COP30: What Is Happening | Updates

This is the 30th session of the meeting of Parties to the UNFCCC (COP30), taking place from November 10-21, in Madrid, Brazil. Parties are expected to advance the work of COP30, the 20th session of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 20), the 7th session of the meeting of Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA 7), and the 63rd sessions of the Scientific Body for Implementation (SBI 63) and Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA 63). 

November 21, 2025 

• Article 6.2 (rules for reporting Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes), Article 6.4 (global carbon-credit mechanisms) and Article 6.8 texts (non-market approaches for climate action) were finalised and forwarded to the COP30 Presidency for adoption, the strongest procedural progress of the day.  
• Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) formally agreed to wind down: all operations will end by 31 December 2026, and about USD 26.8 million will be transferred from the CDM Trust Fund to support the Article 6.4 mechanism. 
• Unresolved disputes still persisted over Article 9.1 finance, NCQG (New Collective Quantified Goal), fossil-fuel transition roadmap, trade-related measures and unilateral actions and remaining elements of the Mutirão political package. 
• New revised drafts of the Belém Political Package were circulated, but ministers noted that major political gaps still remained on finance and fossil-fuel transition language.  
• UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell declared that COP30 showed that “climate cooperation is alive”, calling for unity to keep 1.5 °C within reach. 
• The COP30 Presidency held an informal stock-take plenary, updating countries on the negotiation status and mapping next steps for the final hours of the summit. 
• Delegations and observers highlighted that COP30 now hinges on finance, fossil fuels, and adaptation as the defining political battles going into the final decision. 
• COP President Andrei Lago committed to getting countries to deliberate upon two ‘road maps’ to end deforestation, as well as a path towards ending fossil fuel use by countries. 

November 20, 2025

• Parties reached consensus on the decision to strengthen the engagement of local communities, with broad support (Indigenous Peoples, AOSIS, EU, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia) and the text now ready for adoption by the COP.
• Negotiations on Article 6.2 (rules for reporting and tracking carbon-credit transfers); and Article 6.8 (non-market approaches for cooperation without carbon trading) saw no breakthrough, including unresolved fights over how to split the USD 2 million International Transaction Log (ITL) budget between Article 6.2 and response-measures work.
• Ministers emphasised tripling adaptation finance, phasing out fossil-fuel subsidies, and creating a permanent Just Transition mechanism, but none of these have translated into agreed text yet.
• The day’s focus includes agriculture, food systems, gender justice, and tourism, with an emphasis on turning COP30 pledges into real-world action.
• A session titled “Towards a People-Centered Climate Action” spotlights the leadership of women and girls of African descent, emphasising their role in climate justice.
• A workshop on race-sensitive climate solutions explored how ethnic-racial equity, ancestral knowledge, and human rights can strengthen adaptation and climate resilience.
• A dedicated event on Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities centres them in climate justice discussions, with efforts to build a global cooperation network and strengthen their role in loss & damage mechanisms.

November 19, 2025 

• The Presidency’s draft note on UNFCCC’s cooperation with other international organisations was released, but many Parties (including Canada, EU, UK, Mauritius, Liberia, The Gambia, Armenia, Mongolia) called out it to be unbalanced and said it lacked transparency.   
• Technical negotiations surged overnight on Article 6.8 (non-market approaches for cooperation without carbon trading) and Article 6.2 (rules for reporting and tracking carbon-credit transfers); though there has been no major breakthrough yet.  
• Key issues such as the fossil-fuel phase-out roadmap and the New Collective Quantified goal (NCQG) on finance remained unresolved as ministers continued overnight consultations. 
• The day’s theme emphasised that transforming food systems is foundational to climate-resilience and inclusive growth, moving from ambition to action in agriculture, land and food. 
• The “RAIZ Accelerator” was launched—an initiative supported by 10 countries aiming to restore degraded farmland using mapping tools and blended finance to unlock private investment at scale. 
• The “TERRA” Plan to Accelerate Solutions (part of COP 30 Action Agenda) was introduced, placing family farmers, Indigenous Peoples and local communities at the center of transforming food systems via agroecology and agroforestry. 
• Two other Plans to Accelerate Solutions for aquatic food systems and algae were announced under FAO / the UN Global Seaweed Initiative, promoting climate-resilient, nature-positive aquatic food economies. 
• The Alliance of Champions for Food Systems Transformation added new members (Colombia, Vietnam, Italy) and announced coordinated frameworks to accelerate food-system transformation. 
• A gender-responsive disaster protocol was launched by Brazil with UN Women and UNDRR, to protect and center women and girls in climate emergencies. 
• The UK and Brazil announced the Belém Declaration on Fertilisers and a Plan to Accelerate Solutions for low-emissions fertilisers, including setting international standards, demand creation, and farm-level tools. 

