Legal expert Prof Jacqueline Peel from the University of Melbourne sums up the wins and losses at this year\u2019s global climate conference.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t a comfortable process for the tens of thousands of delegates trying to hash out progress on climate change on the edge of the Amazon in Bel\u00e9m, Brazil. I experienced the challenges of the United Nations COP30 climate talks firsthand.<\/p>\n
Delegates were hot and sweaty. Tech and aircon didn\u2019t always work.<\/p>\n
Both\u00a0flood<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0fire<\/a>\u00a0disrupted negotiations over the fortnight of negotiations. It drove home how climate change feels. But despite the discomfort, some progress was made.<\/p>\n Brazilian president Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva dubbed it the \u201cCOP of truth<\/a>\u201d. Delegates did not shy away from the urgency of the moment as climate change intensifies and emissions continue to climb.<\/p>\n Ahead of the talks, many feared\u00a0global political headwinds<\/a>\u00a0and the US\u2019\u00a0departure from the Paris Agreement<\/a>\u00a0would undermine this year\u2019s talks. The fact that nearly 60,000 delegates attended these talks \u2013 the\u00a0second highest<\/a>\u00a0ever \u2013 shows this isn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n Progress was made on funding climate finance and adaptation to the changes already emerging. But efforts on ending reliance on fossil fuels faltered in the face of strong resistance by fossil fuel powers. Much progress in Bel\u00e9m happened outside the main talks.<\/p>\n At one stage it looked like COP30 might crack the hardest nut in climate policy \u2013 reaching agreement on phasing out fossil fuels. Nations agreed two years ago that it\u00a0was necessary<\/a>\u00a0to move away from fossil fuels. But no plan had yet been devised to get there.<\/p>\n Brazil had a plan: build support for a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels, championed by president Lula and pushed strongly by environment minister Marina Silva. It drew support from more than\u00a080 countries<\/a>, including major fossil fuel exporters such as Norway and Australia. Anticipating pushback, Brazil worked to boost support outside the main talks before bringing the plan in.<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t work. By the end of COP30, all mention of a fossil fuel roadmap\u00a0had been scrubbed<\/a>\u00a0from the text of the final outcomes, following fierce\u00a0pushback<\/a>\u00a0from countries such as Russia, Saudi Arabia and India and many emerging economies.<\/p>\n Instead, countries agreed to launch \u201cthe\u00a0Global Implementation Accelerator<\/a>\u00a0[\u2026] to keep 1.5\u00b0C within reach\u201d and \u201ctaking into account\u201d previous COP decisions. This initiative will be shepherded by the Brazilian COP30 presidency and the leaders of next year\u2019s COP31 talks,\u00a0Turkey and Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n President Lula\u00a0vowed to continue<\/a>\u00a0advocating for a fossil fuel roadmap at the G20. Colombia and the Netherlands will hold a\u00a0conference on fossil fuel phaseout<\/a>\u00a0in April 2026. The COP30 decision text also makes reference to a \u201chigh-level event in 2026\u201d which\u00a0could take place in the Pacific. Without blockers of consensus at these meetings, a coalition of willing countries could make real progress in setting timelines and exchanging policy ideas for fossil fuel phaseout.<\/p>\n The decision to develop a\u00a0just transition mechanism<\/a>\u00a0was\u00a0welcomed<\/a>\u00a0as a win for workers and communities. The new mechanism\u2019s purpose will be to increase international cooperation, technical assistance, capacity-building and knowledge-sharing as countries shift towards a low carbon global economy.<\/p>\n Efforts to boost financing for climate adaptation bogged down, reflecting the\u00a0trade-offs<\/a>\u00a0over fossil fuels.<\/p>\n These funds are meant to help nations most exposed to severe climate damage, usually poorer and with low emissions. These nations led the charge for a\u00a0tripling of climate finance<\/a>\u00a0by 2030 from the $40bn agreed at COP26 four years ago. But the\u00a0agreed text<\/a>\u00a0merely \u201ccalls for efforts to at least triple adaptation finance by 2035\u201d, which pushes out the timeframe and has no funding baseline.<\/p>\n One of Brazil\u2019s own initiatives, the\u00a0Tropical Forest Facility<\/a>, achieved\u00a0greater success<\/a>, securing $9.5bn in funding pledges \u2013 a COP record.<\/p>\n The\u00a0trust fund for rainforests<\/a>\u00a0is designed to provide resources to arrest global deforestation and protect Indigenous lands, including in the Amazon\u2019s vital carbon sink.<\/p>\n Support for a roadmap towards\u00a0ending deforestation<\/a>\u00a0secured\u00a092 backers<\/a>.<\/p>\n The success of these deforestation initiatives points to the effectiveness of the COP\u2019s\u00a0Action Agenda<\/a>, aimed at spurring on climate action outside formal negotiations and including commitments from business, investors and civil society. As formal negotiations bog down, these bypasses may end up\u00a0replacing<\/a>\u00a0negotiations in driving progress.<\/p>\n Ahead of COP30, analysts feared the\u00a0ongoing attacks<\/a>\u00a0on climate action by the Trump administration would undermine the international negotiations.