CAN International COP30 Reflections

COP30 was dramatic. Not only because of a fire in the venue, the heavy rain storms every day and the sweltering heat. COP30 was a high stakes, intense negotiation taking place at a time of increasingly fraught geopolitics.

It was a COP full of contrasts. On the one hand we saw, yet again, the pattern that those countries most responsible for the climate crisis – the Global North – continue distracting us from their own underdelivery by shifting the blame and responsibility to the Global South, while obstructing progress on issues that would deliver what is needed to address the needs of vulnerable communities.

The COP did not deliver all it could and should have. So while the COP on the one hand disappointed, it did deliver some critical steps towards justice. It is not only important to look at what these wins were, but also how they were achieved.

For the past few years CAN, together with the wider movement, has worked together to use collective power to take on important fights and escalate these for climate justice in the UNFCCC with the aim to win. This was demonstrated with the success of the establishment of a Loss and Damage Fund at COP27, the achievement of getting governments to agree to transition away from fossil fuels at COP28, and while we did not win an ambitious outcome on climate finance at COP29, we did manage to shift the level of commitment and now, a clear victory on Just Transition at COP30. All of these achievements clearly demonstrate that it is through the power of people that we can make change happen. Through people organising and building pressure overtime to win, demonstrating the power of movements.

This was how the big win at COP30 was delivered: through people power. COP30 decided on the establishment of a Just Transition Mechanism (also known as BAM – Belém Action Mechanism), recognising that workers and frontline communities cannot be left behind, and affirming their rights. The Just Transition outcome includes some of the strongest recognition of rights in the history of the UN climate negotiations. 

To read the full brief, please click below.

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Download file: http://CAN-International_COP30-Brief.pdf