It’s been 10 years since the historic Paris Agreement on climate change was adopted. While the global treaty has helped the world avoid a calamitous 4 degrees C of warming, emissions are still not dropping fast enough.

Extreme weather caused over $300 billion in damages in 2024, hitting low-income and vulnerable countries the hardest. Nearly 500,000 people die every year from scorching heat. Forest loss shattered records last year — including in the Amazon, where COP30 will be held.

Past COPs have resulted in numerous pledges. At COP30 and key events preceding it, such as meetings of the UN General Assembly and G20, decision-makers must focus on turning commitments into action. National leaders should work together to advance a more prosperous, secure and resilient world for people, nature and climate.

A fire burns in the Amazon rainforest
Forest fire in the Amazon rainforest. Photo by Loren McIntyre/Alamy

Progress across four areas is critical:

1) Shift our financial system.

COP29 was known as the “Finance COP,” where countries agreed scale up finance to $1.3 trillion per year by 2035 for climate action in developing countries. Now that the goal is set, it’s time to determine how to reach it. Success depends on increasing public and private investment in sustainable economic development and divesting from fossil fuels are other activities that harm communities.

More specifically:

  • • The Baku to Belém Roadmap is a joint plan by the COP29 and COP30 presidencies to reach the $1.3 trillion. This roadmap should lay out clear actions that all countries endorse at COP30;
  • • Countries ranging from large economies to small island states should put forward country platforms to help align public, private, national and international climate finance at scale;
  • • Governments and financial institutions should announce new finance, reforms and initiatives that invest in sectors like climate-resilient food systems, clean transport and sustainable ocean economies.

 

A woman plants rice seedlings.
A woman works in a flooded rice paddy. Photo by Florian Kopp/Alamy Stock Photo

2) Step up climate resilience.

Adaptation is a major focus of COP30 because it saves lives, strengthens economies and protects communities. According to WRI analysis, every $1 spent on climate adaptation can create more than $10 in benefits over 10 years. Yet developing countries still face an adaptation funding shortfall of up to $359 billion per year.

Closing the gap requires getting the right kind of funding — especially grants and low-interest finance — to the communities that need it most, without adding to countries’ debt. Major opportunities for action this year include:

  • • Under the Baku to Belém Roadmap, countries should agree on a clear pathway to mobilize enough public and private finance to implement adaptation at the pace and scale needed — especially in the world’s most vulnerable communities;
  • • Countries should agree on indicators to track progress toward the Paris Agreement’s Global Goal on Adaptation;
  • • With support from the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action, finance ministers in all countries should fully integrate climate risks into their planning, budgets and policies.

3) Deliver ambitious national climate plans.

Countries are on the hook to submit new climate plans, known as “nationally determined contributions,” or NDCs, to the UN by September. These national plans should set ambitious emissions-reduction targets that align with countries’ net-zero goals and transform their energy, agriculture and transport sectors. The UN’s Global Stocktake presents a north star: transition away from fossil fuels, triple renewable energy, double energy efficiency, halt deforestation, and slash transport emissions. Ultimately, NDCs should improve people’s daily lives by creating jobs, curbing air pollution and bolstering local economies.

More specifically:

  • • NDCs should align with the goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C and drive bold sectoral shifts that connect targets with action and investment;
  • • More NDCs should explicitly recognize the role of subnational actors like cities, states and regions — key players in the climate change battle.
  • • Countries should integrate climate, nature and people goals into their core economic and sectoral planning; invest in jobs and just transition efforts; and strengthen subnational action, including via initiatives like CHAMP.
  • • Country platforms will play a key role in advancing system-wide transformations across critical sectors.
  • • Cooperative initiatives led by governments in multiple sectors — including via the COP30 Action Agenda — should be coordinated and strengthened.

 

Cyclists on a closed-off city street to allow for biking and walking.
A closed off city street allows for cycling and walking. Photo by William Rodrigues dos Santos/Alamy Stock Photo

4) Protect and restore nature and transform food systems.

This year’s COP is in the Amazon, which saw near-record tree-cover loss last year. Transforming food systems — which generate one-third of emissions, drive 90% of deforestation and use the majority of the world’s freshwater — is one of the most essential actions for people, nature and climate.

People collecting seaweed from flooded field.
Photo by Pande Putu / Alamy

Countries must change how we produce food, slash food waste and shift to more plant-rich diets. Leaders need to close the nature finance gap through clear policies, market incentives and investment structures that reduce risk and attract private finance. And more countries must recognize the vital role Indigenous People and local communities play in forest protection and restoration.

Specific action items should include:

  • • At the beginning of COP 30, countries should establish the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, a potentially major new source of finance to protect forests;
  • • Countries and philanthropic funders should deliver on their $1.7 billion pledge to support Indigenous Peoples and local communities in securing land tenure rights, ahead of the December 2025 deadline;
  • • Countries should further strengthen the role of the Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue, including through a five-year roadmap aligned with NDC and National Adaptation Plan (NAP) implementation cycles;
  • • Countries should commit to developing Sustainable Ocean Plans that include sustainable ocean-based food, transport, energy and nature-based solutions.