COP30 convenes in Belém on the edge of the Amazon, marking 10 years since the Paris Agreement and focusing attention on forests, finance and emissions ambition. Only about 65 countries had submitted updated 2035 pledges by early November, and many targets — including China’s — fall short. Negotiations will also wrestle with climate finance after COP29’s $300bn/year pledge and the broader $1.3tn mobilisation goal. A new Tropical Forests Forever Facility aims to channel public and private money to protect tropical forests as deforestation reached record 2024 levels.
COP30 in the Amazon — Trees, Targets and Trillions: What to Watch in Belém
COP30 convenes in Belém on the edge of the Amazon, marking 10 years since the Paris Agreement and focusing attention on forests, finance and emissions ambition. Only about 65 countries had submitted updated 2035 pledges by early November, and many targets — including China’s — fall short. Negotiations will also wrestle with climate finance after COP29’s $300bn/year pledge and the broader $1.3tn mobilisation goal. A new Tropical Forests Forever Facility aims to channel public and private money to protect tropical forests as deforestation reached record 2024 levels.
07:27, 04.11.2025Environment
The 30th UN climate summit (COP30) takes place in Belém, Brazil — on the edge of the Amazon — and arrives a decade after the Paris Agreement. The location is deliberately symbolic: the meeting will spotlight forests and the acute vulnerability of many nations to the impacts of warming, while negotiators try to bridge sharp divides over emissions ambition and climate finance.
Emissions
The core problem remains straightforward and urgent: global greenhouse-gas emissions are not falling fast enough to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. Under the accord, countries are expected to submit stronger national climate pledges (NDCs) every five years so collective ambition rises over time. The latest round of 2035 pledges was due in February to give the UN time to assess them ahead of COP30; most governments missed that timetable.
By early November roughly 65 countries had submitted revised plans, but many updates have been judged weak — notably China’s target, and continuing gaps from the European Union (which has internal disagreements) and India (which has yet to finalise its pledge). With those shortfalls on display, Belém could become a moment of sharper scrutiny and pressure for stronger, clearer commitments.
Finance
Money — who pays, how much and how it will be delivered — is likely to drive intense negotiations. After fraught talks at COP29, developed nations agreed to provide $300 billion a year in climate finance to developing countries by 2035, a figure many say is far short of actual needs.
Leaders also set a broader, less-precise objective to mobilise $1.3 trillion per year by 2035 from public and private sources. Expect developing countries to press for concrete plans and timelines at COP30, with particular emphasis on adaptation funding for measures such as coastal defences, disaster preparedness and resilient infrastructure.
Forests
Hosting COP30 in the Amazon gives Brazil a platform to push forest protection to the top of the agenda. One headline initiative is the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF), a proposed global mechanism to reward countries that preserve large areas of tropical forest rather than clear them.
The TFFF aims to mobilise up to $25 billion from sponsor states and a further $100 billion from private-sector investors using market instruments; Brazil has pledged $1 billion. Environmental groups say it could help if paired with clear commitments to end deforestation by 2030 and strong safeguards to ensure funds support forest-dependent communities and respect indigenous rights.
Alarmingly, primary tropical-forest loss reached record levels in 2024, according to Global Forest Watch — roughly the equivalent of 18 football fields every minute, largely driven by large fires.
What to watch
Expect high drama on three fronts: a tougher spotlight on weak 2035 emissions pledges, hard bargaining over the scale and delivery of climate finance (especially adaptation money), and scrutiny of the TFFF and other proposals to slow runaway deforestation. For vulnerable countries, clear finance routes and stronger targets are non-negotiable; for major emitters, balancing national priorities with collective credibility will be key.
How negotiators handle these issues in Belém will shape global climate politics for years to come — and will indicate whether COP30 is more than a symbolic gathering on the shores of the Amazon.