COP30 Was Diplomacy in Action as Cooperation Deepens—Says Climate Talks Observer

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COP30


These processes are all about people. We should never lose our humanity in the process. There should not be a ‘COP of the people’ pitted against a ‘COP of negotiators.’ We need to approach COP jointly as a conference of the people, by the people, and for people. —Yamide Dagnet, NRDC’s Senior Vice President, International

Yamide Dagnet, Senior Vice President, International at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

Yamide Dagnet, Senior Vice President, International at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

BELÉM, Brazil, Nov 24 2025 (IPS) – As observers at the Conference of Parties closely monitored proceedings in Belém, many, such as Yamide Dagnet, approached the UN Climate Summit as an implementation COP. They are advocating for tangible signals to ignite crucial climate action before the climate crisis reaches irreversible levels.

For Dagnet, Senior Vice President International at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), it is an all hands-on deck situation where talks need to turn into action on the ground, which in turn must inform the acceleration expected from the negotiations.

“As COP focuses more on how we do things, we know the stakes will be more complex,” said Dagnet. “This is why the Paris Agreement set up improvement five-year-policy cycles, acknowledging that we might not get it right the first time, despite good intentions, and in view of possible unintended consequences and trade-offs.”

As a former negotiator now overseeing the international program at NRDC, an international nonprofit environmental organization that uses science, law, convening, and advocacy to mobilize a wide range of stakeholders to safeguard the Earth, Dagnet understands all too well how difficult the task ahead will be.

She points out that with increased geopolitical headwinds and development remaining front and center for countries around the globe, “we are not dealing just with a climate COP but a socio-economic COP.” To succeed, the multilateral process and climate action need to be designed in a way that is just, inclusive, and participatory.

Like many other observers, Dagnet believes that cooperation among nations and across regions is still moving in the right direction despite the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.

“This COP was about diplomacy in action. Only one country has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement; the rest broadly remain on course. There are many issues that will make or break this conference, including the matter of scaling up finance for adaptation and for limiting loss and damage due to climate change. To manage these challenges, you need to measure, and to measure, you need to be guided by indicators, especially those that actually help us to move from just risk and vulnerability assessments to opportunity frameworks and value creation.”

But mobilization cannot be left to the government alone, she cautions.

“It requires support from multilateral and domestic financial institutions, as well as private capital investment. The private sector has for far too long seen climate finance for adaptation as an investment that brings no financial or economic returns. But the tide is changing. Insurance companies, asset managers, pension funds, commercial development, and small and medium companies realize it is an imperative to address adaptation. We need to amplify and demonstrate how there are a multitude of financial resources that could be saved through adaptation,” says Dagnet.

The need of the hour is to design investment as well as financial and insurance models that work for climate scenarios. Insurance business models are largely based on making money from what the company believes is unlikely to happen or happens rarely.  Such is not the case when it comes to climate disasters, which there are going to be a lot more of.

A COP at the mouth of the Amazon and the proximity to the world’s largest tropical forest is not only symbolic but also provides the context to find new ways to value nature and attract funding to make nature and the people who depend on it, more resilient

Addressing whether the intense activism and lobbying at COP30 translated to shaping negotiation outcomes, Dagnet reminds us that the lobbyists from the fossil fuel industry have felt threatened by the Paris Agreement and are worried about the inevitable journey towards greener economies, something that challenges their business model.

“Over the past 10 years, lobbyists have become very good at using these spaces to delay transition,” added Dagnet. Analysis reveals one in 25 of COP30 participants represent the fossil fuel industry, with over 1600 lobbyists given access.

Sonia Guajajara, Minister for Indigenous Peoples of Brazil attends the "Global March: The Answer is Us" during the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30). Credit: Hermes Caruzo/COP30

Sonia Guajajara, Minister for Indigenous Peoples of Brazil attends the “Global March: The Answer is Us” during the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30). Credit: Hermes Caruzo/COP30

Indigenous-led protests in Belem have consistently called for climate action and justice, as well as fossil fuel phase-outs and a halt to deforestation. Dagnet has frequent interactions with the Indigenous People, especially women, in Brazil. This includes Puyr Tembe, the first Indigenous woman to head a state secretariat in Pará; Joenia Wapichana, current president of the National Commission for the Defense of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; Sonia Guajajara, who followed in Wapichana’s steps; and Indigenous leader Célia Xakriabá.

Dagnet stresses the importance of ensuring the protection of these environmental and human rights guardians. Add to that, she pushes for the need to amplify their stories, told in their own words with their voices. She believes that the world has a lot to learn from indigenous communities about living in harmony with nature and also about the increasing and complex threats they face that often cost them their lives.

Dagnet also highlights that climate talks and actions must be inclusive, and no one should be left behind, least of all women, local communities, and indigenous people, who want to be at the table rather than on the menu. “We need to engage with them in a meaningful way and move beyond tokenism,” she says.

NRDC has been integrating gender equity into its environmental initiatives, especially in India. Their multifaceted approach includes promoting women’s economic agency. Implemented through partnerships with organizations like Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India, NRDC fosters women’s access to clean energy in rural communities, helping them replace diesel water pumps with solar-powered ones, enabling clean cooking through biogas plants, and providing access to clean transportation. “This has helped increase their household income, improve health, save time and money, and position them as clean-energy leaders in their communities,” says Dagnet.

