World leaders, negotiators, and civil society groups are arriving in Belém, Brazil — on the edge of the Amazon River — for the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP30, the first climate summit ever held in the world’s largest rainforest. The location is not just symbolic. Brazil is using its role as host to argue that falling deforestation, a mostly renewable electricity mix, and a new forest finance proposal give it credibility to push for a summit focused on delivery rather than new slogans.
But the success of this COP will not hinge on Brazil alone. In a Devex Pro Briefing Thursday, Marcene Mitchell, senior vice president for climate change at WWF, and Karen Silverwood-Cope, climate policy director at World Resources Institute Brasil, said progress will be judged by whether countries can turn long-standing commitments into action — scaling up finance and reflecting that in their national climate plans, landing agreement on a forest finance facility, beginning to reckon with fossil fuels and subsidies, and finalizing a way to measure adaptation. They said Brazil’s presidency can help set the tone, but delivery will ultimately depend on whether countries are willing to close the gap between promises and implementation.
Silverwood-Cope said Brazil enters COP30 with “a lot of credibility” — pointing to falling deforestation in Brazil since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office, declining greenhouse gas emissions, and the fact that around 88% of its electricity comes from renewable sources.