The Belém Package Recasting Ambition, Equity, and Finance in the Next Phase of Climate Action: A COP30 Debriefing Paper
The 30th annual meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and 7th meeting of the CMA1 convened in Belém from 10- 22 November 2025. This marked a decade since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015. The Brazilian presidency framed the meeting as the “Global Mutirão”, a collective effort to move from commitments to implementation. It approached its leadership by prioritising partnerships not only among countries but also with institutional actors within and beyond UNFCCC. This approach appeared pragmatic, given the prevailing geopolitical circumstances that continued to cast doubt on the stability of the multilateral code of collective climate governance.
At the heart of an implementation agenda is the concern about its practicality and robustness towards achieving the Paris Agreement goals, particularly the aspiration to limit the temperature rise to 1.5°C. Additionally, thrust is whether means of implementation – particularly financial flows – are aligned with the goals of transitioning to a low-carbon and climate resilient future (Article 2, Paris Agreement). Decisions taken by previous COPs informed the purpose of negotiations at Belém. These included
(a) the UAE Consensus call to transition away from fossil fuels “in a just, orderly and equitable manner” along with tripling of renewable energy and doubling of energy-efficiency by 2030;
(b) the Emirates Framework for Global Climate Resilience,which laid the ground for the Global Goal on Adaptation; and
(c) the Baku outcome on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), which sets the target of mobilising at least USD 300 billion per year by developed countries and overall goal is to “scaling-up” of financing to developing countries to USD 1.3 trillion by 2025.
Together, these decisions set mitigation and adaptation signposts that COP30 was expected to operationalise. The Brazilian Presidency placed four interconnected pillars at the centre – decarbonisation, the NCQG, activation of the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), and just transition. The Presidency invited Parties to “roll up their sleeves” and work in a ‘Global Mutirão’ – a collective mobilisation to stitch ambition, adaptation, finance, transparency and cooperation into a single tapestry. In this process, for developing countries-especially India – the implementation tone mattered: equity and common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) were not side notes but the frame within which implementation would proceed.
The outcome of the COP30 acknowledges that the first Global Stocktake (GST1) – completed at COP28 – marks the end of the Paris Agreement’s first implementation cycle and shows measurable progress in bending the emissions curve and advancing adaptation planning. The GST1 also underscores large ambition and implementation gaps – particularly in adaptation and finance - highlighting the urgency of accelerated action, stronger ultilateralism, and scaled-up resources to keep 1.5°C within reach. Despite firm stances taken by Parties, the Brazilian Presidency was able to pull through agreements on a Global Mechanism on Just Transition, adoption of about 60 indicators on Global Goal on Adaptation with flexibility to countries in their application, tripling of adaptation finance and a two year programme on implementing the Baku to Belém Roadmap on climate finance, opening a negotiation track on para 9.1 of the Paris Agreement on developed countries’ obligation on climate finance, along with a promise from the Presidency to prepare a roadmap for consideration on fossil-fuel phase out by the next COP. The decision to establish a dialogue on the contentious issue of countries such as climate-related unilateral trade measures, triggered by the EU's introduction of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), also deepens the scope of global governance of climate change relative to other institutional architectures of global economic governance.