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COP30 failed to agree on a global roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels and end deforestation despite over 80 countries supporting the call at the annual UN summit
COP30 president Andre Correa do Lago (C) listens to his advisers after the plenary session was interrupted following Colombia’s intervention at the COP30 UN Climate Change Conference in Belem, Brazil, on November 22, 2025. (Image: AFP)
The UN Climate Change conference, or COP30, has closed with a call to triple adaptation finance by 2035 – what experts called a “vague” target falling short of urgent needs, yet accepted in the spirit of multilateralism at a summit marked by the first-ever absence of the US, which is the world’s biggest historical emitter in COP history.
The two-week conference in Brazil’s Belém, which ended late on Saturday (November 22) was touted as the “COP of adaptation”, spotlighting the urgent resilience needs of communities hardest hit by climate change.
Apart from scaling adaptation finance, a major task was to agree on a set of quantifiable, measurable indicators to track progress under the global goal on adaptation (GGA) – a commitment made under the 2015 Paris Agreement to build a framework to strengthen the adaptive capacity of the most vulnerable.
Experts, however, said the final outcome was far from what’s needed. “The adaptation outcome is very weak. The indicators lack means of implementation, finance was diluted with the tripling of adaptation finance to 2035 (instead of 2030). The baseline is undefined, and grants are absent – leaving the global goal on adaptation largely symbolic,” said Trishant Dev, deputy programme manager (climate change), from New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
Soon after COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago gaveled the Global Mutirão text, the final plenary had to be suspended for an hour following objections from the Latin American countries as well as European Union (EU), Sierra Leone, Canada – who termed the final indicators “unmeasurable and unusable” and stressed that without finance (means of implementation), progress was not possible.
“GGA is the opportunity for us to finally tell our adaptation story – what we are doing, what is working, and where support is urgently needed. But the list before us, does not clearly tell our stories. We leave COP with indicators that are unclear, unmeasurable and in many cases, unusable,” said the delegate from Sierra Leone.
Since the decisions were already gaveled through and adopted, the COP president said they will stand and the work on the indicators will continue at the COP intersessional meeting at Bonn in June next year.
For the first time, COP30 also agreed to hold a series of dialogues on trade within the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) for the first time, which experts said could bring attention to unilateral measures such as EU CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism) within the COP process. Countries also agreed to develop a just transition mechanism that was also supported by G77 and China to enhance international cooperation, technical support, and knowledge sharing for an equitable transition.
“The just transition mechanism is a win for civil society and developing countries, in contrast to the ‘vague’ adaptation finance outcome with no specific accountability of contributors. Beyond talk shops however, this COP has delivered little else,” said Avantika Goswami, programme manager (climate change), CSE.
ACTION ON ‘FOSSIL FUELS’ MISSING
The countries, however, failed to explicitly agree on a global roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels, leaving many disappointed.
“More than 80 countries stood their ground for a fair and equitable shift off fossil fuels, but intense lobbying from a few petrostates weakened the deal,” said Ani Dasgupta, president and CEO, World Resources Institute (WRI).
The Brazilian COP presidency tried to strike a balance and launched these roadmaps in its own capacity – one on halting deforestation and another on transitioning away from fossil fuels in a just and equitable manner.
With many countries yet to submit their updated climate action targets, experts highlighted that the formal negotiations also fell short of addressing the gap in national climate ambitions.
“By failing on their past commitment to double adaptation finance by 2025 and keeping the baseline of the new target vague, developed nations have attempted to dilute their responsibility forcing the world’s most vulnerable to face the rising waters with empty hand,” said Harjeet Singh, climate activist and founding director, Satat Sampada Climate Foundation.
A COMPROMISE FOR MULTILATERALISM?
The year’s biggest climate conference was held in the heart of the Amazon forests, amid simmering geopolitical tensions while also marking a crucial milestone of completing 10 years of the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Climate multilateralism was put to the test, especially since it was also the first time in COP’s history that the US did not send an official delegation to the UN Climate summit – following President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the 2015 Paris Agreement.
“In many ways, this moment highlights that in the absence of a single hegemonic power, countries are becoming more amenable to cooperative multilateralism,” said Arti Khosla, director, Climate Trends.
India, which had pushed for an ambitious adaptation finance goal, also welcomed the ‘Global Mutirão decision’, calling it a “complete package, delicately crafted”.
“It is in our interest to ensure that climate multilateralism succeeds and provides the right guidance to address the global change,” said India’s delegate Luther Rangreji from the ministry of external affairs, while also complimenting the Brazil presidency for “achieving a delicate balance on issues, with some parties holding extreme positions”.
Weighing in on the outcome, Dr Arunabha Ghosh, CEO, CEEW, and special envoy to COP30 representing South Asia, remarked: “In a year where climate multilateralism has been challenged, getting a good deal was better than failing to get any deal in pursuit of the best deal.”
UN Climate Change executive secretary Simon Stiell also welcomed the agreement. “We knew this COP would take place in stormy political waters. Denial, division and geopolitics has dealt international cooperation some heavy blows this year. COP30 showed that climate cooperation is alive and kicking.”
Srishti Choudhary, Senior Assistant Editor at CNN-News18 specializes in science, environment, and climate change reporting. With over a decade of extensive field experience, she has brought incisive ground repo…Read More
Srishti Choudhary, Senior Assistant Editor at CNN-News18 specializes in science, environment, and climate change reporting. With over a decade of extensive field experience, she has brought incisive ground repo… Read More
November 23, 2025, 11:36 IST
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