COP30 enters crucial week of climate negotiations in Brazil

The 30th UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) entered a decisive week on Monday, with participants intensifying discussions on climate finance, adaptation and just transition.

After concrete steps to scale adaptation and resilience in the first week, such as the Belem Declaration on Hunger, Poverty, and Human-Centered Climate Action and a sustainable fuels pledge, the second week "begins with a unifying focus: putting nature at the heart of climate action," COP30 said Monday in a briefing.

"This means strengthening commitments to protect forests, uphold the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities, and expand nature-based solutions as essential pillars of global progress," it added.

"The game is played until the very last moment," negotiators said.

Some of the most sensitive issues, such as financing from developed countries to developing countries and new emissions-reduction targets, have not yet been fully discussed as part of the formal agenda.

The COP30 Action Agenda still has not taken up Article 9.1 of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which requires developed countries to provide financial resources to assist developing countries with respect to both mitigation and adaptation.

Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said Saturday that "climate finance is the lifeblood of climate action," but it is "not yet sufficient or reliable enough, and it is not shared widely or fairly enough."

Stressing the significance of cooperation between developed and developing countries, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged a "clear and credible path reaching the 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars a year in climate finance for developing countries by 2035," calling on developed countries to take the lead in mobilizing 300 billion dollars annually.

To meet that goal, the COP29 and COP30 presidencies proposed taxes on financial transactions, luxury fashion, technology and military goods, according to the Report on the Baku to Belem Roadmap to 1.3T released earlier this month.

Brazil's COP30 presidency acknowledged resistance to the plan, noting that further review will be required.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he will return to Belem this week to meet with Guterres to strengthen climate governance and multilateral cooperation.

COP30, which runs from Nov. 10 to 21 in Brazil's Amazonian city of Belem, brings together representatives from nearly 200 countries and regions to focus on the efforts needed to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the presentation of new national action plans known as the Nationally Determined Contributions, and the progress on the finance pledges made at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.