More recently, NRDC has identified finance as the connecting thread to various complex issues driven by climate change. At COP30, NRDC launched the Fostering Investable National Planning and Implementation (FINI) for Adaptation and Resilience collaborative in partnership with the Atlantic Council’s Climate Resilience Center. FINI connects capital to climate solutions. It is a collaborative effort to unite 100 organizations, including governments, philanthropies, investors, civil society, and more, to develop pipelines of USD 1 trillion worth of investments by 2028 for adaptation and resilience projects that will support countries and communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis.

When all is said and done at COP, with the negotiations, diplomacy, lobbying, and activism, Dagnet says, “These processes are all about people. We should never lose our humanity in the process. There should not be a ‘COP of the people’ pitted against a ‘COP of negotiators.’ We need to approach COP jointly as a conference of the people, by the people, and for people.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

  Source

Explainer: Inside COP30’s 11th Hour Negotiations for Legacy-Building Belém Climate Deal

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COP30


The COP30 Presidency is urging all “negotiators to join in a true mutirão—a collective mobilization of minds, hearts, and hands,” saying this approach helps “accelerate the pace, bridge divides, and focus not on what separates us, but on what unites us in purpose and humanity.”

Negotiations take place throughout the day and now late into the night. Credit: UN Climate Change/Kiara Worth

Negotiations take place throughout the day and now late into the night. Credit: UN Climate Change/Kiara Worth

BELÉM, Brazil, Nov 19 2025 (IPS) – At a Conference of the Parties, where science intersects with politics, reaching agreements is often a tricky business. What is inside the last-minute negotiations as the COP presidency tries to get the parties to agreement at the final plenary?

COP negotiators are diplomats and government officials who meet at the Conference of the Parties to negotiate and agree on how to address climate change. They are also often joined by COP delegates’ representatives from civil society, social movements and businesses.

As representatives of their respective countries that are parties to the UNFCCC treaty, they discuss, debate, and haggle over their preferred wording of texts and legally binding agreements regarding how to address climate change during closed-door sessions.

Windowless Closed-Door Meetings

These closed-door meetings are often also windowless, and negotiators often lose track of time as they work through extensive documentation and diverse national positions to form a final agreement towards the end of the COP summit schedule.

COP 30, Belém, is posting a daily photographic glimpse into the collective effort to build trust, dialogue, and cooperation to accelerate meaningful climate action and deliver its benefits to all. Many hope this message will permeate inside these rooms.

The UN climate summit has now entered its final stages. The Brazilian COP30 Presidency has extended working hours, scheduling late-night meetings for the last two nights—Monday and Tuesday, Nov 17 and 18, 2025.

Tonight might not be any different, as the COP30 Presidency pushes for a rapid compromise and conclusion of a significant part of negotiations to pave the way for a “plenary to gavel the Belém political package.”

After all, the COP is where the science of the Paris Agreement intersects with politics.

The Elusive True Mutirão 

The COP30 Presidency is urging all “negotiators to join in a true mutirão—a collective mobilization of minds, hearts, and hands,” saying this approach helps “accelerate the pace, bridge divides, and focus not on what separates us, but on what unites us in purpose and humanity.”

But this is the point in the negotiations, even in a ‘COP of truth,’ as COP30 was staged to be, where the real claws come out amid accusations of protectionism, trade tensions and geopolitical dynamics as the worlds of business, politics and human survival intersect.

Even as UN officials urge parties to accelerate the pace, warning that “tactical delays and procedural obstructions are no longer tenable” and that deferring challenging issues to overtime results in collective loss, reconciling deep differences among nations is proving easier said than done even within the Global Mutirão—a concept championed by the COP30 presidency.

It calls for worldwide collective action on climate change, inspired by the Brazilian and Indigenous Tupi-Guarani tradition of mutirão, which means “collective effort.” The bone of contention at this juncture is what some parties see as weak climate commitments, insufficient financial pledges from the global North to South, and trade measures.

Protectionism

Trade measures are turning contentious and deeply debatable in Belém because of a difference of perspective—developing countries view them as protectionism, while some developed countries see them as necessary to level the playing field for their climate policies.

For developing countries, protectionism is a deliberate strategy by more developed countries to limit imports to protect their industries from foreign competition and therefore give them an undue advantage.  Developing nations say this is unfair because it restricts their ability to export and gain access to larger markets.

The core of the debate at COP30 is the inclusion of issues like the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) in climate talks. For some countries, CBAM is a direct part of climate action and belongs at COP. Others say it is an agenda best discussed at the World Trade Organization.

The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is a tool to put a price on the carbon emissions of certain imported goods, ensuring that the carbon price for imports is equivalent to that for domestic EU production. Its main goals are to prevent “carbon leakage,” or companies moving production to countries with weaker climate policies, encourage cleaner production globally, and protect EU businesses by creating a level playing field.

How to Go About a Just Transition?

The business of climate change is not the only thing that is complex and divisive. There are also small island states calling for rapid emissions cuts vis-à-vis the positions of major emerging economies. G77 and China are an intergovernmental coalition of 134 developing countries that work together to promote their collective economic and developmental interests within the United Nations framework.

