It started today COP30Between November 10 and 21, 2025, more than 190 countries will discuss how to stop the temperature rise on a planet that has already reached the symbolic threshold of 1,5ºC above pre-industrial levels, and where 2024 was the hottest year on record.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva demanded that the conference “take the warnings of science seriously” and drew attention to two pressing issues: accelerating the energy transition and protecting forests. UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the 1,5°C increase as a “red line for humanity” and insisted on the verb that had been missing from previous summits: implement.

From a diplomatic standpoint, André Corrêa do Lago, president of COP30, suggested focusing efforts on operational decisions that do not depend on fragile consensus and acknowledged shifts in leadership, with emerging countries arriving "with solutions," at a time when China is disseminating clean technologies at competitive costs.

"Emerging countries are appearing at this COP with a different role. China is arriving with solutions for everyone.", said.

Meanwhile, Simon Stiell, head of the UN Climate Convention, presented a summary of the NDCs indicating a projected 12% drop in emissions by 2035 compared to 2019, a sign that the curve is beginning to bend, albeit slowly. On the river and in the streets, indigenous peoples from the Andes to Belém are demanding an effective voice in the management of their territories and reminding us that the climate crisis is already affecting their homes and bodies.

Against this backdrop, the agenda opens up where we have almost always failed: finance, the pace of decarbonization, adaptation, and governance.

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The climate summit taking place in Belém, in the Amazon, began this Monday and is seen as a decisive moment to save the Paris Agreement and avoid environmental collapse. Brazilian President Lula da Silva, in his opening speech, quoted the Yanomami people of the Amazon.

"It is up to human beings to hold up the sky, so that it does not fall to Earth.".

Three decades of COPs have left a file full of milestones and omissions. We had the creation of the Convention in 1992, the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the Paris Agreement in 2015, the Glasgow "balance sheet" in 2021, the recognition of the move away from fossil fuels in 2023 and, in Baku 2024, the indication of a new benchmark for climate finance.

However, global emissions have not begun a sustained decline, and the impacts are worsening in the form of heat waves, floods, droughts, and biodiversity loss.

Science has been consistent: every tenth of a degree avoided saves lives and wealth, electrification and renewables benefit from economies of scale, energy efficiency is the "first energy," and ending deforestation by 2030 is a mandatory condition for climate, water, and agricultural stability.

In Belém, the test is operational. The debate on gradually abandoning fossil fuels needs a roadmap with deadlines and social safeguards. Nationally Determined Contributions must be revised to align with the 1,5ºC target, otherwise we risk remaining on a 2,5ºC track.

The agricultural issue, so often pushed to the sidelines, finally enters the room because emissions from the sector and food security are intertwined. The president of COP30 advocates harvesting specific and verifiable decisions instead of grandiloquent pronouncements.

Stiell insists that the Paris Agreement “works” whenever it links negotiation to changes in the real economy: every clean gigawatt cuts pollution and creates jobs, every persistent action saves lives and protects supply chains. The common thread is credibility: goals with a timeline and metrics with public monitoring.

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From the Portuguese-speaking African side, the message was clear. Angola presented its National Strategy for Climate Change, the so-called NDC 3.0, based on a low-carbon economy with enhanced solar and hydropower, energy efficiency, and improved waste management.

“Adapt is to survive” was the key phrase in the Angolan delegation's speech, which called for a just and supportive transition and highlighted the vulnerabilities affecting agriculture, water, and health.

Cape Verde, the small island nation responsible for just 0,0017% of global emissions, reiterated its call for financial pledges to become affordable disbursements with compatible rates and technical assistance, because the gap between what archipelagos can do and what they need continues to grow.

Mozambique insisted on a specific and recurring point throughout the Global South: less bureaucracy in accessing funds and greater speed in approving adaptation and resilience projects.

The delegations from the PALOP countries also align themselves with Belém's ambition in advocating that the Baku-Belém roadmap close the gaps between goals and means, both in financing and in technology transfer and capacity building. On the political front, the Alliance of Small Island States recalls that 1,5ºC is not a slogan, it is an existential frontier.

For this to move beyond mere intentions, the richest countries must keep their word, clarify the flows of loss and damage, and ensure that access mechanisms do not exclude those who need it most. In Belém, the PALOP countries bring examples of local adaptation and call for scale, speed, and predictability to transform pilot projects into lasting public policies.

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Climate change is also measured in numbers that the financial world understands. WWF projects a cost of €7,7 trillion to the global economy over the next decade if ocean degradation continues at the current rate, noting that marine health is an asset that sustains fishing, tourism, coastal properties, credit, and employment.

The recommendation is directed to central banks and supervisors: integrate ocean risk into monetary policy, stress tests, and regulation, so that the financial system stops financing the erosion of its own natural capital.

On another front of quick gains, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced $100 million to cut methane, a short-lived greenhouse gas, with great potential for immediate reductions in oil and gas, agriculture, and waste.

Satellite verification, measurement and leak repair protocols, and data transparency create a virtuous cycle of identification-intervention-verification. On the industrial side, the drop in costs in solar, wind, and storage, driven by Asian scale and competition, is approaching the tipping point in multiple markets, reinforcing the economic viability of the transition.

But technology without concrete guidelines produces misalignments. That is why COP30 discusses both "how" and "how much": registration standards, measurement methodologies, public data platforms, and independent auditing, so that each commitment can be followed by journalists, academics, courts of accounts, and, above all, by citizens.

On the ground, indigenous peoples who traveled from the Andes to Belém remind us that there is no effective transition without protecting those who guard the forests and rivers. Their demand is simple and harsh: fewer abstract promises and more territorial safeguards, effective participation, and respect for the life that has been sustained there for millennia.

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If COP30 wants to be remembered as a turning point, it needs to leave Belém with an implementation roadmap that fits into the schedules of governments and businesses, and into people's daily lives.

What does this mean in practice? First, an operational plan to reduce emissions in line with the 1,5ºC target, with electrification, renewables and efficiency targets by sector, and with the definitive end of deforestation by 2030.

Second, a clear and verifiable financing package for adaptation, loss and damage, and just transition, including concessional credit lines, guarantees, and technical assistance that enable vulnerable countries to submit fundable projects and receive disbursements without red tape.

Third, a methane program with timelines, responsibilities, and public satellite monitoring, because this is where rapid cuts can buy time for the climate system.

Fourth, the integration of the ocean into financial oversight, so that ecological risks cease to be externalities and become real variables in credit and investment decisions.

Fifth, management with quarterly monitoring, open data platforms, independent audits, and course correction mechanisms, so that the conference meets the credibility test.

For the PALOP countries, this translates into access to funds, technology, and the acquisition of capabilities that make a difference in water, agriculture, energy, and coastal cities. For the world, it means linking negotiation to jobs, cleaner air, lower electricity bills, and food less exposed to climate shocks.

The Amazon provided the stage and the urgency. It is now up to the delegations to prove that they have understood the message: it is no longer time to announce, it is time to act. Every quarter without delivery is a lost opportunity and a higher bill tomorrow. Every concrete measure put into practice is a life protected today.