<\/p>\n COP30 was the first climate summit without a\u00a0US government delegation<\/a>. At first, the absence came as\u00a0a relief<\/a>.<\/p>\n But by summit\u2019s end, the disappearance of the world\u2019s biggest historical emitter and largest economy from negotiations had taken its toll.<\/p>\n Developing countries from the African group of negotiators argued better metrics and plans\u00a0would be meaningless<\/a>\u00a0without funding to implement them. Traditionally, the US has been a major funder. No longer.<\/p>\n The US decision to turn its back on climate action created a subdued atmosphere. New finance pledges were broadly underwhelming, likely due to the dampening effect of the\u00a0US retreat<\/a>.<\/p>\n Early on, many hoped renewables and clean-tech giant China might fill the leadership void. China\u2019s clean-tech exports last year were enough to cut overseas emissions\u00a01pc<\/a>. The huge industrial power produces\u00a0almost 32pc<\/a>\u00a0of the world\u2019s carbon emissions. These emissions\u00a0have plateaued<\/a>, in turn suggesting global emissions may now have peaked.<\/p>\n But China showed\u00a0reluctance<\/a>\u00a0to take up the mantle, preferring to remain focused on its own domestic energy transition. Chinese negotiators spent most of their energy\u00a0pushing back<\/a>\u00a0against new European trade measures targeting emissions-intensive production.<\/p>\n It was left to some of the smallest nations, Indigenous peoples and civil society to lead calls for sticking to the science, ramping up urgency and accelerating the roll-out of solutions. An\u00a0estimated 70,000 people<\/a>\u00a0marched in the streets of Bel\u00e9m, staging a mock funeral for fossil fuels. It was an important affirmation of widespread public support for climate action.<\/p>\n As the UN\u2019s climate executive secretary Simon Stiell said midway through COP30, nations had to \u201cgive a little to get a lot<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n Many countries will be reflecting they gave a lot but got very little. The biggest winners were, yet again, the world\u2019s petrostates who successfully frustrated attempts to address fossil fuels.<\/p>\n Questions will inevitably be asked over whether these consensus-based talks are fit for purpose, given they can be gamed by blockers.<\/p>\n For many, COP30 will be regarded as a failure on fossil fuels and addressing\u00a0major gaps<\/a>\u00a0between national pledges to cut emissions and what\u2019s needed to hold warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.<\/p>\n This is true. But another view would be that these talks made real progress on important areas despite considerable challenges.<\/p>\n Negotiators from 194 countries showed up and continued to talk and work together to tackle the worsening crisis. Nearly half of those countries have shown they\u2019re ready to begin weaning themselves off fossil fuels through their support for the phaseout roadmap. They don\u2019t have to wait for a UN consensus to act. Fossil fuel exporters only have power while other nations buy and rely on their products.<\/p>\n The world\u2019s climate talks are now clearly moving away from arcane negotiations to the pressing real-world challenges of doing the work. In a rapidly warming world, all issues are becoming climate issues.<\/p>\n By Prof Jacqueline Peel<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Prof Jacqueline Peel from the University of Melbourne is an internationally recognised expert in the field of environmental and climate change law. Her scholarship on these topics encompasses international, transnational and national dimensions, as well as interdisciplinary aspects of the law\/science relationship in the environmental field and risk regulation.<\/em><\/p>\n Don\u2019t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Daily Brief<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, Silicon Republic\u2019s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n From left: COP30 president Andr\u00e9 Corr\u00eaa do Lago\u00a0and Brazil\u2019s environment minister Marina Silva at closing plenary, 22 November 2025<\/a>. Image: UNclimatechange<\/a>\/Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Legal expert Prof Jacqueline Peel from the University of Melbourne sums up the wins and losses at this year\u2019s global climate conference. It wasn\u2019t a comfortable process for the tens of thousands of delegates trying to hash out progress on climate change on the edge of the Amazon in Bel\u00e9m, Brazil. I experienced the challenges […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":318579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12083,111136,103645,147087,97081,147088,12256,97133,147089,147090,101760,101347],"tags":[12647,11649,1180,13500],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-318576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brazil","category-china","category-climate","category-emissions","category-environment","category-guest-column","category-innovation","category-opinion","category-renewables","category-the-conversation","category-un","category-us","tag-climate","tag-crisis","tag-fight","tag-progress"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat did COP30 deliver?<\/h2>\n
Funding for tropical forests<\/h2>\n
American absence<\/h2>\n
What legacy?<\/h2>\n
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us<\/p>\n