Below are remarks from UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell, delivered during the opening of the high-level segment at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, on Monday 17 November 2025.
Excellencies,
Honourable Ministers,
Your arrival meets COP mid-stride.
We are no longer talking about what this COP must do - we are doing it. But we must strive for more.
Negotiators are working around the clock. I commend the spirit of goodwill throughout week one.
It reflects a widespread conviction that the Paris Agreement is humanity's only way to survive this global climate crisis, and to spread the vast benefits of climate action to all nations.
We are all aware of the headwinds. But I also sense a deep awareness of what's at stake, and the need to show climate cooperation standing firm in a fractured world.
I sense a real determination to build on the major progress of recent COPs, and show - once again - that climate cooperation is working to deliver real progress, though needs to work faster and fairer.
In week one, we've also seen some major steps forward in the Action Agenda - an increasingly key part of the Paris framework.
In seven days nations have mustered a trillion-dollar charge into clean energy and grids, rallied around a global plan to quadruple sustainable fuels, unlocked new waves of green industry, and started preparing a pipeline for new adaptation investment.
They reflect an irrefutable fact driven by this process: A new economy is rising, faster than forecasts.
The good news - last year alone, more than 2.2 trillion dollars flowed into renewable energy - that's more than the GDP of over 180 countries.
This real-world progress is not a nice-to-have. It is mission-critical. In this new era, much will depend on bringing our process closer to the real economy, to speed up implementation, and spread its vast benefits to billions more people, as I've been saying.
But friends - the pace of change in the real economy has not been matched by the pace of progress in these negotiating rooms. The spirit is there, but the speed is not.
As climate disasters wreck millions of lives and hammer every economy, pushing up prices for food and other basic needs. We all know what's at stake.
I said we needed an acceleration in the Amazon, and that applies equally to how we all go about our collective work here.
Clearly - there is a huge amount of work ahead for ministers and negotiators, I urge you to get to the hardest issues fast. When these issues get pushed deep into extra time, everybody loses.
We absolutely cannot afford to waste time on tactical delays or stone-walling. The time for performative diplomacy has now passed.
Now's the time to roll-up our sleeves, come together, and get the job done.
The secretariat will be with you every single step of the way.
I thank you.
