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Info Service on Climate Change (Mar25/04) COP 30 IN-COMING PRESIDENT OUTLINES VISION OF HOPE ON CLIMATE ACTION New Delhi, March 12 (Radhika Chatterjee): The President-designate of the 30th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 30), Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago, Secretary for Climate, Energy, and Environment at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, laid out the vision that would guide the work under the incoming Presidency at COP30 in a letter dated 10 March. In the unprecedented lengthy letter, which is “A global call against climate change”, Lago recalled the effects of climate change impacts around the world and said that “while we grieve human and material losses, 2025 must be the year we channel our sadness and indignation towards constructive collective action. Change is inevitable – either by choice or by catastrophe. If global warming is left unchecked, change will be imposed on us as it disrupts our societies, economies, and families. If instead we choose to organize ourselves in collective action, we have the possibility of rewriting a different future. Changing by choice gives us the chance for a future that is not dictated by climate tragedy, but rather by resilience and agency towards a vision we design ourselves.” He added further that “in coming to terms with reality when countering doom, cynicism, and denial, COP30 must be the moment of hope and possibilities through action – never paralysis and fragmentation. We must face climate change together and reactivate our collective and individual ability to respond: our “response-abilities.” Lago also elaborated the principles and key issues that the incoming COP30 presidency would seek to address. Highlighting five key pillars of UNFCCC, he referred to the five stars of the “Southern Cross” as the guide for this COP, as the negotiations move to the Southern Hemisphere, which will be held in Belém in Nov. 2025. Drawing from Brazil’s tradition of playing football, he said efforts at COP30 for fighting the climate crisis would be aimed at winning the “virada”, referring to the spirit of turning “the game around when defeat seems almost certain.” Highlighting the need for shifting the focus from “negotiation” to “practice,” Lago urged policymakers to raise ambition in climate action, and stressed international cooperation as one of the key fulcrums for collectively fighting the climate crisis. He also shared the important issues that would be addressed at the 62nd meeting of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI 62) (which will be held in June in Bonn, Germany) and at COP30. Lago also elaborated on the way forward for the Baku to Belém Roadmap to 1.3 Trillion for scaling up climate finance for developing countries. Among the special themes to be addressed COP30, forests was highlighted in particular, given the fact that this COP would be held in Amazon forests. He also elaborated upon the efforts that the incoming presidency would undertake for engaging with a wide of range of stakeholders, both within and outside of UNFCCC. Principles that would guide the work Recalling the historical UN Conference on Environment and Development, held in 1992, also known as the Rio ‘Earth Summit’, which laid the foundations of UNFCCC, Lago highlighted the five pillars that constitute the Convention viz. “mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology, and capacity-building”, adding that the “five stars of the “Southern Cross” would act as the “compass in reaching decisive inflexions” across all the five pillars. Lago said work would be guided fundamentally by the principle of “‘cooperation among peoples for the progress of humanity’…because it has the firm conviction that there is no future progress for humanity without deep, rapid, and sustained cooperation among our peoples.” Drawing from the culture of its indigenous peoples and their concept of ““mutirão” (“Motirõ” in Tupi-Guarani language)…[which] refers to a community coming together to work on a shared task, whether harvesting, building, or supporting one another”, the incoming COP30 Presidency invited the international community “to join Brazil in a global “mutirão” against climate change” which would be “a global effort of cooperation among peoples for the progress of humanity.” Shifting from negotiation to “practice” Stressing the need for shifting from negotiation to “practice” in climate talks, he said, “COP30 must represent a decisive transition from the regime’s negotiation phase” and asked climate negotiators to “help put into practice” what Parties have agreed to under the UNFCCC and its Paris Agreement [PA]. This he said would be critical for addressing the “the outside perception of talks having lingered for over three decades with meagre results.” In this context, he urged national policymakers to align nationally determined contributions (NDCs) “with the temperature goals of the PA” and asked national leaders to “honour their resolve to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C”, because the global future depended on that. While he acknowledged the nationally determined nature of NDCs “and hence not [being] subject to multilateral negotiations”, he added the incoming Presidency would “nevertheless stimulate a frank collective reflection on bottlenecks that have been hampering climate ambition and implementation.” Underlining the need for raising ambition, Lago said NDCs can be turned “into platforms for a prosperous future that enshrine national determination to contribute and transform.” Along the same vein, he said there is a need for “ambitious NDCs that privilege quality as a follow-up to legal obligations