China is not an official member and does not pay dues. It has been a partner since 1976, providing significant financial support and political backing to the G77. Developed countries such as the UK, Norway, Japan, and Australia are pushing back against their proposed global just transition, thereby prolonging the negotiations.

Developed nations are refusing the global just transition proposal by the G77 and China because they see it as a new and unnecessary mechanism and a duplication of existing structures. They refuse to accept the financial and technical support these countries are asking for to facilitate this transition. Simply put, they want a less strict framework that allows their own interpretations of existing institutions and funding structures for the just transition.

Where is the Adaptation Financing?

Finance for adaptation is similarly a sticking point. Developed nations are dragging their feet around committing sufficient funds to support developing nations to adapt to climate impacts and transition their energy systems. It is still not clear whether financial commitments will be embedded inside adaptation goals or remain as they are—separate.

Lobbyists and the Fossil Fuel Debate

Amidst growing tensions, it is also not clear whether this COP will phase out or phase down fossil fuels in the final agreement. The large delegation of fossil fuel lobbyists suggests it is too early to call. On the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), those who want indicators for measuring adaptation progress directly linked to financial commitments will not budge. The settlement of this matter could potentially take two years (or more).

Disagreements are ongoing about the mandate of the Mitigation Work Program, which seeks to raise ambitions on national emissions reduction. In general, insiders to the negotiations are saying general negotiation tactics are at play.

Some participants are employing delay tactics to buy time and ultimately weasel out of certain commitments; a lack of trust continues, as it has in previous COPs, along with generally slow progress on building consensus around various contentious issues.

This feature is published with the support of Open Society Foundations.

 

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

Faith Leaders Endorse Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty at COP30

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COP30


Some of you might be shocked that even though fossil fuels are 86 percent of the cause of climate change, it took 28 years before the words ‘fossil fuels’ could even be mentioned in the COP document. It is as absurd as Alcoholics Anonymous holding 28 years of conferences before they get the backbone to mention alcohol in an outcome document. —Kumi Naidoo, President of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

Kumi Naidoo with Brazilian First Lady Janja Lula da Silva and Brazilian Cultural Minister Margareth Menezes and others at a panel, “Narratives and Storytelling to Face the Climate Crisis” during the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30). Credit: Aline Massuda/COP30

Kumi Naidoo with Brazilian First Lady Janja Lula da Silva and Brazilian Cultural Minister Margareth Menezes and others at a panel called “Narratives and Storytelling to Face the Climate Crisis” during the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30). Credit: Aline Massuda/COP30

BELÉM, Brazil, Nov 18 2025 (IPS) – Decades ago, a little girl was born in a place called Cleveland, Ohio, in the heart of the United States of America. Born to a woman from the deep South, the place of Martin Luther King, her mother left her ancestral lands for the economic opportunities in the north.

“Off she went, making it all the way to the east side of Cleveland,” says Rev. Dr. Angelique Walker-Smith. “To the place where most people who look like me lived, and still live, and are subjected to policies of injustice, race and gender.”

Here, she found a more pressing issue.

“I couldn’t breathe, my mother couldn’t breathe, and we all couldn’t breathe,” she narrates.

This urbanization, driven by fossil fuels, occurred in Cleveland, Ohio, where her mother relocated and where her relatives still live today. During the Great Migration, over six million people of African descent traveled from the South, believing that economic opportunities would be better in the North.

Rev. Dr Angelique Walker-Smith, regional president of the World Council of Churches, speaks at an event titled ‘Faith for Fossil Free Future.’ Credit: IPS

Rev. Dr Angelique Walker-Smith, regional president of the World Council of Churches, speaks at an event titled ‘Faith for Fossil Free Future.’ Credit: IPS

“Upon our arrival, we discovered that we just couldn’t breathe.”

As one of eight regional presidents representing the World Council of Churches, Walker-Smith says for the World Council of Churches in over 105 countries, over 350 million adherents, and over 350 national churches all over the world, supporting the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty “is all about the issue of injustice, life and life more abundantly.”

“We are saying yes to the transition from fossil fuels to renewable life-giving energy.”

Kumi Naidoo, a prominent South African human rights and environmental justice activist and the President of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, says if the goal is renewable life-giving energy, the world has been going the wrong way for the past 30 years.

“If you come home from work and see water coming from the bathroom, you pick up the mop. But then you realized you left the tap running and the sink stopper on. What will you do first? Of course! You’ll turn off the water and pull the stopper. You will not start mopping the floor first.”

“For 30 years since the time science told us we need to change our energy system and many of our other systems, what we’ve been doing is mopping up the floor. If fossil fuels—oil, coal, and gas—account for 86 percent of what drives climate change, then we must turn off the tap.”

Masahiro Yokoyama was speaking at an event titled Faith for a Fossil-Free Future co-sponsored by Soka Gakkai International. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

Masahiro Yokoyama was speaking at an event titled Faith for a Fossil-Free Future co-sponsored by Soka Gakkai International. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

Naidoo was speaking at an event titled ‘Faith for Fossil Free Future’ co-sponsored by several organizations, including Soka Gakkai International (SGI), Laudato Si’ Movement, GreenFaith—a global interfaith environmental coalition and EcoJudaism, a Jewish charity leading the UK Jewish Community’s response to the climate and nature crisis.

