The President-designate of the 2025 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 30) has briefed Member States and Observers on Brazil’s priorities and preparations for the Conference. Elaborating on Brazil’s vision in a letter to parties, he further highlights it is “urgent we address, in a comprehensive and synergetic manner, the interlinked global crises of climate change and biodiversity loss in the broader context of achieving the SDGs.”
During an informal meeting of the plenary on 5 March 2025, President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) Philemon Yang welcomed Brazil’s “effort to engage Member States at this early stage.”
Among Brazil’s key priorities for the Conference, COP 30 President-designate André Aranha Corrêa do Lago highlighted the defense of multilateralism and respect for science. Underscoring the UNFCCC’s role in inaugurating multilateral climate governance, he identified cooperation among peoples for the progress of humanity as its guiding principle and called for deep, rapid, and sustained cooperation of all countries.
Recognizing 2024 as the first year to exceed the 1.5°C threshold, the President-designate stressed the need to strengthen climate governance and ensure agility, preparedness, and anticipation in decision making and implementation. He expressed hope COP 30 will “provide a decisive impulse” in three dimensions:
- Protect and expand the institutional legacy “we have built together over three decades”;
- Connect to real life the abstraction of negotiations and COP decisions; and
- Accelerate implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change through structural solutions and levers beyond the climate regime, including in global governance and financial architecture.
Corrêa do Lago called for: refocusing efforts on action and implementation by translating words into transformative actions on the ground; and aligning efforts within and outside the UNFCCC with the Paris Agreement’s long-term goals on temperature, resilience and financial floors. This, he said, includes the delivery of ambitious nationally determined contributions (NDCs) aligned with 1.5°C, which COP 30 is expected to take stock of to stimulate reflection on bottlenecks hampering implementation.
Among the achievements of the COP 28, COP 29, and COP 30 Presidencies’ Troika under the ‘Roadmap to Mission 1.5°C,’ Corrêa do Lago highlighted the UAE consensus, breakthrough on loss and damage, and the calls from the first Global Stocktake (GST) for halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation by 2030 and accelerating the global energy transition, including by transitioning away from fossil fuels in a just and equitable manner, – all in the context of pursuing sustainable development and poverty eradication. He looked forward to working with the COP 29 Presidency to scale climate finance for developing countries to USD 1.3 trillion annually and said the two Presidencies will produce a report on these efforts by COP 30.
Noting that going into COP 30, we have a complete rulebook for the Paris Agreement, the President-designate highlighted the UAE dialogue on implementing GST outcomes and the just transition work programme among issues that are pending. He emphasized the need to build developing countries’ capacity to engage in government-led, systematic, and institutionalized national reporting and to design holistic investment strategies. He also indicated that the Bonn Climate Change Conference in June will initiate the development of a new gender and climate action plan and identified the Sharm el-Sheikh mitigation ambition and implementation work programme as a platform for trust building, leveraging opportunities, and overcoming barriers for solutions.
Underscoring that adaptation is no longer a choice and that it does not compete with mitigation, Corrêa do Lago stressed the need to fulfill the mandate on indicators and to advance the Baku adaptation roadmap, among other efforts.
The President-designate further highlighted the need to integrate the climate, biodiversity, desertification, and sustainable development agendas and for “our multilateral institutions” to deliver results commensurate with the climate challenge. He said the decision to bring COP 30 to the Amazon reflects Brazil’s vision and hope for global regeneration towards collective prosperity.
In a letter to parties dated 10 March 2025, Corrêa do Lago invites the international community to join Brazil in a global “mutirão” – coming together to work on a shared task and support one another – against climate change. He also indicates that the incoming Presidency will be “recruiting” stakeholders to partner as “‘levers’ in helping apply solutions to ‘high leverage points,’ where small changes can result in large impacts on complex systems’ behaviors.”
Among other initiatives, the incoming COP 30 Presidency will form a ‘Circle of Presidencies,’ to build on previous COPs’ legacies, and a ‘Circle of Indigenous Leadership,’ to help integrate traditional knowledge into global collective intelligence. The incoming Presidency will also undertake a ‘Global Ethical Stocktake,’ to hear from a diverse group of stakeholders about ethical commitments and practices in dealing with climate change at all levels.
The 2025 UN Climate Change Conference will be held from 10-21 November in Belém, Brazil. [Video Recording of Informal Briefing on COP 30 Priorities] [Host Country Website] [SDG Knowledge Hub Sources]
