countries, negotiators were unable to agree on any direct mention of the transition away from fossil fuels in formal texts,” it said.
“Likewise, while more than 90 countries backed an implementation plan to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030, wider political will to secure this in Belém was lacking, even with the Amazon rainforest as the summit’s backdrop,” the organisation said.
“An important outcome of the COP is the decision to set up a just transition mechanism to foster international cooperation. The COP preamble also has mentions on indigenous peoples, local communities and afro descendants, as well as oceans, forests and science.”
Lauren Nel, just energy transition lead at Natural Justice, warned: “While countries are moving forward with energy plans, fossil fuels continue under the guise of transition fuels, and ‘clean’ energy deployment risks repeating past environmental and human rights harms.”The 30th annual UN climate summit (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, showed that international cooperation on the issue is still “alive and kicking”, United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell said.
“We knew this COP would take place in stormy political waters,” the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said.
“Denial, division and geopolitics has dealt international cooperation some heavy blows this year.”
He said countries had chosen unity, science and economic common sense, adding: “I’m not saying we’re winning the climate fight. But we are undeniably still in it, and we are fighting back.”
Stiell noted that this year, there had been a lot of attention on the United States stepping back.
“But amid the gale-force political headwinds, 194 countries stood firm in solidarity — rock-solid in support of climate cooperation … [they] said in one voice that ‘the Paris Agreement is working’ and resolved to make it go further and faster,” he said.
“We see progress in a new agreement on just transition, signalling that building climate resilience and the clean economy must also be fair … We see it in the agreement to triple adaptation finance, ensuring more countries have the support they need,” Stiell said.
“For the first time, 194 nations said in unison [that] the global transition to low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilience is irreversible and the trend of the future.”
COP30 showed that momentum exists “but not yet at the scale or speed required to secure a safe and just future”, said Albert Nordström, an associate professor at the Stockholm Resilience Centre.
Despite the world facing escalating climate impacts, the conference failed to deliver a roadmap for a fossil fuel phase-out, strengthen accountability mechanisms, or set binding timelines to operationalise the Global Stocktake — designed to assess the global response to the climate crisis every five years.
“Adaptation finance was diluted, with the pledge to triple support delayed until 2035 — far too late for climate-vulnerable nations already losing up to 10% of GDP each year. In the end, COP30 delivered incremental progress, not the decisive pivot required by the implementation decade,” Nordström said.
Yet, there were some positive outcomes.
“In the big picture, COP30 sent several meaningful signals. The negotiations held together — no small feat in a fractured geopolitical landscape — and the outcome reaffirmed the 1.5 °C limit as the non-negotiable foundation for all credible climate pathways.”
A new just transition mechanism was established, providing a formal platform to integrate equity, social protection and decent work into the global transition, “though robust financing remains unresolved”.
Brazil and Colombia advanced external roadmaps for the phase-out of fossil fuels and for deforestation, forming an emerging coalition of nearly 90 nations pushing for accelerated climate action.
Forest finance reached a record $9.5 billion outside the UNFCCC process, highlighting the growing influence of ‘corridor diplomacy’ and coalitions of the willing, Nordström added.
With an increasingly fractured geopolitical backdrop, COP30 showed some baby steps in the right direction but failed to rise to the occasion given the scale of the climate crisis, said Mohamed Adow, the director of Power Shift Africa.
“Among the green shoots to emerge was the creation of a Just Transition Action Mechanism — a recognition that the global move away from fossil fuels will not abandon workers and frontline communities,” Adow said, warning however that “roadmaps and workplans will mean nothing unless they now translate into real finance and real action” for the countries bearing the brunt of the crisis.
Belém restored some integrity to the Global Goal on Adaptation, removing dangerous indicators that would have penalised poorer countries simply for being poor, he said.
However, he flagged the worrying slow pace of finance negotiations. “The promise to triple adaptation lacks clarity on a base year and has now been delayed to 2035, leaving vulnerable countries without support to match the escalating needs frontline communities are facing.”
While COP30 was supposed to have a big focus on raising funds to help vulnerable nations adapt to climate change, European nations have undermined these talks and “stripped away the protections poor countries were seeking in Belem”.
He added that even though COP30 “didn’t achieve what we hoped, the very fact that fossil fuels, trade and the needs of the vulnerable are on the agenda is welcome”.
WWF International noted that countries meeting at COP30 approved a set of modest actions, including a decision to implement a just transition mechanism.
“In addition, outside of the formal negotiations, Brazil will lead a science-based international discussion on roadmaps for transitioning away from fossil fuels and ending deforestation,” it said.
Given that this was the first climate summit since the world experienced a full year above 1.5°C, these advances were insufficient to drive the urgent, transformative action needed to avert devastating climate effects and protect people and nature, the organisation added.
“Despite the Brazilian presidency’s efforts and support from at least 86 countries, negotiators were unable to agree on any direct mention of the transition away from fossil fuels in formal texts,” it said.
“Likewise, while more than 90 countries backed an implementation plan to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030, wider political will to secure this in Belém was lacking, even with the Amazon rainforest as the summit’s backdrop,” the organisation said.
“An important outcome of the COP is the decision to set up a just transition mechanism to foster international cooperation. The COP preamble also has mentions on indigenous peoples, local communities and afro descendants, as well as oceans, forests and science.”
Lauren Nel, just energy transition lead at Natural Justice, warned: “While countries are moving forward with energy plans, fossil fuels continue under the guise of transition fuels, and ‘clean’ energy deployment risks repeating past environmental and human rights harms.”