He spoke about the contradiction of the climate talks at the doorsteps of the Amazon, while licensing for drilling is still ongoing in the Amazon even as the people in the Amazon protest, calling for a fossil-free Amazon.

Continuing with the thread of contradictions, Naidoo said, “Some of you might be shocked that even though fossil fuels are 86 percent of the cause of climate change, it took 28 years before the words ‘fossil fuels’ could even be mentioned in the COP document. It is as absurd as Alcoholics Anonymous holding 28 years of conferences before they get the backbone to mention alcohol in an outcome document.

If we continue on this path, we’ll warm up the planet to the point where we destroy our soil and water, and it becomes so hot we can’t plant food. The end result is that we’ll be gone. The planet will still be here. And the good news is, once we become extinct as a species, the forests will grow back, and the oceans will recover.

“And actually, staying with that analogy, can you imagine how absurd it is that the largest delegation to this COP this year, last year, and every year is not even the host country?

“It’s not even Brazil—for every 25 delegates that are attending the COP, one of them is from the fossil fuel industry. That’s the equivalent of Alcoholics Anonymous having the largest delegation to its conference annually from the alcohol industry.”

People, groups and movements of different faiths and consciousness are increasingly raising their voices in robust support of a rapid fossil fuel phase-out, a massive and equitable upsurge in renewable energy, and the resources to make it happen—in the form of a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Naidoo says the treaty is “a critical success ingredient for us not (only) to save the planet, but to secure our children and their children’s future, reminding ourselves that the planet does not need any saving.

“If we continue on this path, we warm up the planet to the point where we destroy our soil and water, and it becomes so hot we can’t plant food. The end result is that we’ll be gone. The planet will still be here. And the good news is, once we become extinct as a species, the forests will grow back, and the oceans will recover.”

This treaty is a proposed global agreement to halt the expansion of new fossil fuel exploration and production and to phase out existing sources like coal, oil, and gas in a just and equitable manner.

The initiative seeks to provide a legal framework to complement the Paris Agreement by directly addressing the supply side of fossil fuels.

Its ultimate goal is to support a global transition to renewable energy and is supported by a growing coalition of countries, cities, organizations, scientists, and activists. More importantly, it has multi-faith support.

Masahiro Yokoyama of the SGI, which is a diverse global community of individuals in 192 countries and territories who practice Nichiren Buddhism, spoke about the intersection between faith and energy transition and why the fossil fuel phase-out cannot wait.

“The just transition is also about how young people in faith can be the driving force to transformations.”

“So, a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty, in my view, is not only about phasing out other fossil fuels but it also represents an ethical framework.”

“It’s a way to move forward while protecting people’s livelihoods and dignity within the context of the environment and also the local business and economies. So, a just transition is not merely a technical issue but a question of ethics, inclusion and solidarity,” Masahiro Yokoyama said.

The most pressing issue at hand is how to implement the treaty in the current environmental context.

“The pathway that we are following is a pathway that has been followed before. We are not going to negotiate this treaty within the COP or within the United Nations system. We’re going to do what the Landmine Treaty did.

“The landmine treaty was negotiated by 44 countries outside of the UN system and then brought to the UN General Assembly for ratification. The second question that people ask, justifiably, is, what about the powerful exporting countries, for example?” Naidoo asked.

“They’re not going to sign it. And to that we find answers in the landmine treaty. Up to today, the United States, Russia and China have not signed the Landmine treaty. But once the treaty was signed, the social license to continue as business as usual was taken away. And you saw a drastic change.”

Note: This article is brought to you by IPS Noram in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.

IPS UN Bureau Report

  Source

Faith Leaders Endorse Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty at COP30

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Active Citizens, Africa, Civil Society, Climate Change, Climate Change Justice, Conferences, COP30, Editors’ Choice, Featured, Headlines, Human Rights, Humanitarian Emergencies, Latin America & the Caribbean, North America, Religion, Sustainable Development Goals, TerraViva United Nations

COP30


Some of you might be shocked that even though fossil fuels are 86 percent of the cause of climate change, it took 28 years before the words ‘fossil fuels’ could even be mentioned in the COP document. It is as absurd as Alcoholics Anonymous holding 28 years of conferences before they get the backbone to mention alcohol in an outcome document. —Kumi Naidoo, President of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

Kumi Naidoo with Brazilian First Lady Janja Lula da Silva and Brazilian Cultural Minister Margareth Menezes and others at a panel, “Narratives and Storytelling to Face the Climate Crisis” during the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30). Credit: Aline Massuda/COP30

Kumi Naidoo with Brazilian First Lady Janja Lula da Silva and Brazilian Cultural Minister Margareth Menezes and others at a panel called “Narratives and Storytelling to Face the Climate Crisis” during the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30). Credit: Aline Massuda/COP30

BELÉM, Brazil, Nov 18 2025 (IPS) – Decades ago, a little girl was born in a place called Cleveland, Ohio, in the heart of the United States of America. Born to a woman from the deep South, the place of Martin Luther King, her mother left her ancestral lands for the economic opportunities in the north.

