Brazil Sets COP30 Agenda With Bold Calls for Climate Action

As Brazil prepares to host COP30 in November 2025, the country’s President-Designate for the summit, André Aranha Corrêa do Lago, has released a letter of intent outlining its ambitions for the event.

The document signals a strong commitment to multilateralism, with a particular emphasis on climate finance, fossil fuel dependency and the role of forests in mitigating climate change.

A pivotal moment in the climate crisis

Brazil’s letter acknowledges the severity of the climate emergency, pointing out that 2024 was the hottest year on record, with January 2025 continuing this worrying trend.

“Now, not only do we hear about climate risks, but we also live the climate urgency,” André says in the letter, underlining the reality that climate change is no longer a distant threat but an immediate crisis.

The choice of Belém, a city located in the Amazon, as the summit’s host location is significant.

Belém is a city characterised by its iconic waterways and coastal beauty, which make it vulnerable to the threat of rising sea levels.

The Amazon rainforest is a crucial carbon sink, yet deforestation and degradation continue to push it toward an irreversible tipping point.

In response, Brazil has proposed ‘Uniting for our Forests’ as a key theme of COP30, aiming to bridge climate and biodiversity agendas.

Controversies surrounding COP30

After COP28 and COP29 were both coloured by controversies, the world’s eyes will turn to Belém in November with hopes for a transparent and productive conference.

However, recent news regarding the infrastructural preparations for COP30 have worried the international community, yet again raising concerns over environmental mismanagement and the hypocrisy of the event organisers.

News has emerged of a new four-lane highway that is being built directly through the Amazon rainforest to Belém ahead of the event, with the aim of easing traffic congestion ahead of the conference.

Critics are arguing that this project goes against principles of forest conservation that the COP30 organisers purport to have.

“While touted as ‘sustainable’ this project is destroying critical ecosystems, displacing local communities and undermining the very purpose of a climate summit,” says Sabrina Agius, CEO and Founder of GSE Technologies.

Finance and fossil fuels: The challenges ahead

A major theme of Brazil’s vision for COP30 is the need to scale up climate finance.

The letter highlights that while negotiations at COP29 failed to deliver an adequate new global climate finance pledge, the upcoming summit must ensure funding flows reach “the needed trillions by the 2030s.”

Catherine Abreu, Director of the International Climate Politics Hub, believes that Brazil will need to navigate a difficult financial landscape in its climate fight.

“Brazil will have to weave a difficult thread through declining public finance, with rich countries cutting their overseas development assistance, and the urgent need to harness more private finance while not letting rich countries off the hook,” she says.

On fossil fuels, Brazil’s proposal to host a “frank conversation” on climate ambition could prove contentious.

Catherine emphasises that “the production and combustion of coal, oil and gas is fuelling the climate crisis,” warning that the success of Brazil’s reflection process will depend on its ability to enforce global commitments on renewable energy expansion and fossil fuel phase-out.

Bridging global ambition with action

Brazil’s letter positions COP30 as a moment to reflect on and accelerate the implementation of global climate commitments.

The country aims to establish a ‘Circle of Presidencies’ bringing together past UN climate summit leaders to advise on political processes and climate implementation.

Another proposed initiative, the ‘Global Ethical Stocktake,’ is all about seeking insights from a diverse group of thinkers, from scientists to Indigenous leaders, to explore ethical approaches to tackling climate change.

Despite these proposals, scepticism remains about whether COP30 will deliver concrete outcomes.

Catherine says that by the time the world arrives in Belém, countries will have submitted their updated 2035 climate plans.

“We’ll be doing some sobering math,” she says, cautioning that current trends suggest many nations will fall short of the targets required to keep global warming within safe limits.

Can COP30 turn the tide?

Brazil has set a high bar for COP30, framing it as a moment of global reckoning on climate action.

The presidency’s call for a ‘global mutirão’ — a Brazilian term for collective effort — suggests an ambition to unite state and non-state actors in a decisive push for progress.

Yet the summit’s success will hinge on whether Brazil can translate its ambitious rhetoric into tangible agreements.

As Catherine says: “COP30 needs to be a moment where countries demonstrate multilateralism can work and must work, because there is no global security without climate security.”

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