��������

Belem, a port city in northern Brazil, will fall under the global spotlight this month when it hosts COP30, one of the largest annual UN conferences on climate change.
The Belem meeting comes a decade after the Paris Agreement, which set the goal of limiting global temperature increases to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels. Scientists, economists, and ecologists have made clear that breaching that limit would have disastrous consequences for people and planet. Unfortunately, global temperatures have only risen, not decreased, since Paris.
The Conferences of Parties to the UN Climate Convention, or COPs, have taken important decisions in recent years to reach the 1.5 C target. But the principal obstacle in the way of implementation of the Paris Agreement is the inadequacy of climate finance.
Most least developed countries, which are also most vulnerable to climate change, have long complained about financing at these negotiations. The landmark decision at COP27 to establish a loss and damage fund to assist developing countries raised hopes. Two years later, COP29 in Azerbaijan agreed on a new global goal for climate finance, deciding to mobilize at least $1.3 trillion per year by 2035 from both public and private sources. Developed countries pledged to mobilize $300 billion in the same timeframe to assist developing countries.
COP28 in Dubai in 2023 completed the first global stocktake of the Paris Agreement, which noted some progress and called for stronger action. Participants said that climate change and biodiversity loss, though closely interlinked, were dealt with separately in national policies. It recognized this interlinkage and called on governments to consider ecosystems and biodiversity, including forests, when developing their 2025 Nationally Determined Contributions, or national climate action plans. Countries that are parties to the Paris Agreement are required to submit their fresh Nationally Determined Contributions every five years.
Unlike the COPs in Sharm El-Sheikh, Dubai, and Baku, Belem will not negotiate any new global goal. It will, however, review progress in implementation and consider the updated new Nationally Determined Contributions for 2026-30.
Initially due earlier this year, the updated Nationally Determined Contributions are expected to keep hopes alive of limiting global warming to less than 1.5 C. With only 34 new Nationally Determined Contributions submitted by the February 2025 deadline accounting for 21 percent of global emissions, progress seemed to stagnate.
While the languishing pace of progress hardly inspired confidence, glimmers of hope were visible at the UN Climate Summit convened by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York last month. By the extended deadline of the end of September, a further 30 updated Nationally Determined Contributions were received, with more than 100 parties pledging to submit their plans. In other encouraging developments at the summit, China made specific emissions reduction pledges for the first time. Nigeria, the 25th largest emitter of greenhouse gases globally, unveiled economy-wide emissions reduction targets covering all greenhouse gases and sectors. 

The principal obstacle is the inadequacy of climate finance.

Jamil Ahmad

Pakistan, alongside other nations vulnerable to climate change, pointed to the human and economic costs of unchecked climate damage. Small island developing states pulled no punches in calling for large polluters to be held accountable, criticizing the global financial system as unfit for purpose.
The summit acknowledged progress, but highlighted the need for the next Nationally Determined Contributions to be more ambitious and broader based. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reminded leaders that submitting an updated Nationally Determined Contribution is not an option, but an obligation, citing the recent advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice, which clarified the legal nature of the obligations of states in respect of climate change.
As an important component of the Paris Agreement, Nationally Determined Contributions provide a mechanism for implementing national climate policies. Collectively, they reflect the global response to combat climate change. With global temperatures rising, it is past time for action. Nationally Determined Contributions 3.0 cannot be delayed any further. Hopefully, more nations will comply before the COP starts on Nov. 10. As Guterres said: “The science demands action. The law commands it. Economics compels it. And people are calling for it.”
Brazil, as the incoming COP presidency, has laid strong emphasis on implementation. In a series of letters, Brazil has outlined how it plans to ensure that Belem delivers in expediting the implementation of the Paris Agreement. In March, COP30 President Ambassador Andre Correa do Lago addressed  an open letter to governments and other stakeholders, calling for a transition of the COPs from negotiations to a phase of “full implementation” and “mobilization of all of humanity’s resources to tackle structural inequalities within and among countries.”
Six further letters have been released, calling for a “global mutirao” against climate change, a term taken from the indigenous Tupi-Guarani language meaning “a community coming together to work on a shared task, whether harvesting, building, or supporting one another.” Communities, cities, civil society, businesses, and the private sector now attend climate conferences not as negotiators but as partners and stakeholders who can help governments in the implementation of COP outcomes.
“The Action Agenda of COP,” a window of the Climate Convention, engages such actors to mobilize their potential. At COP30, these actors will convene in parallel to galvanize efforts for mitigation, adaptation, finance, and capacity building. Drawing on lessons from the global stocktake, they will connect existing solutions to accelerate action in a wide range of areas, including energy transition, transport, industry, forests, agriculture, oceans, biodiversity, water, resilient infrastructure, and cities.
More than three decades since the Rio Summit that adopted the UN Climate Change Convention and a decade since Paris, climate action has progressed, albeit slowly and sometimes erratically. Thankfully, today the world has some of the answers to address global warming, reverse nature loss, and manage waste and pollution — the interlinked planetary crisis. It has discovered and refined scientific evidence, developed tools and technologies, set achievable targets, and identified pathways. We must now accelerate action to reach these targets before it is too late.
Belem is a gateway to Brazil’s Amazon region — part of the largest tropical forest in the world that serves to stabilize climate change. Let Belem also be the entry point for collectively accelerating global climate action to stabilize the planet.

• Jamil Ahmad is director of intergovernmental affairs at the UN Environment Programme.
X: @JamilBAhmad