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Tempestuous times see a push for action at COP30
2025-11-19
By Dr Timothy Neff, Lecturer in Journalism
UN negotiations typically occupy venues that seem hermetically sealed off from the outside world, but at COP30 in Brazil, a changing climate has asserted itself in many ways: heat and rain, political protests, geopolitical tensions have shaped what will be remembered as a unique and uniquely challenging COP. It is a COP where the intensification of climate change feels like it is pressing in on the venue.
A climate COP, short for “Conference of the Parties,” is the big annual climate change summit, and more than 50,000 diplomats, civil society actors, and other stakeholders have registered for COP30, making it second only to COP28 in Dubai in terms of registered participants. I am attending COP30 as part of Earth Negotiations Bulletin‘s coverage of side events, which means dashing from room to room across the sprawling venue in Belém to write up panel discussions, ministerial events, and other conversations happening around the negotiations. While not part of the official deliberations, these side events are a chance for researchers, activists, industry leaders and government policymakers to share the latest complications—and solutions—in our shared efforts to limit global warming.
Belém sits near the mouth of the Amazon River, a setting that is intensifying the focus on Indigenous Peoples as crucial actors in fights against climate change and biodiversity loss. Pressure to halt Amazon mining and deforestation and to recognize Indigenous territorial rights is intense at COP30. Demonstrations in and around the venue have drawn global attention to these issues, particularly after clashes between activists and guards at the venue’s main security checkpoint.
At the same time, delegates have noted that the broader geopolitical climate of rising nationalism and populism is pressuring countries to assert borders rather than meaningfully engage in multilateral processes like COP30. Still, COP30 got off to a fast start. Negotiators adopted the agenda with minimal fuss and launched straight into substantive negotiations, choosing to deal with some controversial proposed agenda items through special consultations led by the Brazilian COP presidency.
The continued rise in global average temperatures contributes to the urgency at COP30. The Paris Agreement of 2015 aimed to limit that rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels, but last year this ceiling was breached. In side events and plenary sessions, delegates have amplified the COP30 byword: “implementation,” generally meaning getting down to the business of doing rather than talking about doing. As always, though, a host of sticky issues intervene. Outcomes of negotiations over financing and tracking adaptation, mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, achieving just transitions to clean economies, and integrating gender perspectives into climate policymaking will shape judgements of whether COP30 is a success.
A few other things stand out at the venue:
China’s presence couldn’t be more prominent in the venue. Their pavilion, hosting talks, stuffed panda toys, tea, and other delegate draws, is an unmissable first thing you see when checking in.
It’s the opposite case for the US, one of only four countries not registering a delegation for COP30, along with Afghanistan, Myanmar, and San Marino. Though the US is in the process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, some feared that the Trump administration would send delegates who would actively try to block progress at COP30. Others voiced optimism (“ciao, bambino,” said one major player in passage of the Paris Agreement) that the US exit will clear a path for rapid progress at climate summits.
Finally, but not inconsequentially, there’s the Amazonian weather: hot, humid days, more humid nights, and occasional thunderous downpours in the afternoons. The torrential rains drown out conversations and foil plans to exit the venue, which is inconsistently air-conditioned. Here you wade through an atmospheric soup that starkly drives home the feel of a warming planet.
Now with COP30 in the final stretch, a climate of deadline pressure will keep negotiators at the venue into the early morning hours in search of a deal.