Cop30 First Amazon Cop Ends Without Plan To End Deforestation

Leo Migdal

-Dec 3, 2025, 10:40 AM

cop30 first amazon cop ends without plan to end deforestation

Forest defenders disappointed by the lack of agreement on a roadmap to tackle deforestation at COP30 say voluntary initiatives and funding promises set in motion in Belém are at least a step in the... Indigenous people and campaigners hoped the first UN climate summit held in the Amazon would define a concrete plan for saving the world’s forests. But COP30’s “Global Mutirão” decision makes only passing mention of the COP28 target adopted by all countries to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030 – a goal data shows is way off-track. A decision on cutting carbon emissions – part of the broader package of COP30 outcomes – also made short shrift of the issue, referring only to the “challenges in addressing drivers of deforestation” while... “Our expectations were far higher than what this COP in the heart of the Amazon ultimately delivered,” Fernanda Carvalho, head of policy for climate and energy at WWF, told Climate Home News. Panama’s head of delegation at the talks, Juan Carlos Monterrey, said in a social media post that “a Forest COP with no commitment on forests is a very bad joke”.

Belém, Brazil – What started with strong hope and promise ended without actionable roadmaps to end forest destruction and the burning of fossil fuels, as geopolitical divisions again showcased the disconnection with people calling... The first COP in the Amazon rainforest should have delivered an action plan to end forest destruction by 2030 and after 2035 climate action plans fell dangerously short, COP30 should also have delivered a... It did neither. Nor did it deliver a meaningful step-up in climate finance. The final day of the COP was marked by an objection raised by Colombia and other Latin American countries over a lack of progress in climate mitigation, leading to a temporary suspension of the... Carolina Pasquali, Executive Director, Greenpeace Brazil said: “President Lula set the bar high in calling for roadmaps to end fossil fuels and deforestation, but a divided multilateral landscape was unable to hurdle it.

This was a crossroad – a properly funded path to 1.5°C or a highway to climate catastrophe – and while many governments are willing to act, a powerful minority is not.” “This weak outcome doesn’t do justice to everything else that happened in Belém. The biggest Indigenous participation in a climate COP, but also the marches and protests organised outside led to the demarcation of 14 lands – four of those in the very final stage of the... The two roadmaps and a strong finance outcome would have provided a historic result to raise ambition, but the work now continues.” Jasper Inventor, Deputy Programme Director, Greenpeace International said: “COP30 started with a bang of ambition but ended with a whimper of disappointment. This was the moment to move from negotiations to implementation – and it slipped.

The outcome failed to match the urgency demanded. The 1.5°C limit is not just under threat, it’s almost gone. It’s this reality that exposes the hypocrisy of inaction of COP after COP after COP.” The Warrick Power Plant, a coal-powered generating station, operates April 8, 2025, in Newburgh, Ind. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel, File)

Activists participate in a demonstration outside where negotiations are taking place at the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, in Belem, Brazil. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel) Simon Stiell, United Nations climate chief, speaks during a news conference at the COP30 U.N.

Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025, in Belem, Brazil. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) Trees surround the area of a quilombola, an Afro-descendant community called Menino Jesus in Acara, Brazil, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

André Corrêa do Lago, COP30 president, center, and Simon Stiell, United Nations climate chief, front left, speak with staff during a plenary session at the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025, in Belem, Brazil. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) A contentious final session to close out the COP30 climate conference in Belém Brazil ended in an agreement that avoided mentioning a shift away from fossil fuels for the second consecutive year, despite strong... In his closing remarks at the conference, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said:

“Many countries wanted to move faster on fossil fuels, finance, and responding to spiraling climate disasters. I understand that frustration, and many of those I share myself. But let’s not ignore how far this COP has moved us forward.” At the conference, more than 80 countries had been pushing for the COP30 agreement to include explicit references to fossil fuels, including a roadmap to transition away from energy sources such as coal, oil... Notably, 2023’s COP28 conference was the first to ever call for a global transition away from fossil fuels, but this call did was not repeated in last year’s COP29. In the days leading up to the final session, the EU, UK and some Latin American countries led the charge to reintroduce the reference to a roadmap away from fossil fuels, including reportedly threatening...

Adamant objections from countries including Saudi Arabia, Russia and India, however, won out, with the final agreement once again excluding mention of a transition away from fossil fuels. According to Wopke Hoekstra, EU Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth, “a group of mainly oil-producing countries did everything to block the reference to phasing out fossil fuels in the unanimous agreement.” We have just wrapped up COP30, the Amazon COP, in Belém, Brazil. The setting couldn’t have been more symbolic: the humid heat of the rainforest, the broad expanse of the Guamá River, and the palpable urgency of a biome at its tipping point. The expectation was clear: this would be the moment the world finally operationalized the link between forest conservation and climate stability. Yet, as the delegates fly home, we are left with a stark contradiction: the Belém Paradox.

While the summit launched new financial instruments and strengthened the recognition of Indigenous rights, the final binding text, the Global Mutirão, is conspicuously silent on the one commitment that matters most right now: a... Here is my assessment of what happened, what the data shows and where we go from here. The COP30 venue in Belém, Brazil, where negotiations ended without a binding global commitment to halt deforestation. Photo by Climate Acceptance Studios The halls of COP30 are empty, and as the final gavel fell, there was a sense that something essential had slipped away. What began with remarkable promise under Brazil’s presidency concluded instead with "disappointment, and, for many, the unsettling feeling of having watched the multilateral climate process take a step backwards".

“It’s been my fifteenth COP,” says Professor John Sweeney, emeritus climatologist from Maynooth University in Ireland, “and this one followed very predictable lines.” But this year’s conclusion, he stresses, is marked less by the... Sweeney explains that Brazil had laid significant groundwork ahead of the summit. Hosting the conference in the Amazon carried a symbolism and urgency that the world could not ignore. The presidency hoped to produce clear commitments on forest protection, fossil fuel phase-out, and finance for vulnerable nations. Yet, as negotiations stretched deep into the night and into the weekend, the final text emerged stripped of its strongest language. “The big winner,” Sweeney says in an interview with Vatican News “, is sitting in Washington.” A meeting between the United States and Saudi Arabia, days before the final plenary, appeared to seal the...

For the vast majority of nations pressing for decisive language on the root causes of climate change, it was a bitter defeat. For the first time in 30 years of UN COPs, the White House had no official representation at the event in Belém. A decision that had a negative impact on the outcome of the Conference.

Cop30 First Amazon Cop Ends Without Plan To End Deforestation

People Also Search

Forest Defenders Disappointed By The Lack Of Agreement On A

Belém, Brazil – What Started With Strong Hope And Promise

This Was A Crossroad – A Properly Funded Path To

The Outcome Failed To Match The Urgency Demanded. The 1.5°C

Activists Participate In A Demonstration Outside Where Negotiations Are Taking