under the PA.” Elaborating further, he said, “in helping each other in transitions that are just, our common but differentiated responsibilities [CBDR] will serve as strong levers for countries’ willingness to contribute to the climate fight.” Said Lago further, the fulcrum on which this fight would rest upon would be “international cooperation,” aimed at “strengthening respective capabilities and institutions in all countries” and added, “we must recognize the international community is only as strong as its weakest link.” Recalling the outcome of the first Global Stocktake (GST) [especially its paragraphs 28 (on the energy transition) and 33 (in addressing deforestation)], he said, “based on equity and science, the GST is already the unanimous reference that informs international cooperation and in enhancing actions and support.” Adding further, he said, “the GST stands as our guide to ‘Mission 1.5’, as our collective project to implement the vision of the Convention and the PA, the vision of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty.” Issues at SBI Among key issues that would be dealt with at SBI 62, Lago highlighted work related to transparency, technology, increasing efficiency of the UNFCCC process, and gender related issues. On transparency, Lago stressed the need for building the “capacity of developing country Parties to transition from adhoc reporting approaches to government-led, systematic, and institutionalized processes for preparing and submitting national reports under the ETF” [enhanced transparency framework]. He also said further that, “the mandated workshop to be held at” SBI 62 would “facilitate the sharing of experiences of developing country Parties in preparing their first BTRs [Biennial Transparency Reports].” On technology, he said that work will be on “the elaboration of the technology implementation programme and the review of the Climate Technology Centre. Parties are expected to agree on the technology implementation programme at COP30 to strengthen the UNFCCC Technology Mechanism and support the implementation of technology priorities identified by developing countries.” Work to “increase the efficiency of the UNFCCC process towards enhancing ambition and implementation” would also be intensified at SBI 62, he said in the letter further. Work would also be initiated for “the development of a new gender action plan,” taking forward the work of enhanced Lima work programme, with the aim of eventually advancing the agenda of gender and climate at COP30. Issues at COP30 Highlighting the “pending issues to solve at COP30”, Lago mentioned in particular the UAE dialogue on implementing the GST outcomes and the just transition work programme (JTWP). He called the GST the “ultimate benchmark for climate implementation” and deemed just transitions “central for leveraging climate action towards sustainable development and addressing structural inequalities between and within countries, including in terms of gender, race, and ethnicity.” Elaborating further, he said Parties had “recognized” in Baku, [Azerbaijan], the need for increasing “efforts to support just transitions across all sectors and thematic areas, and cross-cutting efforts, including transparency, readiness, capacity-building, and technology development and transfer.” According to the letter, other key issues that will be addressed include the “Sharm el-Sheikh dialogue on the scope of Article 2.1(c) of the PA”, development of a work plan of the Paris Committee on Capacity Building (PCCB), and taking forward work under the ‘Sharm el-Sheikh mitigation ambition and implementation work programme’ (MWP).” Lago also stressed the need for building on the progress made under the Global Goal on Adaptation under the previous two COPs to fulfilling the “legal mandate on indicators under the United Arab Emirates–Belém work programme.” On the PCCB, Lago highlighted that the focus in 2025 would be on “capacity building for designing holistic investment strategies, bankable projects, and stakeholder engagement to strengthen the implementation of NDCs and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) in developing countries.” On the MWP, Lago recalled the discussions held at COP29 “around the creation of a digital platform to facilitate implementation of mitigation actions by enhancing collaboration between governments, financiers, and other stakeholders on developing investable projects in a country-owned and nationally determined manner.” Adding further, he said, “such a digital platform can serve as a fulcrum for powerful levers in climate implementation, with speed and scale.” On adaptation, he said Parties “must ensure 2025 is equally a landmark for climate adaptation and the delivery of NAPs. Governments, businesses, subnational stakeholders, financial institutions, and universities need to put adaptation at the same level of engagement and centrality as mitigation. Adaptation is no longer a choice, nor does it compete with mitigation.” Baku to Belém Roadmap to 1.3 Trillion In terms of the way forward on the ‘Baku to Belém Roadmap to 1.3 Trillion’ aimed at scaling up climate finance for developing countries, Lago said the COP30 presidency would work with the COP29 presidency and produce “a report summarizing” their work by COP30. Elaborating the vision for the purpose of this roadmap, he said, “the Baku to Belém Roadmap to 1.3T must serve as a fulcrum for leveraging finance to low-carbon and climate-resilience pathways in developing countries.” Emphasizing the importance of climate finance in accelerating climate action, he said, “the reality is that there is sufficient global capital to close the global investment gap but there are barriers to redirecting capital to climate