November 18, 2025 

• The Presidency released a draft “Mutirão decision” offering a menu of options on key issues, including finance (Article 9.1), NDC ambition, trade, and transparency, to be negotiated as a unified political package. 
• The NAP Implementation Alliance was launched to help countries strengthen and finance their national adaptation plans.  
• Over 80 countries issued a joint call for a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels, underscoring growing global pressure on fossil-fuel producing nations. 
• The “Global Ethical Stocktake” report was officially launched, reinforcing the agenda of equitable and people-centred climate action.  
• Further, countries joined the Blue NDC Challenge, committing to integrate ocean-based climate solutions into their national climate plans. 
• The One Ocean Partnership launched a global network for “regenerative seascapes,” aiming to mobilise at least USD 20 billion for a Blue Economy that restores and protects ocean ecosystems. 
• Major ocean–climate “Breakthroughs” advanced, with new tools and funding, such as global progress tracking and catalytic finance for mangroves, saltmarshes, and peatlands—accelerating large-scale restoration and implementation. 

November 17, 2025 

• Parties continued negotiating rules for carbon trading under Article 6.2, discussing how to better train technical reviewers, make countries’ reports more detailed, and improve the operation of the carbon-market registry. 
• Delegates faced intense pressure to finalise adaptation indicators, the roadmap for the finance goal (NCQG) and clarify how NDCs will be assessed at the global stocktake. 
• While nature-finance and community-led mechanisms gained traction, no comprehensive agreement emerged on finance sharing or operational modalities of key funds. 
• The Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) was operationalised – the largest forest-finance instrument created to date, signalling forests being valued as standing assets.  
• A USD 1.8 billion land-tenure pledge was launched for Indigenous and local community rights, alongside a high-level roundtable on Indigenous governance in climate finance.  
• The Earth Investment Engine under the Bioeconomy/Forest-Capital window has secured more than USD 10 billion in commitments for Brazil-based forest and bioeconomy projects by 2027 -bracketing the original USD 5 billion target. 
• The presidency emphasised “nature at the centre” of climate action, integrating biodiversity, oceans and community resilience as core to COP30 outcomes. 
• The newly announced Integrated Fire Management and Wildfire Resilience Hub will scale wildfire resilience globally, aiming to train 5,000+ practitioners, support 10,000+ Indigenous/local knowledge-holders, and bring 10+ million ha under improved fire-resilient management by 2028. 

November 15, 2025  

• Negotiators pushed harder on aligning trade and finance: the Integrated Forum on Climate Change and Trade emphasised the need for reforms in the financial system to support just transition.  
• They spotlighted taxonomy interoperability, with a session to align sustainable-finance definitions globally so as to unlock cross-border capital, especially for emerging economies. A Taxonomy Roadmap Initiative was unveiled, including “Principles for Taxonomy Interoperability” and a “Sustainable Finance Taxonomy Mapper” tool to compare green finance taxonomies across countries.  
• Strong political momentum built around the Baku to Belém Roadmap, but no binding agreement was made on how to mobilise or share the USD 1.3 trillion per year’s target. Around USD 10 trillion in assets under management (asset owners) committed to aligning their portfolios with the Baku-to-Belém path; they called for reforms to channel capital into hard-to-abate sectors and emerging markets. 

November 14, 2025 

• Finance continued to dominate the agenda with strong emphasis on the “Baku to Belém $1.3 trillion” roadmap and calls for alignment of financial flows, signalling heightened attention to implementation over ambition. 
• Parties debated multiple options for how to institutionalise Article 9.1 on climate finance, including a standalone agenda item or a dedicated work programme — but failed to reach consensus.  
• In the Mitigation Work Programme discussions, AOSIS, LDCs, EIG and Japan pushed to explicitly reference the 1.5 °C goal, while the Arab Group, LMDCs, and Russia opposed inclusion of such language.  
• The Belém 4X Pledge implementation platform and the Clean Energy Ministerial Future Fuels Action Plan, as well as the Belém Declaration on Global Green Industrialisatio,n were launched, all marking major steps toward scaling sustainable fuels, green industrialisation and grid/energy storage transition. 
• The Belém 4X Pledge and the Clean Energy Ministerial Future Fuels Action Plan were introduced to accelerate the scaling of sustainable fuels and energy-transition infrastructure. 
• The Belém Declaration on Global Green Industrialisation was launched at COP30 with the support of over 35 countries, international organisations and initiatives. It establishes a framework to advance green manufacturing, technology transfer, and decarbonised supply chains, particularly in emerging economies. 
• A coalition of global utilities under the Utilities for Net Zero Alliance (UNEZA) committed nearly USD 150 billion annually to expand clean energy grids and storage systems. The launch of the Global Grids and Storage Coordination Council aims to coordinate investment in power-system resilience and renewable integration. 