“Off she went, making it all the way to the east side of Cleveland,” says Rev. Dr. Angelique Walker-Smith. “To the place where most people who look like me lived, and still live, and are subjected to policies of injustice, race and gender.”

Here, she found a more pressing issue.

“I couldn’t breathe, my mother couldn’t breathe, and we all couldn’t breathe,” she narrates.

This urbanization, driven by fossil fuels, occurred in Cleveland, Ohio, where her mother relocated and where her relatives still live today. During the Great Migration, over six million people of African descent traveled from the South, believing that economic opportunities would be better in the North.

Rev. Dr Angelique Walker-Smith, regional president of the World Council of Churches, speaks at an event titled ‘Faith for Fossil Free Future.’ Credit: IPS

Rev. Dr Angelique Walker-Smith, regional president of the World Council of Churches, speaks at an event titled ‘Faith for Fossil Free Future.’ Credit: IPS

“Upon our arrival, we discovered that we just couldn’t breathe.”

As one of eight regional presidents representing the World Council of Churches, Walker-Smith says for the World Council of Churches in over 105 countries, over 350 million adherents, and over 350 national churches all over the world, supporting the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty “is all about the issue of injustice, life and life more abundantly.”

“We are saying yes to the transition from fossil fuels to renewable life-giving energy.”

Kumi Naidoo, a prominent South African human rights and environmental justice activist and the President of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, says if the goal is renewable life-giving energy, the world has been going the wrong way for the past 30 years.

“If you come home from work and see water coming from the bathroom, you pick up the mop. But then you realized you left the tap running and the sink stopper on. What will you do first? Of course! You’ll turn off the water and pull the stopper. You will not start mopping the floor first.”

“For 30 years since the time science told us we need to change our energy system and many of our other systems, what we’ve been doing is mopping up the floor. If fossil fuels—oil, coal, and gas—account for 86 percent of what drives climate change, then we must turn off the tap.”

Masahiro Yokoyama was speaking at an event titled Faith for a Fossil-Free Future co-sponsored by Soka Gakkai International. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

Masahiro Yokoyama was speaking at an event titled Faith for a Fossil-Free Future co-sponsored by Soka Gakkai International. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

Naidoo was speaking at an event titled ‘Faith for Fossil Free Future’ co-sponsored by several organizations, including Soka Gakkai International (SGI), Laudato Si’ Movement, GreenFaith—a global interfaith environmental coalition and EcoJudaism, a Jewish charity leading the UK Jewish Community’s response to the climate and nature crisis.

He spoke about the contradiction of the climate talks at the doorsteps of the Amazon, while licensing for drilling is still ongoing in the Amazon even as the people in the Amazon protest, calling for a fossil-free Amazon.

Continuing with the thread of contradictions, Naidoo said, “Some of you might be shocked that even though fossil fuels are 86 percent of the cause of climate change, it took 28 years before the words ‘fossil fuels’ could even be mentioned in the COP document. It is as absurd as Alcoholics Anonymous holding 28 years of conferences before they get the backbone to mention alcohol in an outcome document.

If we continue on this path, we’ll warm up the planet to the point where we destroy our soil and water, and it becomes so hot we can’t plant food. The end result is that we’ll be gone. The planet will still be here. And the good news is, once we become extinct as a species, the forests will grow back, and the oceans will recover.

“And actually, staying with that analogy, can you imagine how absurd it is that the largest delegation to this COP this year, last year, and every year is not even the host country?

“It’s not even Brazil—for every 25 delegates that are attending the COP, one of them is from the fossil fuel industry. That’s the equivalent of Alcoholics Anonymous having the largest delegation to its conference annually from the alcohol industry.”

People, groups and movements of different faiths and consciousness are increasingly raising their voices in robust support of a rapid fossil fuel phase-out, a massive and equitable upsurge in renewable energy, and the resources to make it happen—in the form of a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Naidoo says the treaty is “a critical success ingredient for us not (only) to save the planet, but to secure our children and their children’s future, reminding ourselves that the planet does not need any saving.

“If we continue on this path, we warm up the planet to the point where we destroy our soil and water, and it becomes so hot we can’t plant food. The end result is that we’ll be gone. The planet will still be here. And the good news is, once we become extinct as a species, the forests will grow back, and the oceans will recover.”

This treaty is a proposed global agreement to halt the expansion of new fossil fuel exploration and production and to phase out existing sources like coal, oil, and gas in a just and equitable manner.

The initiative seeks to provide a legal framework to complement the Paris Agreement by directly addressing the supply side of fossil fuels.

Its ultimate goal is to support a global transition to renewable energy and is supported by a growing coalition of countries, cities, organizations, scientists, and activists. More importantly, it has multi-faith support.

Masahiro Yokoyama of the SGI, which is a diverse global community of individuals in 192 countries and territories who practice Nichiren Buddhism, spoke about the intersection between faith and energy transition and why the fossil fuel phase-out cannot wait.

“The just transition is also about how young people in faith can be the driving force to transformations.”

“So, a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty, in my view, is not only about phasing out other fossil fuels but it also represents an ethical framework.”

“It’s a way to move forward while protecting people’s livelihoods and dignity within the context of the environment and also the local business and economies. So, a just transition is not merely a technical issue but a question of ethics, inclusion and solidarity,” Masahiro Yokoyama said.

