COP30 World Climate Conference: Together for the climate | Umweltbundesamt

Exactly ten years after the adoption of the Paris Agreement (PA), the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will take place from November 10th to at least November 21st, this time in Belém, Brazil. This year's conference is dominated by the “Mutirão” proclaimed by the COP Presidency, a Brazilian concept of joint and collective effort to achieve a common goal.

The choice of the venue for the UN Climate Conference at the gateway to the Amazon region also has a symbolic character: The Amazon is the global center of biodiversity, a CO2 sink, and representative of the global inequality with which the climate crisis affects different countries, income groups, and population groups. Several hundred indigenous peoples live in the Amazon region alone, who are particularly affected by the consequences of climate change, yet have contributed the least to it. At the same time, these peoples are knowledge bearers and guardians of the most biodiverse areas in the world. Issues such as forest protection, biodiversity conservation, and the role of indigenous communities and peoples are to be given greater focus at the conference as cornerstones of climate action.

Following last year's COP29 in Baku where a decision was made to increase transparency, environmental integrity, and ecological sustainability in global emissions trading under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, all mechanisms of the agreement can now be implemented.  In a letter to the international community in May 2025 COP30 President André Aranha Correa do Lago heralded the dawn of the implementation era after many years of tough negotiations. Specifically, COP30 will focus on reaching binding agreements on how to achieve or keep within reach the Paris Agreement's goal of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius and, if possible, limiting it to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The new NDCs: Roadmap for climate action until 2035

One of the most important instruments for global climate protection are the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which, according to the Paris Agreement, are to be resubmitted by all signatory states every five years. The new round of NDCs is due this year. At the end of October, the UN Climate Secretariat published the NDC synthesis report, which summarizes and analyzes all NDCs submitted by the end of September 2025. The result: by the end of September, only 64 countries (out of 194 signatories to the Paris Agreement plus the EU) had submitted a new NDC, covering only 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG emissions). The NDCs submitted are more ambitious than the previous ones and are aligned with the results of the first global stocktake.

The analysis also reveals a huge gap: if the NDCs were fully implemented, these countries' emissions would fall by 17 percent by 2035 compared to 2019. However, according to the sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), reductions in GHG emissions of 60 percent by 2035 compared to 2019 are necessary to get on a path compatible with the 1.5-degree target. The EU submitted its NDC on November 5th, 2025. This envisages a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 66.25 to 72.5 percent by 2035 compared to 1990. The Chinese NDC, submitted on November 3rd, 2025, is also of great importance, with a target of a 7 to 10 percent reduction in emissions by 2035 compared to peak greenhouse gas emissions. China's emissions account for 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The NDCs serve as an important basis for the negotiations at COP30.

According to the Emissions Gap Report 2025 published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which also took into account the NDCs announced by China and the EU during the UN Climate Summit in September, emissions would fall by 15 percent compared to 2019 by 2035 if the NDCs were fully implemented, leading to a temperature increase of 2.3 to 2.5 °C this century. According to the UNEP report, with the policies currently in place, the world is heading for a warming of 2.8 °C by the end of the century. Before the adoption of the Paris Agreement 10 years ago, the world was still heading for a temperature increase of just under 4 °C.

