At the 30th annual United Nations climate conference, known as COP30, world leaders and representatives from nearly 200 countries gathered in Belém, Brazil, to discuss and negotiate new steps to address the escalating climate crisis. The conference ran from November 10 to 22, 2024, marking the first time Brazil had hosted the event. Despite the high hopes and urgent global need for decisive action, the outcomes of COP30 left many countries and climate advocates disappointed, as the final agreement fell short of introducing strong new measures on fossil fuels and deforestation—the two main drivers of global warming.
The COP (Conference of the Parties) meetings bring together nations that signed the original UN climate agreement of 1992 to collectively discuss efforts to combat climate change. This year’s summit attracted delegates from more than 190 countries, including a significant presence from China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. However, notable absences included China’s President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump, reflecting ongoing geopolitical complexities. While the United States did not send national officials, some local and state leaders participated, highlighting the fragmented nature of climate leadership in some countries.
Belém, located on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, was chosen as the host city following a regional nomination process. The location brought unique challenges, including difficulties for some delegations in securing affordable accommodation, raising concerns about equitable participation for poorer nations. Moreover, the decision to clear a section of the Amazon rainforest to build a road for the summit sparked controversy, underscoring the tension between development and conservation. Adding to the unease, Brazil’s government continued to issue new oil and gas licenses during the conference, a move critics say undermines global climate goals.
The leaders’ summit preceding the main conference saw attendance from key figures such as UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The Prince of Wales represented the British monarchy and delivered a stirring speech urging countries to unite against the accelerating threats posed by climate change. Nevertheless, while many countries sent delegations, the absence of top leaders from the two largest emitters—the U.S. and China—was widely seen as a setback for global climate diplomacy.
At the heart of the global climate challenge is the goal agreed upon in the 2015 Paris Agreement: to limit the increase in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and to keep it well below 2 degrees Celsius. Scientific research strongly indicates that the impacts of climate change—ranging from deadly heatwaves and wildfires to rising sea levels and extreme weather—would be drastically worse if warming reaches 2 degrees. Despite rapid growth in renewable energy technologies like solar power, the collective climate plans submitted by countries have so far been inadequate to meet the 1.5-degree target.
Ahead of COP30, countries were expected to update their emissions reduction plans, but by the end of October only about one-third had done so, raising alarms about the feasibility of meeting global targets. UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that surpassing the 1.5-degree threshold was now inevitable given current emission levels, but he expressed hope that temperatures might still be brought back down by the end of the century through concerted action.
One of the major themes at COP30 was the ongoing global dependence on fossil fuels—coal, oil, and gas—which remain the primary drivers of climate change. At the previous COP28 summit held in the United Arab Emirates earlier in 2023, countries for the first time acknowledged the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels. Brazil had pushed for clearer, more concrete steps toward this transition at COP30, proposing a detailed “roadmap” to guide countries in phasing out fossil fuel use. While dozens of nations supported this initiative, it faced stiff resistance from countries economically reliant on fossil fuels. Ultimately, the final COP30 agreement referenced the previous UAE declaration but did not strengthen commitments to reduce fossil fuel dependency. Brazil’s fossil fuel roadmap was announced separately but was not integrated into the main deal.
Financial support for developing nations remained another contentious issue. At COP29, wealthier countries committed to providing at least $300 billion annually by 2035 to help poorer countries adapt to climate impacts and reduce emissions—a figure many developing nations consider insufficient. There was also an aspiration to increase