What Happened At Cop30 Clifford Chance

Leo Migdal

-Dec 3, 2025, 1:18 PM

While COP30 did not see any major breakthroughs in the official agreements reached, the Global Mutirão, which translates as "collective efforts", confirms key themes relevant to business, including the deployment of private capital in... In this briefing we unpack the outcomes of COP30 in Belém, with a particular focus on what the negotiations mean for businesses, international climate financing and the voluntary carbon markets. As in previous COPs, at COP30 there was a focus on achieving a decision that all parties could agree to, a continuing challenge as that requires unanimity. The final text of the Decision, "Global Mutirão: Uniting humanity in a global mobilization against climate change," was agreed in the early hours of 22 November. What happened at COP30? Join us for our upcoming Perspectives webinar where we will unpack the outcomes of COP30 in Belém.

A Clifford Chance panel comprising Adam Hedley, Nigel Howorth, Roger Leese, Jessica Springsteen and Deborah Zandstra will share insights on what the negotiations mean for businesses, international climate financing and the voluntary carbon markets. Please register your interest here: https://okt.to/t6xHyG #COP30 #UNClimateChange #UNFCCC #Perspectives 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. After two weeks of heavy negotiations, this year’s UN climate talks or COP30, wrapped up yesterday. Set in Belém, in the Brazilian Amazon, with Indigenous leaders and civil society front and centre, this Summit was a chance to turn years of promises into real action. And did that happen? Yes and no. COP30 was meant to be a “COP of Implementation” the moment governments would finally move from promises to action.

And we arrived in Belém with three big fights on the table: While negotiators argued behind closed doors, a different — and much stronger — force was rising outside the rooms. After three COPs in petro-states where civil society was pushed to the margins, COP30 felt like a breath of fresh air. This Summit unfolded in the Amazon — one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, protected and defended by Indigenous Peoples long before the UN ever existed. And for the first time in years, people could rally openly for real climate action. Indigenous Peoples, frontline communities, youth, activists, and everyday people came together and showed what genuine climate leadership looks like.

Their voices spilled from the streets into the halls of COP30, raising the pressure on world leaders to deliver real progress. After all-night talks, governments at COP30 agreed on Saturday to launch limited initiatives to strengthen emissions-cutting plans, as well as tripling finance to help poor countries cope with worsening climate change impacts by 2035. But the Amazon summit’s outcomes fell short on the global transition away from oil, gas and coal. In an effort to deliver something on fossil fuels, the Brazilian presidency complemented the final “Belém political package” by promising to create roadmaps on transitioning away from fossil fuels and protecting forests – as... Brazil tabled its roadmap proposal at the eleventh hour as a compromise solution after some nations – especially European and Latin American states – voiced disappointment that a formal deal was not reached on... Brazil’s roadmap process will sit outside the UN climate regime.

It will be supported by other countries such as Colombia, which is organising the first global conference on the issue, said COP30 President André Aranha Corrêa do Lago. He added that he will also craft a second roadmap to halt and reverse deforestation and report back to the COP on them both. “We know some of you had greater ambition for some of the issues at hand,” Corrêa do Lago told a closing plenary. “I will try not to disappoint you.” André Corrêa do Lago, center, the president of the COP30 climate conference in Brazil, sat as negotiators huddled in last-minute deliberations on Saturday. Andre Penner/AP hide caption

BELÉM, Brazil — This year's United Nations global climate conference in Brazil ended on Saturday with a formal agreement that failed to address phasing out fossil fuels — the main driver of global warming. The United States was conspicuously absent from this year's talks, known as COP30, after the Trump administration refused to send a delegation to Belém, Brazil. In the end, the conference delivered only modest progress on international efforts to curb global warming and pay for the costs of adapting to a hotter planet. Earlier in the week, more than 80 countries had demanded negotiators agree to a "roadmap" to transition the global economy away from fossil fuels. The group included many developing nations hit hard by climate change, along with the United Kingdom, Germany, and oil producers like Mexico and Brazil.

What Happened At Cop30 Clifford Chance

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