Belém, Brazil -What started with strong hope and promise ended without actionable roadmaps to end forest destruction and the burning of fossil fuels, as geopolitical divisions again showcased the disconnection with people calling for COP30 climate action.
The first COP in the Amazon rainforest should have delivered an action plan to end forest destruction by 2030 and after 2035 climate action plans fell dangerously short, COP30 should also have delivered a Global Response Plan to bridge the 1.5°C ambition gap. It did neither. Nor did it deliver a meaningful step-up in climate finance.
The final day of the COP was marked by an objection raised by Colombia and other Latin American countries over a lack of progress in climate mitigation, leading to a temporary suspension of the closing plenary, before the COP30 outcome was formally adopted.
Carolina Pasquali, Executive Director, Greenpeace Brazil said: "President Lula set the bar high in calling for roadmaps to end fossil fuels and deforestation, but a divided multilateral landscape was unable to hurdle it. This was a crossroad – a properly funded path to 1.5°C or a highway to climate catastrophe – and while many governments are willing to act, a powerful minority is not."
"This weak outcome doesn't do justice to everything else that happened in Belém. The biggest Indigenous participation in a climate COP, but also the marches and protests organised outside led to the demarcation of 14 lands – four of those in the very final stage of the process, securing over 2.4 million hectares of land for its original peoples in Brazil."
"Indigenous Peoples' and local communities' rights, tenure and knowledge and the rights of people of African descent, were also formally acknowledged – a confirmation that can help shift future discussions. The two roadmaps and a strong finance outcome would have provided a historic result to raise ambition, but the work now continues."
Jasper Inventor, Deputy Programme Director, Greenpeace International said: "COP30 started with a bang of ambition but ended with a whimper of disappointment. This was the moment to move from negotiations to implementation – and it slipped. The outcome failed to match the urgency demanded. The 1.5°C limit is not just under threat, it's almost gone. It's this reality that exposes the hypocrisy of inaction of COP after COP after COP."
"COP30 didn't deliver ambition on the 3Fs – fossil fuels, finance and forests. No agreed pathway to phase out fossil fuels, no concrete plan to protect forests and no meaningful step-up in climate finance. But the millions globally and the tens of thousands on Belém streets show that hope lives outside the conference walls as communities continue to resist and rise up for our people and our planet."
Tracy Carty, Climate Politics Expert, Greenpeace International said: "At a moment when the world needs bold urgent action on emissions, this COP30 outcome feels like we're treading water in a rip tide. These negotiations were derailed by inadequate climate finance, weak leadership from G20 nations – particularly developed ones – and the heavy hand of fossil fuel interests. The fossil fuel industry managed to dodge a phase out roadmap, but COP30 saw more countries than ever back it, and made clear that the momentum and pressure is rising."
"After two weeks of fierce negotiations and calls for a robust adaptation finance goal to deal with escalating climate impacts, developed countries only agreed to a pathetically weak target. COP30 did little to advance climate finance overall or push developed countries to commit public funding for the years ahead. Developed countries again kept their wallets shut despite the fact trillions in public finance could be unlocked by taxing the biggest fossil fuel and super-rich polluters. That would be climate finance in action."
An Lambrechts, Biodiversity Politics Expert, Greenpeace International said: "Forests are at the crossroads of climate change and biodiversity loss and the 1.5°C solution is reliant on protecting them. Belém needed an action plan to end forest destruction by 2030 to deliver the GST decision. Many parties supported this but all we got was voluntary engagements – an open invitation for industries like big agriculture to keep banking dirty profits from forest destruction. The truth about the 'COP of truth' in the Amazon is that it delivered very little for forests."