Other important negotiation topics at this year's World Climate Conference

• Climate finance – how do we pay for global climate action? At the 2024 World Climate Conference, the signatory states agreed on a new financing target of US$300 billion per year from 2035 onwards, to be made available for climate protection and adaptation in developing countries. The „Baku to Belèm Roadmap to 1.3 T“ which was initiated at the same time with a new target of US$1.3 trillion per year from public and private sources starting in 2035, was presented by the COP29 and COP30 presidencies in Belém shortly before the start of COP30. The Circle of Finance Ministers, initiated by the Brazilian presidency, has made groundbreaking recommendations in this regard. There is no question that climate action has economic benefits: according to an OECD/UNDP-Studie, well-designed climate policies lead to stronger economic growth even in the short term than scenarios based on current policies. In the long term, ambitious climate action is even more worthwhile: even according to the rather conservative estimates of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), more ambitious climate plans prevent significant climate change-related economic losses and are necessary to secure long-term prosperity. According to the study, ambitious climate plans would mean an increase of 3 percent in global gross domestic product by 2050 and 13 percent by 2100.
• Global Goal on Adaptation – Adapting to the effects of climate change is becoming increasingly important: Another focus is on climate adaptation, because even today, increasing extreme weather events such as heat waves and heavy rainfall, as well as the resulting droughts and floods, make it clear that simply reducing emissions is no longer enough. Particularly in the Amazon region, where indigenous and rural communities are affected by deforestation and extreme weather, COP30 aims to identify ways to make vulnerable regions more resilient. The goal of the negotiations is to finalize the work program on indicators for measuring progress in climate adaptation measures.
• Just Transition Work Program (JTWP): The goal of the JTWP negotiations is to ensure that climate action measures are implemented in a socially equitable manner. This must include, in particular, those population groups that are particularly affected by the transformation. The Brazilian COP Presidency is placing explicit emphasis on this issue. According to the above-mentioned OECD/UNDP study, targeted investments in the energy transition, supplemented by measures aimed at food security, basic services, and governance reforms, could improve development in nine out of ten countries and have the potential to lift 175 million people out of extreme poverty. In contrast, the burning of fossil fuels contributed to 4.2 million premature deaths from air pollution in 2019, with 89 percent of these deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries.
• Gender Action Plan – for gender equality: Another goal of COP30 is the adoption of a gender action plan to promote long-term structural improvements in gender equality in all areas of society (gender mainstreaming), in fiscal policy instruments (gender budgeting), and in the education and economic empowerment of women.
• Action Agenda – From Negotiation to Implementation: A recurring slogan of the Brazilian COP presidency is: “Delivery, not just diplomacy.” This means that COP30 in Belém must not end with mere declarations of intent. Instead, the decisions of the Global Stocktake (GST) from COP28 in Dubai should be reinforced with concrete implementation plans, and verifiable mechanisms and new partnerships should emerge from existing initiatives

Ten years after Paris: Every tenth of a degree count

Ten years after the adoption of the Paris Agreement, the international community must prove that it is serious about the goals it has set for itself. Every tenth of a degree of warming avoided is crucial. According to the new annual climate report (The 2025 State of the Climate Report: a Planet on the Brink), the most important levers for change are the transformation of the energy sector towards renewables, the protection and restoration of ecosystems, the reduction of food waste, and the switch to a more plant-based diet. In addition to energy security, there are also significant economic benefits to renewable energies: in 2024, 91 percent of newly commissioned wind and solar projects were cheaper than the cheapest available fossil fuel alternative.

COP30 could become an important milestone for the implementation of global climate protection goals. The venue plays an important symbolic role in this: the Amazon is not only known as the “lungs of the Earth” and is threatened by deforestation and the effects of climate change, but is also considered a hotspot of global inequality. Climate policy is not an abstract calculation, but a question of survival and justice. Climate action brings benefits for many instead of profits for the few, who can use these profits to protect themselves from the fatal effects of climate change, while the poorest suffer the most from its consequences.

The German Environment Agency at the World Climate Conference

As part of the German government delegation to COP30, the UBA is involved in negotiations on climate action (global stocktake, NDCs), climate science, agriculture, emissions reporting, and climate education and cooperation (Action for Climate Empowerment, ACE). The German Environment is also co-organizing two events, which you can follow via livestream:

• 11th of November 2025: COP30 Side Event "Harnessing Digital for Environmental Sustainability: Leveraging Common Action for a Sustainable Planet in the Digital Age" (Online Event)
• 13th of November 2025: COP30 Side Event „Pathways towards Convergence – Recommendations from the Brazilian-German Track 1.5 Dialogue“ at the Brazilian Presidency's pavilion for the German-Brazilian Climate Dialogue
• 17th of November.2025: COP30 Side Event „Nature-Based Solutions and Beyond – Insights from the Sino-German Track-2-Dialogue“ in the German Climate Pavilion at COP30