The 30th "Conference of the Parties" (COP30) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is taking place from November 6-21, 2025 in Belém, Brazil. It has brought together world leaders, scientists, non-governmental organisations, and civil society to discuss priority actions to tackle climate change. COP30 will focus on the efforts needed to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°c, the presentation of new national action plans (NDCs) and the progress on the finance pledges made at COP 29.
The world at this point focused on a rhetorical question posed recently by the New York Times-- "Has the world given up fighting climate change?" -- which denoted a degree of sarcasm.
One needs to recall that UN Secretary General António Guterres, speaking at a press conference in Qatar on November 4, observed that governments at the COP30 meeting need to move towards concrete plans to slash their own emissions over the next decade while also delivering climate justice to those on the frontlines of a crisis they did little to cause. "Just look at Jamaica" he said, referring to the catastrophic devastation caused recently by Hurricane Melissa. In this context he reiterated that the clean energy revolution means it is possible to cut emissions while growing economies. However, this is becoming difficult as developing countries still lack the finance and technologies needed to support the transition.
Addressing the plenary of leaders at the Belem Climate Summit, UN Secretary-General said, "The hard truth is that we have failed to ensure we remain below 1.5 degrees. Science now tells us that a temporary overshoot beyond the 1.5 limit - starting at the latest in the early 2030s - is inevitable. We need a paradigm shift to limit this overshoot's magnitude and duration and quickly drive it down. Even a temporary overshoot will have dramatic consequences. It could push ecosystems past irreversible tipping points, expose billions to unlivable conditions, and amplify threats to peace and security. Every fraction of a degree means more hunger, displacement, and loss - especially for those least responsible. This is moral failure, and deadly negligence"- he warned. The United Nations, however, will not give up on the 1.5 degrees goal, he declared.
However, while clean energy technology is rapidly progressing, political will is seen as weakening, and current efforts are insufficient to prevent significant warming. For example, despite a pledge to cut methane emissions, a new U.N. report indicates the goal will likely not be met.
Meanwhile, research carried out by Oxfam and CARE Climate Justice Centre, has reported that developing countries are now paying more back to wealthy nations for climate finance loans than they receive. For every 5 dollars they receive, they are paying 7 dollars back. It appears that 65 per cent of funding is delivered in the form of loans. This form of crisis profiteering by rich countries is worsening debt burdens and hindering climate action. Compounding this failure, deep cuts to foreign aid also threaten to slash climate finance further, betraying the world's poorest communities who are facing the brunt of escalating climate disasters, says the joint report. Rich countries claim to have mobilised US dollar 116 billion in climate finance 2022, but the true value was only around US dollar 28-35 billion--less than a third of the pledged amount. Nearly two thirds of climate finance was made as loans, often at standard rates of interest without concessions. As a result, climate finance has been adding more each year to developing countries' debt, which now stands at US Dollar 3.3 trillion. Least Developed Countries got only 19.5 per cent and Small Island Developing States 2.9 per cent of total public climate finance over 2021-2022 and half of that was in the form of loans they have to repay.?
Oxfam's Climate Policy Lead Nafkote Dabi has noted, "Rich countries are treating the climate crisis as a business opportunity, not a moral obligation. They are lending money to the very people they have historically harmed, trapping vulnerable nations in a cycle of debt. This is a form of crisis profiteering." In this regard it has been observed that as the impacts of fossil fuelled climate disasters intensify -displacing millions of people in the Horn of Africa, battering 13 million more in the Philippines, and flooding 600,000 people in Brazil in 2024 alone - communities in low-income countries are left with fewer resources to adapt to the rapidly changing climate.
British Prince William during his presence in the COP30 meeting tried to encourage leaders to overcome their differences and move forward with action. He noted that "I have long believed in the power of urgent optimism: the conviction that, even in the face of daunting challenges, we have the ingenuity and determination to make a difference, and to do so now" and he urged them to take action for the sake of their children and grandchildren. He underlined that "let us rise to this moment with the clarity that history demands of us. Let us be the generation that turned the tide - not for applause, but for the quiet gratitude of those yet to be born."
It would be correct at this point to also refer to the observation of Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director, The Oakland Institute, "People must be very concerned that governments, especially Western countries that bear most of the responsibility for the climate crisis, are far from fulfilling their commitments in terms of decreased reduction of GHG, and far from assisting countries with adequate levels of financial assistance for mitigation and adaptation. It should be concerning that the same governments, and prominent financial institutions like the World Bank, are promoting false climate solutions such as carbon markets, which have been proven to be totally ineffective at reducing emissions" she said. Moreover, it must be clear for everyone that the new mining rush we are witnessing for so-called critical minerals has nothing to do with the energy transition but rather with the global competition over minerals for various industries such as military, communication technologies, as well as electric vehicles. The massive amount of minerals such as lithium and cobalt will be impossible to supply without creating another environmental and human crisis. It is time for governments to make responsible choices towards a real energy transition and stop expanding sectors such as the military that divert public resources and contribute greatly to emissions."
Environmentalist Keith Tuffley has in this context drawn attention to the need for financing global forest protection. Tuffley has observed that the world must understand that we do not have time to wait. Forests are disappearing at the rate of 10 million hectares a year. To stay on track for 1.5°c, UNEP estimates that tropical regions need US dollar 66.8 billion in annual investment in forests by 2030. The good news is that the framework to mobilise that capital is already in motion but the process needs to be hastened through multiple and complementary tools pertaining to restoration finance.
US President Donald Trump had been criticised by world leaders for his stance on climate change ahead of the global COP30 summit. President Trump did not attend the meeting in the Amazonian city of Belém and the media reported that he was called a liar by the leaders of Colombia and Chile for his rejection of climate science. The media also noted that while Trump did not attend the meeting in Belém, his views on climate change was certainly on the minds of many of the other leaders present. They recalled that speaking at the UN in September this year, the US president said that climate change was "the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world". He said: "The entire globalist concept, asking successful industrialised nations to inflict pain on themselves and radically disrupt their entire societies, must be rejected completely and totally."
However, without naming the US leader, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil warned of "extremist forces that fabricate fake news and are condemning future generations to life on a planet altered forever by global warming".
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer acknowledged the waning political support on climate change. He said it had been a unity issue internationally and in the UK but "today sadly that consensus is gone".
Many leaders from the world's largest nations - India, Russia, US and China -- were notably absent from this year's Summit.
Climatologist Gabriel Labbate has significantly pointed out that "we need to adopt a pragmatic approach to achieve both integrity and scale. For too long, the debate has been framed as "permanent" versus "non-permanent" climate solutions-as if the only climate value that counts is storage measured in centuries or millennia. Regardless of the geological storage available, that is a cardinal mistake. Climate risk unfolds across multiple time horizons; therefore, our response must also be multifaceted".
Quite correctly, we must all work together so that no country causes significant harm to climate systems in other parts of the world and harms future generations as well as countries by virtue of their geographical circumstances.
Muhammad Zamir, a former Ambassador is an analyst specialised in foreign affairs, right to information and good governance.
muhammadzamir0@gmail.com
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