November 13, 2025 

• The draft text on the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) indicators was met with opposition from groups including the African Group and Arab Group, who requested a two-year delay on adoption, arguing that current proposals risk shifting adaptation funding burdens onto developing countries.  
• Talks on Article 2.1(c) (aligning financial flows) and Article 9.1 (providing climate finance) kept coming up in multiple negotiations, including the Just Transition Work Programme.  
• The launch of the Belém Health Action Plan was a major milestone: around 80 countries and multiple partners endorsed the plan, and a philanthropic coalition committed USD 300 million to support it. 
• A ministerial meeting on education was held under the banner of “Greening Education”, where a draft framework for climate was introduced, signaling a growing focus on climate-education integration. 
• ISO and the GHG Protocol agreed on a 2028 roadmap to harmonize global carbon-accounting standards, establishing a joint coordination group, aligning corporate, product and project-level rules, and improving comparability and interoperability of emissions reporting under the Plan to Accelerate Solutions. 
•  The Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS) initiative launched its Strategy 2030 which charts a path enabling climate vulnerable nations to build early warning systems with support from developed countries.  
• The Sumaúma Pledging Tree was launched to mobilise human rights–based climate action, setting up a COP30–COP31 roadmap for commitments that uphold climate justice and will be showcased at COP31’s high-level pledging event. 

November 12, 2025 

• Presidency consultations continued on Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), Biennial Transparency Reports (BTRs), Article 9.1 (climate finance), and Unilateral Trade Measures (UTMs), with Parties invited to present bridging proposals. 
• The Independent Alliance of Latin America and the Caribbean (AILAC) called for stronger Means of Implementation (MoI), clear milestones for the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on finance and stressed that support should not increase developing-country debt burdens. 
• The African Group proposed an Article 9.1 work programme, including work on burden-sharing arrangements, and urged swift capitalisation of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD). It also suggested creating a notification system for Parties adopting Unilateral Trade Measures (UTMs). 
• The Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDCs) proposed a three-year work programme to enhance the implementation of Article 9.1 and supported establishing a dedicated agenda item on UTMs. 
• Several groups, including the Group of 77 and China (G-77/China), supported creating a Just Transition Mechanism under the Just Transition Work Programme (JTWP) to enhance cooperation and technical support. Others preferred using existing institutions. 
• On the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), Parties differed on adopting indicators at CMA 7 (Paris Agreement meeting) versus continuing refinement and capacity-building work. The Least Developed Countries (LDCs) urged tripling adaptation finance from 2025 levels. 
• Delegates debated finance-flow alignment under Article 2.1(c) and its link to Article 9, with developing groups opposing a one-size-fits-all approach and advocating differentiated pathways. 
• Sectoral dialogues advanced under the Mitigation Work Programme (MWP), Article 6.4 (carbon-crediting mechanism), and the Just Transition Work Programme, as Parties refined the text and identified the next steps for technical and political work. 

November 11, 2025 

• Major negotiations arose over the scale and timing of climate finance, with the G-77/China and LMDCs demanding a higher, time-bound New Collective Quantitative Goal (NCQG) beyond USD 300 billion, while developed blocs resisted fixed figures or timelines.  
• On NDCs, some developing groups stressed flexibility tied to national capacity, while others urged uniform five-year cycles to strengthen comparability and accountability. 
• Groups like G-77/China, the African Group, BASIC Countries, AOSIS, and LMDCs opposed finalising GGA indicators without clarity on finance and means of implementation, warning that premature adoption would make the framework ineffective. 
• On the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD), LDCs and AOSIS called for quick replenishment and direct access to funds, while some developed blocs like the EU, Umbrella Group and Environmental Integrity Group preferred that the Fund’s Board continue developing operational rules and procedures. 
• The importance of embedding local/subnational climate action into global frameworks has been highly emphasised by the launch of “Plan to Accelerate Multilevel Governance” and operationalisation of the “Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships” (CHAMP). 
• COP30 programming spotlighted multilevel action: cities, regions and local governments featured across events as essential to delivering NDCs and adaptation. 
• The Yearbook of Global Climate Action 2025 reports ≈95% of Parties now engage cities, business, and civil society in NDC implementation, while persistent gaps remain in finance, capacity, and alignment between national ambition and local delivery. 
• The role of buildings, housing and urban resilience in the COP30 Action Agenda was underscored in the first ministerial meeting of the Intergovernmental Council for Buildings and Climate (ICBC). 
• The “Beat the Heat Implementation Drive” (in collaboration with the COP30 Presidency and UNEP’s Cool Coalition) was launched, aiming at accelerating sustainable cooling and heat-resilience solutions for cities globally. 

November 10, 2025 

• COP30 opened with Parties adopting the agenda and reaffirming their commitment to accelerate implementation. 
• COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago highlighted the need for collective mobilisation to implement climate solutions, deliver on adaptation, and align climate and economic policy, which must be backed by science.  
• UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell urged Parties to link negotiations to real-economy action, stressing that the Paris Agreement must now deliver faster, tangible progress. 
• The Green Digital Action Hub was launched to scale digital climate solutions, including green digital infrastructure, data innovation, and capacity support. 
• The AI Climate Institute (AI Climate Academy) was introduced to build AI and digital capability for climate action, particularly in developing countries. 
• The Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) became operational, issuing its first USD 250 million funding call. 
• Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) launched a new framework for nature financing that includes the Common Principles for Tracking Nature Finance and A Practitioner’s Guide to Results Metrics Selection, both designed to support the development of high-quality financial products and attract greater private capital for nature.   
• The Green Zone opened for civil society, youth, businesses, and innovators to showcase climate solutions alongside official negotiations.