The World Wants Climate Action Whether Countries Like It Or Not

Leo Migdal

-Dec 3, 2025, 1:17 PM

the world wants climate action whether countries like it or not

General Plenary Session of Leaders at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil, on Nov. 7, 2025. Credit - COP 30 Press Office/ handout/Anadolu—Getty Images This year’s U.N. climate summit, COP30, opened with a moment that should have set the tone for a new era. Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declared it the “COP of Truth,” rooted in the Brazilian idea of Mutirão, a collective effort driven by solidarity.

He urged leaders to deliver the concrete roadmaps the world urgently needs: a plan to overcome dependence on fossil fuels, a strategy to reverse deforestation, and a financing package that is fair and planned... He asked countries to choose multilateralism over isolationism, science over ideology, and action over fatalism. The world fell far short of that challenge. In a year of record heat, a landmark proposal backed by more than 80 countries for a global fossil-fuel transition roadmap was stripped from the final decision laying out the next steps for global... The summit, held in the Amazon city of Belém, ended without a deforestation roadmap. And climate finance commitments remain far below what is required.

To keep even a coin-flip chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C the world must cut emissions roughly 55% by 2035 compared to 2019 levels. Current national plans submitted within the COP process offer barely a fraction of that, putting the world on track for roughly 2.5°C of warming, an outcome no stable society or economy can tolerate. It is perhaps shocking, but not surprising. Over 1,600 fossil fuel lobbyists were accredited, roughly one in every 25 participants. If they were a country, these lobbyists would be the second largest delegation after host country Brazil. A process that requires consensus among nearly 200 countries gives de facto blocking power to the least ambitious.

And while the absence of the United States removed one source of obstruction, it also removed political weight. A more assertive bloc of petrostates filled that vacuum. Former Lakers center Elden Campbell, who played 8 ½ seasons of his 15-year NBA career with the Los Angeles team ... As the impact of global warming becomes more obvious, you might expect countries to step up climate action and preparation, but we’re seeing the opposite happen Climate campaigners march on the sidelines of the COP30 summit in Belém, Brazil Ten years on from the Paris Agreement, we should be seeing a massive ratcheting up of climate action.

Instead, the past four years have seen almost no progress – including at the latest COP summit, which failed to take any meaningful steps towards phasing out fossil fuels or ending deforestation. What’s going on? I don’t know the answer. But I’m starting to fear that rather than responding more rationally as the world heats up and the impacts get ever more serious, our responses are becoming more irrational. If that is the case, climate impacts are going to be much worse than they would otherwise be, and the prospect of a decline in our global civilisation seems more plausible than I have... NOAA scientists refuse to link warming weather to climate change

A 2024 survey “Global representative evidence on the actual and perceived support for climate action” showed that people are willing to sacrifice personally for the greater good Earlier this year, for the second time in five years, the United States began the process of removing itself from the Paris Climate Agreement. First, it signals to the world that the United States is no longer part of the global climate change solution. Second, it may make some countries question if it is worth it for them to remain in the agreement. But third and most importantly, the agreement, while not perfect, had goals that were absolutely achievable, even if not as quickly as some might have hoped. From Pat Mitchell’s April 4, 2025 newsletter.

What percentage of people around the world want their governments to do more to fix the climate crisis? The answer surprised me—and I have a feeling it might surprise you, too: A slew of new studies have found that the vast majority of the human population—80 to 89 percent—want governments to do... The fact that nearly nine out of 10 people on the planet demand climate action seems especially newsworthy at a time when some governments and corporations are backtracking on climate action even as ferocious... In the U.S., the Trump administration is working to roll back progress towards a cleaner, healthier and safer future—progress that was already moving too slowly—by prioritizing fossil fuels over renewable energy sources, the very... Sign up to our weekly and monthly, easy-to-digest recap of climate news from around the world. The People’s Climate Vote is the word’s most extensive public survey on climate change, engaging over 73,000 people across 77 countries.

Against a backdrop of historic heat and widespread climate impacts, human’s perspective on climate change is shifting, with an increasing number of people globally demanding more adaptation and mitigation action, a new comperehensive global... Carried out by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the University of Oxford, the second edition of the People’s Climate Vote published last week found that an overwhelming majority of people globally are now... Conducted in 87 languages, the survey engaged over 73,000 people from different age groups, cultural and geographical backgrounds across 77 countries, representing 87% of the world’s population. People across the world, and the political spectrum, underestimate levels of support for climate action. This “perception gap” matters. Governments will change policy if they think they have strong public backing.

Companies need to know that consumers want to see low-carbon products and changes in business practices. We’re all more likely to make changes if we think others will do the same. If governments, companies, innovators, and our neighbors know that most people are worried about the climate and want to see change, they’ll be more willing to drive it. On the flip side, if we systematically underestimate widespread support, we’ll keep quiet for fear of “rocking the boat”. This matters not only within each country but also in how we cooperate internationally. No country can solve climate change on its own.

If we think that people in other countries don’t care and won’t act, we’re more likely to sit back as we consider our efforts hopeless. The 2025 UN climate talks wrapped on Saturday, Nov. 22 after negotiations pushed into overtime. The resulting decision secured some important wins, both inside and outside the negotiations. But it omitted some of the big-ticket items many hoped to see. With efforts to halt temperature rise severely off track and climate disasters becoming ever-more destructive, the summit (COP30) aimed to establish clear pathways to deliver past pledges and put the world on a safer...

A key question was how countries would address lagging ambition in their new climate commitments (NDCs). Hopes that countries would commit to roadmaps to end fossil fuel use and halt deforestation were ultimately dashed after opposition from petrostates. The final decision only included new voluntary initiatives to accelerate national climate action, though the Brazilian Presidency intends to move forward with fossil fuel and deforestation roadmaps outside of the formal COP talks. Building resilience to climate impacts took center stage, with COP30 securing a new target to triple finance for climate adaptation. The COP also laid out practical solutions to increase finance for the low-carbon transition. In an era of trade wars and tariffs, negotiators also agreed for the first time to hold discussions on how trade policies can help — or hinder — climate action.

Against the backdrop of the Amazon, nature also saw advances, including a new fund for tropical forest conservation. Indigenous Peoples and other local communities were recognized like never before. And outside the formal negotiations, the summit saw a raft of new pledges and action plans from cities, states, countries and the private sector. It is clear that we are moving from negotiations to implementation, and from wrangling over what to do to how to do it. These victories matter. It shows that international cooperation can still deliver, despite deepening divides on climate action and a difficult geopolitical context.

The World Wants Climate Action Whether Countries Like It Or Not

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