The most pressing issue at hand is how to implement the treaty in the current environmental context.

“The pathway that we are following is a pathway that has been followed before. We are not going to negotiate this treaty within the COP or within the United Nations system. We’re going to do what the Landmine Treaty did.

“The landmine treaty was negotiated by 44 countries outside of the UN system and then brought to the UN General Assembly for ratification. The second question that people ask, justifiably, is, what about the powerful exporting countries, for example?” Naidoo asked.

“They’re not going to sign it. And to that we find answers in the landmine treaty. Up to today, the United States, Russia and China have not signed the Landmine treaty. But once the treaty was signed, the social license to continue as business as usual was taken away. And you saw a drastic change.”

Note: This article is brought to you by IPS Noram in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.

IPS UN Bureau Report

  Source

Belém’s Hunger, Poverty Declaration Places World’s Most Vulnerable Populations at Centre of Global Climate Policy

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Food Systems


If we do not have our land and healthy territory, we do not have healthy food, and without food we do not survive. Food must become a centerpiece in the global climate discourse, and it is not just about any food, but healthy food that aligns with our ancestry and local traditions and spirituality. —Juliana Kerexu Mirim Mariano, activist

Juliana Kerexu Mirim Mariano, coordinator for the Guarani Yvyrupa Commission that advocates for the rights of Guarani peoples in southern and southeastern Brazil. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

Juliana Kerexu Mirim Mariano, coordinator for the Guarani Yvyrupa Commission that advocates for the rights of Guarani peoples in southern and southeastern Brazil. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

BELÉM, Brazil, Nov 14 2025 (IPS) – A young woman at COP30 speaks about retracing her father’s footsteps. At only 16, her father and her grandfather were among the first families displaced by an unfolding climatic crisis of erratic weather and worsening climate conditions that goes on to date from their ancestral village in Sundarbans. Nearly 60 years later, she is on a mission to reclaim her ancestral lands.

The Sundarbans is the world’s largest mangrove forest, located on the delta of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers in the Bay of Bengal, straddling the border of India and Bangladesh.

This complex ecosystem is a vital habitat for the Royal Bengal tiger and other wildlife, while also providing critical ecosystem services like storm protection and livelihoods for millions of people. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and faces threats from climate change, rising sea levels, and human activities.

She said farming activities in the Sundarbans have been severely disrupted and degraded by environmental changes, primarily increased soil and water salinity, more frequent and intense cyclones, and sea-level rise. These factors have led to a decline in crop productivity, changes in traditional farming patterns, and a shift in livelihoods towards aquaculture and migration.

But the Sundarbans do not stand alone. From across the global South, delegates are speaking about their shared tragedies of weather patterns out of joint with their farming systems.

Juliana Kerexu Mirim Mariano, the coordinator of the Guarani Yvyrupa Commission, told IPS her organization advocates “for the rights of Guarani peoples in southern and southeastern Brazil, particularly the recovery of their ancestral lands in the Atlantic Forest.

The Belém Declaration on Hunger, Poverty, and Human-Centered Climate Action, launched during the COP30 Leaders Summit, places the world’s most vulnerable populations at the center of global climate policy. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

The Belém Declaration on Hunger, Poverty, and Human-Centered Climate Action, launched during the COP30 Leaders Summit, places the world’s most vulnerable populations at the center of global climate policy. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

“Its mission is to organize a political struggle for land demarcation, which is vital for preserving cultural traditions and way of life. The commission works to secure land rights, and its efforts align with the preservation of the Atlantic Forest biome, as the Guarani have lived in the region for centuries and their culture is deeply connected to its biodiversity.”

“Within our territories, we do annual plantations for us to continue producing our sacred food, preserving our traditional ceremonies, which are linked to us and to spirituality. Our spirituality is directly connected to our food, to our plantations, to our land,” she explained.

“But all these are now under threat. We have seen this abrupt change and emergencies caused by climatic changes. So, for example, in our village, we have not been able to harvest food for more than three years.

“We have only managed to keep our sacred seeds because either it rains too much or it rains too little—at the time of the annual plantations, we have only managed to maintain the part of the traditional ceremonies that is spiritual.”

Njagga Touray, Party representative from the Gambia in West Africa, told IPS that “the food situation in the country, just like many others, is not very promising. Climate change leads to land degradation due to increasingly erratic rainfall, which decreases our production; we need to feed a growing population and plan for the next generation.”

The COP30 agenda is alive in this dire situation. The Belém Declaration on Hunger, Poverty, and Human-Centered Climate Action, announced and endorsed by 44 countries last week, launched a new Climate-Resilient Social Protection and Smallholder Agriculture Finance Partnership.

Delegates say this progress has instilled a renewed sense of optimism—proving that elevating adaptation and unleashing technology within the world’s farming systems helps the global community to redefine resilience, transforming vulnerability into strength and ambition into action.

Recognizing the fundamental role of combating hunger and poverty for climate justice, a new Climate-Resilient Social Protection and Smallholder Agriculture Finance Partnership has already been launched under the COP30 Action Agenda.