action. Governments, through public funding and clear signals to investors, are key in reducing these barriers.” Calling for a need to use the multilateral financial architecture in the “best way,” he said this could be done by removing barriers and addressing “disenablers faced by developing country Parties in financing climate action, including high costs of capital, limited fiscal space, unsustainable debt levels, high transaction costs, and conditionalities for accessing climate finance. We must progress in mainstreaming climate into investments and finance.” Reiterating the need for all “actors to work together to enable the scaling up of financing to developing country Parties for climate action from all public and private sources to at least USD 1.3 trillion per year by 2035”, he added, “it is high time Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and International Financial Institutions (IFIs) evolved into bigger, better, and more effective entities that structurally support enhanced, ambitious climate action.” Forests and other special themes Stressing the fact that this is the first COP that will be held in the Amazon forests, Lago highlighted the topic of forests as being a “central” issue at COP30. He said, “we must listen to the latest science and re-evaluate the extraordinary role already played by forests and the people who preserve and rely on them. Forests can buy us time in climate action in our rapidly closing window of opportunity. If we reverse deforestation and recover what has been lost, we can unlock massive removals of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere while bringing ecosystems back to life. Healthier ecosystems can equally offer resilience and bioeconomy opportunities by promoting local livelihoods, creating sophisticated value- chains, and generating innovations in biotechnology. Tapping into such an outstanding potential requires enhanced global support and investment, including through financial resources, technology transfer, and capacity-building.” In this context, he also mentioned the idea of “building on the outcomes of the 2023 Amazon Summit”, and using the initiative of “United for our Forests” to “stimulate the debate on the role of forests in the climate fight.” The other themes that would “receive special attention will include energy, cities, and technology and innovation.” [The joint communique of “United for our Forests” can be read here.] Circle of Presidencies and public participation In order to channel “collective wisdom”, Lago said the “incoming COP30 presidency would “invite all presidencies from COP21 to COP29 to form a “Circle of Presidencies” for advice on the political process and on climate implementation. We will further invite the current presidencies of COPs under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)… [to] help ensure COP30 honors and synthesizes the legacies of previous COPs while reflecting on the ongoing agenda and the future of our process and of global climate governance.” He added further that this “circle can leverage networks and articulate resources, processes, mechanisms, and stakeholders within and outside the UNFCCC, to make the difference locally when aligning with the Convention and the PA.” Lago also highlighted the importance of public participation for the integration of these agendas and added that they will “invite leaders among Indigenous Peoples to form a “Circle of Indigenous Leadership”, to help integrate traditional knowledges and wisdom into global collective intelligence.” Group of special envoys Lago also said that “the incoming presidency will bring together negotiators, governments, civil society, private sector, and other stakeholders to engage”. Further, there will also be “a group of Special Envoys” who would “engage with key actors to integrate different solutions and dimensions of the climate challenge which remain fragmentally addressed. In 2026, the Brazilian presidency will follow-up on these efforts in coordination with the future incoming COP31 presidency.” Global Ethical Stocktake Sharing a novel idea of undertaking a “Global Ethical Stocktake”, Lago said its purpose would be “to hear from a geographically diverse group of thinkers, scientists, politicians, religious leaders, artists, philosophers, and traditional peoples and communities, among others, about ethical commitments and practices for dealing with climate change at all levels.” In this context he also highlighted the need for keeping in mind the warning given by the 16th century French philosopher Rabelais, that “science sans conscience n’est que ruine de l'âme (science without conscience is but the ruin of the soul).” Conclusion Finally, Lago concluded his letter by stressing the need for triggering at COP30 “a “movement of movements” – a global movement of local, multistakeholder, and multisectoral movements.” Highlighting the importance of collective efforts, he added, “together, we can make the whole of our efforts “emerge” as more than a mere sum of their parts…[and] recover our sense of shared destiny.” He cautioned that those who would “refuse to reflect mid- to long-term thinking, future-oriented policies and engagement may succumb to reputational, transitional, legal, and physical climate-related risks”, while “those who genuinely commit to winning the climate fight have the potential to emerge in leadership in a golden age of global renewal, regeneration, and cooperation.” The incoming COP30 Presidency will be making additional announcements in the next few weeks and months to elaborate on the “Action Agenda” with “a new dynamic that focuses on key issues for the full implementation of the GST and of NDCs.”
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