We look at this COP, as a COP that maybe can represent big change regarding the Negotiations. The obsession is not to get the sentence that is going to be amazing and will have less consequences than all of you expect, than to really get something that will be translated and will have an influence on action and implementation.
– COP30 President Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago
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Time for a Global Just Transition Mechanism
Two years ago, at the UN climate talks, governments created the Just Transition Work Programme – a breakthrough for embedding social justice into climate action. Despite setbacks – especially at COP29 in Baku – the Work Programme still holds transformative potential.
Now, as we look toward COP30 in Brazil, the stakes could not be clearer.
At COP30, governments must act. They must agree that Just Transition policies – social protection for those losing their jobs and income, re-skilling, community investment, cleaning up polluted areas – are not optional extras, but fundamental to real climate ambition and justice.
They must launch a Global Just Transition Mechanism: to coordinate efforts internationally; to channel support to countries without the means to act alone; and to ensure true accountability and community participation. They must commit to the inclusion of workers, unions, civil society and impacted communities, to diversify economies and to produce real sectoral transition plans.
Ideas can be powerful drivers of change. And Just Transition is one of those ideas. But we must protect it from being hijacked by those who seek to delay climate action under its name, and from corporations that try to greenwash exploitation.
From Baku to Belém: Why COP30 Must Be Different
When seasoned diplomats like Ambassador do Lago openly call for a COP shakeup, it signals climate negotiations are at a crucial turning point. He said COP30 in Belém cannot be business as usual – it has to be a really different COP. Not merely because it’s a decade since Paris, but because diplomacy is struggling to keep pace with rapid global change.
More and more countries, sectors, and corporations are stepping back from the fight against climate change despite the overwhelming evidence that it is affecting everyone’s lives – even more so the poorest communities whose people are the least responsible for climate change. Never before has the gap between the reality and commitments been so huge.
This is why we are deeply concerned and counting on your efforts to ensure this COP delivers meaningful progress on the climate agenda.
While the climate negotiations are the centre of COPs, negotiators need to shift their focus decisively from meticulous wording to tangible implementation. He candidly stated, “The obsession should not be to get the sentence that sounds amazing and achieves little, but rather to agree something that translates into action.”
The action agenda must dynamically address the main themes as well as themes inadequately covered by the formal agenda – and this year will include forests, with Belém’s location at the mouth of the Amazon River serving to symbolically and practically position biodiversity and indigenous rights at the forefront.
The Leaders’ Meeting will be taking place in Belém ahead of COP30’s opening, asserting bluntly that it must produce real impact if it is to justify the logistical complexity of the summit.