The 2025 UN climate summit in Belém, Brazil, ended in compromise rather than breakthrough. Nearly 200 nations approved the so‑called Belém Package — a bundle of 29 decisions touching on adaptation finance, “just‑transition” support, trade, technology and inclusion. But the treaty notably fails to deliver on the three crucial demands: a global fossil‑fuel phase‑out roadmap, binding emission cuts, and a serious deforestation strategy.
Belém Package
The Belém Package includes a political commitment to scale up climate finance, especially for adaptation and resilience. Countries agreed to triple the $40 billion adaptation finance goal established four years ago at COP26, mobilising investment into climate resilience. While investing in climate adaptation seemed non-profitable, the financial loss from climate-related disasters was estimated to $417 billion in 2024 alone. “Every $1 spent on adaptation can yield up to $10 in economic, social and environmental benefits over 10 years — from avoided damage to homes and infrastructure, to new jobs, better health and increased productivity”, journalists at World Resources Institute write.
The package also endorses the Baku-to-Belém Roadmap, a strategic frame for mobilising at least USD 1.3 trillion per year by 2035 from public and private sources, “aiming at scaling up climate finance to developing country Parties to support low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development pathways”.
COP30 also recognised the rights and needs of Indigenous peoples, women, subnational governments and historically marginalised communities. Hosting the summit in the Amazon underscored these issues. Parties agreed to a Just Transition Mechanism, committing to support workers, communities and structural shifts as economies move away from carbon‑intense industries.
Updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), strategies to reduce emissions to keep up with the Paris Agreement goals, were submitted by over 120 countries.
Out of the Agreement
COP30’s own presidency framed the outcome not as an end‑point but the start of a “decade of delivery”. The intent is to move from target‑setting to tangible action in policies, infrastructures, finance and international cooperation; however, the key agreements, as the global fossil-fuel phase-out strategy, were left out of the final agreement. With the largest global polluters backing out of the agreement, observers “described Belém as a turning point that reflected a new distribution of global influence”.
Besides, the summit failed to produce any binding commitments on stopping deforestation or protecting forest ecosystems at scale. For many, this void undermines both climate mitigation and ecological justice goals. Even if all current promises were implemented, aggregate emissions are projected to fall only modestly — nowhere near the 35–55 % reductions scientists say are needed for a 1.5 °C scenario. In effect, COP30 preserves the existing global climate architecture — but does not strengthen it to match planetary urgency.
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