UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell. PHOTO/Kiara Worth | UN Climate Change
By PATRICK MAYOYO
newshub@eyewitness.africa
COP30 officially opened in Belém, Brazil, today, as thousands of diplomats, climate experts, and world leaders gathered in the Amazon to discuss how to turn climate promises into real action.
With the planet’s temperature rising and climate disasters escalating, the pressure on governments and industries to act decisively has never been higher.
In a blunt address at the Leaders’ Summit, UN Secretary General António Guterres told delegates, “It’s no longer time for negotiations. It’s time for implementation, implementation, and implementation.”
Ahead of the summit, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell also called for urgent and decisive action to combat the growing climate crisis. In statement posted on LinkedIn, Stiell highlighted the progress made under the Paris Agreement but stressed the need for much more, particularly in the Amazon region.
“The climate crisis is already here,” Stiell warned, citing recent extreme weather events, including Hurricane Melissa in the Caribbean, super typhoons in Southeast Asia, and a tornado that hit southern Brazil. He urged that these events are a foretaste of more devastating impacts unless global action is scaled up.
With the COP30 conference set to run from today to 21 November, Stiell outlined three key goals for the summit that included a clear commitment to global cooperation noting that countries must demonstrate their commitment to climate action by agreeing on robust solutions to the pressing challenges.
He also called for faster implementation across all sectors adding that progress must be accelerated in all sectors of every economy, ensuring climate action is implemented at scale and speed.
Stiell additionally called connecting climate Action to People’s lives emphasizing for a focus on the real-world benefits of climate action, including job creation, improved public health, cleaner air, and more affordable, secure energy.
After decades of pledges and annual summits from Kyoto to Sharm el-Sheikh, the planet keeps getting hotter and pressure on governments and big business to act – not just talk – has never been greater.
Holding COP30 in Belém, at the edge of the world’s largest tropical rainforest, underscores the stakes: the Amazon region is both a vital carbon sink and a frontline in the fight against deforestation and climate change.
So, this year’s meeting aims to shift gears. Delegates will review national climate plans, push for $1.3 trillion a year in climate finance, adopt new measures to help countries adapt, and advance a ‘just transition’ to cleaner economies.
COP30 has been billed as a turning point – a moment of truth and a test of global solidarity. The summit opens on Monday in Belém against a stark backdrop: scientists say the planet is on course to temporarily breach the 1.5°C warming limit set by the Paris Agreement.
That overshoot could still be short-lived, experts warn, but only if countries act fast to ramp up efforts on cutting emissions, adapting to climate impacts, and mobilizing finance. Under Brazil’s presidency, COP30 will revolve around an action agenda of 30 key goals, each driven by an ‘activation group’ tasked with scaling up solutions.
The Belém Climate Summit opens on 10 November 2025. PHOTO/ UNFCCC/Diego Herculano
The effort has been dubbed a mutirão – an Indigenous word meaning “collective task” – reflecting Brazil’s push to spotlight Indigenous leadership and participation at the conference and in the global fight against climate change.
The government says it wants all sectors – from Indigenous communities to business leaders – to help deliver on past climate promises.
Action agendas at COPs are built on voluntary pledges rather than binding law. But the scale of change needed is enormous: at least $1.3 trillion in climate investments every year by 2035.
Without urgent action, scientists warn global temperatures could climb between 2.3°C and 2.8°C by the end of the century, leaving vast regions uninhabitable through flooding, extreme heat and ecosystem collapse.
At the heart of talks in Belém will be the Baku-to-Belém Roadmap Report for $1.3 Trillion, prepared by the COP29 and COP30 presidencies. It sets out five priorities for mobilizing resources, including boosting six multilateral climate funds, strengthening cooperation on taxing polluting activities, and converting sovereign debt into climate investment – a move that could unlock up to $100 billion for developing countries.
The report also calls for dismantling barriers such as investment treaty clauses that let corporations sue governments over climate policies. Those disputes have already cost governments $83 billion across 349 cases.
Another key focus in Belém is the latest round of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – national climate plans that spell out how countries intend to cut emissions. To keep warming below 1.5°C, global emissions must fall by 60 per cent by 2030. Current NDCs would deliver only a 10 per cent cut.
Of the 196 Parties to the Paris Agreement, just 64 had submitted updated NDCs by the end of September. At preparatory talks in Germany in June, many countries warned that this ambition gap must be closed at COP30.
Delegates are also expected to approve 100 global indicators to track progress on climate adaptation, making results measurable and comparable across nations.
Today, 172 countries have at least one adaptation policy or plan, though 36 are outdated. The new indicators should help shape more transparent and effective policies.
With the planet heating faster than ever, adaptation is now a central pillar of climate action. But the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warns adaptation finance must rise twelvefold by 2035 to meet developing countries’ needs.
COP30 will also push forward the Just Transition Work Programme – aimed at ensuring climate measures don’t 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 the most vulnerable nations.
The Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – known simply as COP – remains the world’s leading forum for tackling the climate crisis. Decisions are made by consensus, driving cooperation on mitigation, adaptation and finance.
Over the years, COPs have delivered landmark deals. In 2015, the Paris Agreement set the goal of keeping global temperature rise “well below 2°C” while striving for 1.5°C.
At COP28 in Dubai, countries agreed to transition away from fossil fuels “in a just, orderly and equitable manner” and to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030. Last year in Baku, COP29 raised the annual climate finance target for developing nations from $100 billion to $300 billion, with a roadmap to scale up to $1.3 trillion.
Taken together, the legal framework built over three decades under the UNFCCC has helped avert a projected 4°C temperature rise by the end of this century. COP30 officially opened today (Monday), 10 November, and runs through Friday, 21 November.
Additional reporting by UN.
