The 16th Petersberg Climate Dialogue gathered ministers and high-level representatives from 38 industrialized and developing countries, ranging from vulnerable island nations to high-emitting states, for a round of talks in preparation for the 2025 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 30). The main objective of the Dialogue was to identify opportunities for international cooperation to accelerate the shift to climate-neutral economies.

The meeting also sought to support global targets agreed at COP 28, including transitioning away from fossil fuels, tripling renewable energy capacity and doubling energy efficiency improvements by 2030, and halting deforestation worldwide, as well as efforts to mobilize more money for climate action, including adaptation.  

In a statement, Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock emphasized the linkages between climate action, prosperity, and security. “In the face of a shared global crisis, multilateralism and global governance are more necessary than ever,” she urged.

According to the Co-Chairs’ summary, ministers reaffirmed the role of the Paris Agreement on climate change as a “uniting compass towards a sustainable and prosperous future” in driving 1.5°C-compatible and climate-resilient pathways in the context of pursuing sustainable development and poverty eradication. They acknowledged the need for structural transformations within and outside the international climate regime to achieve this goal.

Participants embraced the spirit of a global “mutirão” – a community coming together to work on a shared task, recognizing the importance of connecting the climate regime with people’s lives to bring about the necessary structural transformations to implement the Paris Agreement.  

During the meeting, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) made the economic case for ambitious nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and accelerated climate action. Their preliminary analysis indicates that enhanced NDCs could help prevent gross domestic product (GDP) losses of at least 3% by 2050 and 13% by 2100. The study also finds that well-designed climate policies can lead to stronger economic growth than business-as-usual (BAU) scenarios.

Reflecting on these findings, ministers identified opportunities for climate-aligned economic growth, including increasing GDP while decreasing emissions, spurring innovation, reducing energy costs, and increasing energy security, with the clean technology market projected to exceed USD 2 trillion by 2035. They highlighted new NDCs and national adaptation plans (NAPs) as opportunities “to mobilize key actors to address climate and development challenges, tackle implementation gaps, and unlock finance” from international and domestic sources, including the private sector.

Speakers emphasized the need to advance the discussions on reform of the global financial system at the 2025 spring and annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), and in the G20 process. Recognizing the new collective quantified goal (NCQG) decision and the ‘Baku to Belém Roadmap’ as key to reaching USD 1.3 trillion in climate finance and strengthening global cooperation, many ministers underscored that while public finance remains essential, particularly for adaptation, increased focus on private finance is needed. Others called for more grants and concessional finance as well as simplified access to finance, especially for least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS). UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged developed countries to double adaptation finance to at least USD 40 billion a year.

Ministers also discussed strengthening the UNFCCC process and global climate governance through whole-of-government, whole-of-society, and whole-of-economy approaches, along with efforts to shift from negotiations to accelerated implementation.

To achieve a just transition to low-carbon and climate-resilient societies, civil society representatives recommended a multidimensional approach that builds on synergies along the climate-biodiversity-desertification-sustainable development nexus.

Hosted by Baerbock and COP President-Designate André Corrêa do Lago, the 16th Petersberg Climate Dialogue took place from 25-26 March 2025 in Berlin, Germany.

The Petersberg Climate Dialogue process was launched in 2010 by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Dialogues convene annually and are co-hosted by Germany and the country that takes over the chair of the next UN Climate Change Conference. UNFCCC COP 30 will take place from 10-21 November 2025 in Belém, Brazil. [Germany’s Federal Foreign Office Release] [SDG Knowledge Hub’s Story on Brazil’s Priorities for COP 30] [SDG Knowledge Hub Stories on Petersberg Climate Dialogue in 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2011, 2010]