This partnership supports the Plan to Accelerate Solutions (PAS) by setting clear goals to encourage action and monitor progress, which includes helping countries like Benin, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia, and the Dominican Republic create plans for social protection, support small farms, and improve access to water.

The PAS brings countries together with international partners and subnational networks to align national ambition with local action, integrate local priorities into NDCs, and institutionalize multilevel governance as a foundation for achieving the Paris Agreement’s goals.

By 2028, the plan is expected to have established a joint coordination group of climate finance donors to align portfolios in support of efforts to combat hunger and poverty. Importantly, the launch builds on the November 7, 2025 adoption of the Belém Declaration on Hunger, Poverty, and Human-Centered Climate Action by 44 countries, a landmark commitment developed with the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty during the COP30 Leaders Summit held just days before the start of the UN climate conference.

Furthermore, two innovative digital tools have also been launched to support climate-smart agriculture at scale. Brazil and the UAE, in partnership with the Gates Foundation, Google, and leading global agricultural institutions, announced the world’s first open-source AI Large Language Model (LLM) for agriculture, a breakthrough toward a more resilient and equitable global food system.

Secondly, the AIM for Scale, a farmer-centered AI forecasting tool, could empower over 100 million farmers by 2028 by providing real-time insights that strengthen climate-smart decision-making, risk preparedness, and inclusive innovation across agricultural systems worldwide.

The Agricultural Innovation Showcase high-level event will serve as a media and political platform for governments and philanthropic leaders to announce a multi-billion-dollar package of support to fund agricultural innovations that help farmers in lower-income regions adapt to the impacts of climate change and build resilience. Nearly USD 2.8bn has been announced for farmer adaptation and resilience to strengthen global food systems.

International donors have also announced over USD 2.8bn for farmer adaptation and resilience to strengthen global food systems. In support of the COP30 Brazil Presidency’s call to make COP30 the COP of implementation, the commitments are aimed at increasing support for smallholder farmers in poorer regions who are bearing the brunt of worsening weather extremes. The donor funds will be invested in technologies and tools to help farmers adapt, build resilience, and strengthen local food systems that feed and employ billions of people.

“Agricultural innovation is the engine of climate resilience,” Martin van Nieuwkoop, Director of Agricultural Development, Gates Foundation.

Back to those on the frontlines of climate change, where it intersects with food systems, ancestry, and traditions, like those of Mirim Mariano—it is a race against time.

“If we do not have our land and healthy territory, we do not have healthy food, and without food we do not survive. Food must become a centerpiece in the global climate discourse, and it is not just about any food, but healthy food that aligns with our ancestry and local traditions and spirituality.”

This feature is published with the support of Open Society Foundations.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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Nuclear Disarmament Conversations Cannot Lose Traction

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Nuclear Disarmament

Titan II ICBM - decommissioned nuclear missile - at the Titan Missile Museum, Green Valley, Sahuarita, Arizona. Credit: Stephen Cobb/Unsplash

Titan II ICBM – decommissioned nuclear missile – at the Titan Missile Museum, Green Valley, Sahuarita, Arizona. Credit: Stephen Cobb/Unsplash

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 6 2025 (IPS) – In recent days, nuclear state leaders have flouted the regulations and norms around nuclear non-proliferation and are flirting more openly with nuclear might in the name of projecting strength.

In the last week, the United States and the Russian Federation have made public shows of their nuclear messaging. On the 27th of October, President Vladimir Putin revealed a new nuclear-powered missile capable of staying airborne far longer than conventional missiles and even evading missile defense systems. Some experts have suggested that this is meant to reinforce Russia’s nuclear might, which Putin has leaned on since the start of the Ukraine invasion in February 2022.

More recently, on 29 October, President Donald Trump announced via social media that he wanted to resume nuclear testing for the first time in thirty years. In his post he wrote, “Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis.”

As he made this announcement just before his meeting with President Xi Jinping, some experts have considered that China’s expanding nuclear arsenal has prompted some calls in Washington D.C. to quickly modernize the U.S.’s own nuclear forces. Nuclear testing by major powers like China, Russia or the U.S. has not been conducted in decades. Yet analyses have warned that such an act would only further complicate relations between this triad.

All these developments should not come as a surprise. Even as countries have been aware of the dangers of nuclear weapons since 1945, this has not completely stopped them from expanding their forces. As of June 2025, there are over 12,400 nuclear warheads in the world in only a small percentage of countries. The U.S. and Russia account for 90 percent of those warheads, both possessing more than 5,000 nuclear warheads. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), nearly all nine of the nuclear states moved to modernize their existing nuclear arsenals and acquire new missiles in 2024.

Increasing geopolitical tensions have increased feelings of uncertainty and instability, which seems to have led countries to prioritize national security. The nuclear-armed states have made moves to expand the capabilities of their arsenals. SIPRI estimates that China now owns 600 nuclear warheads. Both the United Kingdom and France have ongoing programs to develop strategic weapons, including missiles and submarines. North Korea continues to expand its military nuclear program, accelerating the production of fissile material to make more nuclear warheads.

Headlines reflecting concerns around nuclear testing. Credit: IPS

Concerns about nuclear testing have been reflected in headlines. Credit: IPS

The threat of nuclear weapons seemed to loom over major events this year, even as their efficacy as a deterrent was thrown into question. As India and Pakistan engaged in aerial battles and strategic strikes in May, the conflict demonstrated to the world how close two nuclear powers could come to war.

