ECO 2, COP30
The agenda is “Global Climate Justice”
ECO was braced for explosive fights over the agenda, with parties digging in their heels and stalling COP30. We’re relieved the Brazilian Presidency defused the tensions. The compromise, reached late Sunday, involves Presidency-led consultations on four proposed agenda items:
- Article 9.1 (developed country public finance obligations)
- Unilateral Trade Measures
- Responding to the NDC Ambition Gap
- The Synthesis Report of the Biennial Transparency Reports (BTRs)
ECO welcomes this initiative to find landing zones without jeopardising other critical negotiations. However, this endorsement comes with a disclaimer: keeping these items off the formal agenda must not undermine their vital importance in the fight for global climate justice.
The insipid NCQG decision at COP29 left a gaping hole in the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement. The paltry sum relative to the scale of the challenge at hand, forced through without qualitative guarantees, is an unacceptable yardstick to define the financial obligations of developed countries towards the planning and implementation of climate action in the Global South.
The underwhelming round of NDCs is unequivocal proof of this critical vacuum. We urgently need to address the deficits in ambition and justice, and the impunity that allows developed countries to chronically undercommit and under-deliver. Similarly, the issue of Unilateral Trade Measures exposes systemic inequities that could derail equitable climate action.
These issues require substantive discussion and agreement, not just a “talkshop.” When we take stock on Wednesday, ECO expects the Presidency to provide a clear path to concrete outcomes. Without it, these consultations will be just another hollow exercise, kicking the can down the road and further eroding multilateral resolve even as the world burns.
Show us the money: it’s time for a new adaptation finance commitment
As delegates settle into the humidity of Belém, the world outside the negotiation halls is anything but calm. Hurricanes are tearing through the Philippines, tornadoes just devastated southern Brazil, crops are failing, and cities face existential water shortages. For many developing countries, climate change isn’t tomorrow’s problem, but today’s reality.
And while developing countries face the storm head-on, adaptation finance is falling behind. Governments are being forced to choose between false development and climate action while taking on loans, deepening debt distress in the process. MDBs are framing adaptation as a business opportunity, but adaptation needs public finance. Loans that increase debt cannot be part of the solution. Countries already battered by climate impacts shouldn’t be paying interest just to survive the next cyclone. And when public funds are available, they too often fail to reach those who need them most, overlooking local leadership and solutions.
Adaptation finance is a legal obligation. As confirmed by the International Court of Justice, Annex II parties shall assist vulnerable countries in meeting adaptation costs. That’s ‘shall’, not ‘if convenient’ or ‘if we feel like it’. Adaptation finance is about justice: correcting inequalities born from others’ failure to mitigate.
A new political commitment that meets the moment needs to happen in Belém – and it could. The Glasgow pledge to double adaptation finance by 2025 was a start, but it risks becoming yet another broken promise. We must be serious about keeping people safe and that means agreeing to at least $120 billion per year by 2030. This finance has to be fit for purpose: not debt-inducing, and definitely not grants buried in piles of bureaucracy, but substantive finance that actually reaches local communities. At the very least, this commitment that could happen here in the Amazon, has to meet the too modest resource mobilization floor of the Adaptation Fund – if this happened, it would be the first time in several years.
A scaled-up commitment may provide the missing piece of the puzzle for the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) but it would not be meaningful without the resources to make itl a reality. Belém must be – and can be with political will – the turning point for adaptation. One thing is certain though: all of the people impacted by cyclones, droughts, heat and floods can’t wait for another COP to get this right.
Looking for BAMbassadors!
ECO has heard many parties supporting the call for a Just Transition. However, vague statements of support without concrete follow up will not lead us to the global Just Transition that we need to advance ambitious climate action that is also inclusive and socially just. Because while Just Transition initiatives are proliferating worldwide, they remain uneven, lack alignment with climate goals, are poorly contextualized and not fit for purpose. All of this leads to duplication, confusion among stakeholders, and the risk of not contributing to social equity. So when parties speak out about Just Transition, what ECO really wants to hear, is BAM. Therefore we are opening a call for BAMbassadors!
The Belem Action Mechanism for a Global Just Transition is a proposed new institutional arrangement under the UNFCCC to address the current fragmentation and inadequacy of global Just Transition efforts. Try to spot the difference below:
The BAM’s 3 core functions are:
- Coordination and Coherence : A central Coordination Entity will map existing Just Transition initiatives, identify gaps, steer the overall mechanism, and ensure Just Transition efforts are aligned with the Paris Agreement objectives and the principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC).
- Knowledge Sharing and Generation: An enhanced version of the existing Just Transition Work Programme (JTWP) will serve as a global hub for practitioners, facilitating dialogue, sharing best practices, and generating new knowledge to inform policy.
- Action and Support: A dedicated component will provide direct support through a helpdesk for countries, matchmaking between projects and funders, and work to mobilize and channel non-debt-inducing finance and technology transfer, particularly for the Global South.
Are you ready to be a BAMbassador? Please apply now to help make Just Transition a reality, so that all countries are able to implement their just transition plans. Bonus: you can win a BAM badge!
We Are Here: Turning the Blue Zone Purple
ECO is happy to share this part of our publication with the Women and Gender Constituency (WGC) to help amplify their voice. This article reflects the views of the WGC.
What do you get when you mix the blue zone with a bunch of fierce feminists keeping the red lines? A vibrant purple.
The final letter by the COP Presidency read that we are “almost there”. Now, we are here.
We are claiming space at COP30 in all shades of purple with those of us that have made it “here”, in solidarity with those of us who are “there”.
Out there: rural communities facing the disproportionate impacts of floods, fires and droughts, losing lives and livelihoods. Out there: young women left to live with the consequences of decisions made here today, without access to decision-making spaces. Out there: LGBTQ+ people continuing to suffer from discrimination and exclusion when trying to access relief services after climate disasters. Out there: Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities spearheading transformative, gender just climate solutions, while remaining invisibilized and underfunded.
We are taking our brushes and painting our bodies purple for those of us who are out there: including women and girls in all their diversity, gender-diverse people, youth, women environmental and human rights defenders, trade and labor unions, Indigenous Peoples, Afrodescendants, people with disabilities, migrants and displaced people, and local communities.
We invite you all to come find your perfect shade of purple this Gender Justice Day. Maybe lavender for “leave nobody behind”, eggplant which echoes “equality”, or perhaps violet signifying “visions of a feminist future”.
This day, we are turning blue into purple. We are here.
WE STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH ALL PEOPLES SUFFERING FROM GENOCIDE, WARS, OCCUPATION, AND GOVERNMENT VIOLENCE THROUGH CLIMATE CHANGE.
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Download file: http://ECO-11-November-2025.pdf