Photo: Jeremy Bishop/Unsplash
By Natasha Jacobs
COP30 is less than a week away, and as always, a lot is already at stake. COP stands for Conference of Parties and is a global summit for partis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to assess progress towards action on climate change. Specifically, the COP is also a space to negotiate the Kyoto Protocol, a legally binding treaty for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and the Paris Agreement, which aims to reduce global temperatures to ‘well below 2 °C’.
This year is the conference’s 30th iteration, and is being hosted in Belém, Brazil. A central theme to this year’s COP is how to measure progress towards the Paris Agreement’s ‘Global Goal on Adaptation’. COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago stated in a recent open letter: ‘Climate realism requires adaptation to be at the forefront and center of everything we do as governments, private sector, members of civil society, and individuals’, and that ‘governments, businesses, subnational stakeholders, financial institutions, and universities need to put adaptation at the same level of engagement and centrality as mitigation’.
The Global Goal on Adaptation, or GGA, was included within the Paris Agreement in 2015, but it was not specified how the goal would be achieved or how progress would be measured or tracked. Subsequent COPs have attempted to propose targets for adaptation, and in September, a list of 100 potential indicators have been put forward for negotiation at COP30.
This year is also a stocktake of new national climate plans; countries have submitted a new round of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which are their national commitments to reduce GHGs as part of climate change mitigation. As of September 2025, over 60 new NDCs had been submitted. A UNFCCC Synthesis Report notes that the new NDCs show progression in ‘quality, credibility, and economic coverage’, and all go beyond mitigation, with many including adaptation, finance, technology and loss and damage, however accelerated action is still required to deliver faster emissions reductions that ‘reach all countries and peoples’. Indeed, when taken together, these new NDCs would cut emissions by about 10% by 2035 compared to 2019 levels, only a sixth of what is required to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
The Agenda
As always, there is a lot to squeeze into the two-week conference; each Thematic Day is intended to align with this year’s six ‘Action Agenda axes’: Energy, Industry & Transport; Forests, Oceans & Biodiversity; Agriculture & Food Systems; Cities, Infrastructure & Water; Human and Social Development; and Cross-cutting issues.
Monday and Tuesday (10-11 Nov) will look to address Adaptation, Cities, Infrastructure, Water, Waste, Local Governments, Bioeconomy, Circular Economy, Science, Technology, and Artificial Intelligence, aiming to lay foundations for climate readiness and resilience.
Wednesday and Thursday (12-13 Nov) focus on Health, Jobs, Education, Culture, Justice and Human Rights, Information Integrity, and Workers, and introduced the ‘Global Ethical Stocktake’ to embed equity into climate governance.
Friday and Saturday (14-15 Nov) addresses the Just Transition, looking at equitable systems transformation across Energy, Industry, Transport, Trade, Finance, and Carbon markets.
After a break on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday (17-18 Nov) bring together Forests, Oceans, and Biodiversity, with discussions on Indigenous peoples, Local and traditional communities, Children and Youth, and SMEs to showcase inclusive, nature-aligned solutions.
Finally, before a plenary on Friday, Wednesday and Thursday (19-20 Nov) addresses Agriculture, Food Systems and Food Security, Fisheries, and Family Farming, also bringing in conversations on Women, Gender, Afro-descendant, and Tourism.
Over the next two weeks, EnviroStrat’s NbS Solutions Analyst Natasha Jacobs will be bringing you the key updates in weekly blogs. For particular questions or requests, please do reach out to her at [email protected].