Meanwhile, in the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine and the perceived threat from Russia, European nations, including France and the U.K., are moving to prioritize investments in defense, including deterrence. Germany, Denmark and Lithuania are among some of the countries that have also expressed interest in hosting nuclear weapons for the nuclear states.

William Potter, Director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, expressed concern over the dangers posed by nuclear weapons due to miscalculations and misperceptions at a time when “there is a total lack of trust, respect, and empathy among the nuclear weapons possessors.”

“The more nuclear weapons, the greater the risk of their inadvertent use, but even more dangerous is the absence of a political climate in which serious arms control and disarmament measures can be pursued,” Potter told IPS.

The safeguards for nuclear arms control are also being challenged. The NEW-Start treaty, the last remaining arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia, is set to expire in February 2026, though both countries have considered voluntarily maintaining the limits on deployed strategic nuclear weapons for one year. Yet in this past week, that promise has been undercut by both parties.

At the same time, there are the continuous calls for nonproliferation and disarmament. Advocates from all over have raised awareness on the impacts of radiation on communities, on public safety and on the environment. The United Nations has platformed and rallied these advocates and has raised the alarm for disarmament since its official beginning on 24 October, 1945.

Amidst this, there is the fear of a new nuclear arms race. During the high-level meeting on the elimination of nuclear weapons in September this year, the UN’s Chef de Cabinet Courtenay Rattray, who delivered remarks on behalf of Secretary-General António Guterres, said that the world was “sleepwalking” into this new arms race, now defined by new technologies and new domains for conflict such as cyberspace. Rattney warned that “the risks of escalation and miscalculation are multiplying.”

So if the nuclear states are modernizing their arsenals, how do modern technologies fit in? Artificial intelligence (AI) is the latest frontier that countries are navigating and investing significant resources in to achieve progress. Given that, national and global regulations on the safe governance of AI are still nascent as countries still work to agree on universal agreements for the frameworks for the ethical applications of AI.

As it becomes increasingly sophisticated and more accessible, member states have been investing resources into incorporating AI in the military domain. Given that it does not fit neatly into pre-existing deterrence frameworks, this has also raised concerns over AI’s possible “destabilizing effects,” according to Wilfred Wan, Director of the SIPRI Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme.

It has prompted stakeholders to engage in serious negotiations on AI governance in the military domain, including guardrails to reduce the risk of escalation, Wan told IPS. At the multilateral level, he cites the example of the Blueprint for Action that came out of the second summit on Responsible AI in the Military Domain (REAIM) in 2024. It is a non-binding agreement among 61 countries, including nuclear powers like the U.S., the U.K., France and Pakistan, that provides a framework for the responsibility that parties need to take in integrating AI, and recognizing gaps that policymakers must take into account. There is also the UN General Assembly Resolution 79/239 on “[AI] in the military domain and its implications for international peace and security.”

“This is certainly not a substitute for disarmament progress, but in the current strategic context, it can help rebuild some of the trust and confidence necessary for revitalizing those efforts,” Wan said.

Researchers from SIPRI have found there are no governance frameworks specifically for the nuclear-AI nexus compared to those for conventional military systems. “In the nuclear context, discussions have largely centered on retaining human control in nuclear decision-making. This is an essential principle but does not address other ways in which AI integration can affect the environment in which nuclear decisions are made, directly or indirectly,” Wan explained.

“Absent a framework that addresses these aspects, including through regulatory and technical measures, there remains the risk of accelerated integration of AI among nuclear-armed states in a manner that destabilizes the security environment, threatens strategic stability, and impacts the risk of nuclear use.”

When assessing the existing approaches to the governance of military AI, it shows common areas of concern, such as raising awareness through multi-stakeholder engagement and preserving the capacity for human intervention, along with applying safety and security measures to mitigate escalation risks.

At this time, nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation are critical and may even provide insight into negotiating the governance of AI in nuclear forces. The approaches to fostering multi-stakeholder dialogue that include policymakers, non-nuclear states, experts and the private sector could similarly apply to discussions around AI in nuclear forces. Though it should be noted that their limited knowledge of nuclear force structures may constrain meaningful contributions to the debate. Nevertheless, their participation must be facilitated if nuclear parties truly value human control in this factor.

Nuclear and non-nuclear states must recommit to the anti-nuclear agreements, including the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Potter stressed the importance of disarmament and nonproliferation education, particularly to empower future generations to “pursue creative ways to reduce pressing nuclear dangers.”

The UN can employ its influence in advancing disarmament efforts through dialogue and awareness efforts from the General Assembly and the Office of Disarmament Affairs (UN-ODA). The UN has also confirmed it will convene an independent scientific panel to assess the effects of nuclear warfare and an Expert Group on Nuclear-Free War Zones.

“Nuclear disarmament is more important today than ever before, but it is not simply a question of securing lower numbers of nuclear weapons,” Potter said. “At a time when the “nuclear taboo” has been eroded and discussions about the use of nuclear weapons have been normalized, it is vital that policymakers act boldly in a fashion commensurate with the threat.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

Note: This article is brought to you by IPS Noram in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.

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