COP30: Heads of State Summit

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called this year’s summit “the COP of truth”, urging courage, transparency and collective commitment to confront the environmental crisis and global inequalities. Brazil’s COP30 presidency aims to unite nations and drive action on various climate pledges and targets contained in the 2015 Paris Agreement, as well as the specific climate finance commitments made last year in Baku during COP29. Such practical action could generate significant real-world implications for businesses and economies globally.

Several notable countries were absent from the Heads of State Summit, drawing attention to varying levels of political engagement. While their absence does not necessarily indicate a lack of commitment to climate action, it does highlight the uneven global momentum and challenges of securing high-level participation.

Prince William delivered a keynote speech on behalf of King Charles III and the UK Government, emphasizing that we have an "opportunity to grow our economies, develop new technologies, and create secure and affordable energy systems that are central to our future prosperity and security".

Key themes: what to expect

The Heads of State Summit set the tone for broader negotiations. The key themes that we can expect from the conference include:

Climate Finance

At COP29, party delegates finalized a last-minute agreement of the ‘new collective quantifiable goal’ (NCQG) – to commit $300 billion annually in public funds by 2035 to finance climate initiatives, with developed countries expected to shoulder the majority of the burden. However, the commitment fell short of the estimated $1.3 trillion needed for developing countries to meet UN climate targets.

Ahead of the summit, the leaders of COP29 and COP30 published the ‘Roadmap from Baku to Belèm’ report, setting-out how the parties may deliver on the greater $1.3 trillion target. The report focuses on five action points and overarching thematic issues for countries to consider, and which COP30 delegates may wish to build upon in the next two weeks.

A key issue is which countries will provide a financial commitment, how much they will contribute and in what form.

Energy Transition and Environment Adaptation

At the Pre-COP30 meeting, held in Brasilia in October, world leaders also focused on the success of the renewable energy industry, with promising data showing a significant increase in the production of and demand for renewables.

Leaders reiterated that significant work needs to be done to further adoption of renewable energy and promote the transition from fossil fuels.

Additionally, with global temperatures still rising (and some accepting that the benchmark of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels has already been surpassed), world leaders acknowledged that investment is required to prepare for the effects of climate change and adapt to changing environments.

Forests

With COP30 located in Belèm, the city dubbed the ‘gateway to the Amazon’, the proximity and symbolic importance of the rainforest proved difficult to ignore.

Brazilian President Lula da Silva announced the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, a fund designed to protect forests by making them more valuable than cleared land. Countries are expected to announce their contribution to the fund throughout the next two weeks.

New developments at COP30

This year, the Brazilian COP Presidency has launched the ‘Circle of Presidents’ leadership circle, bringing together all previous COP presidents since the Paris Agreement was signed. This group, along with four other leadership circles, will operate independently from the formal negotiations between party delegates, to accelerate action and focus on plans for implementation of the Paris Agreement.

Another first for this year’s COP is the publication of two Synthesis Reports, one for Biennial Transparency Reports (BTRs) which focuses on emissions data, and the other for Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) which focuses on climate commitments. COP30 leaders emphasized that the Synthesis Reports provided the most comprehensive story of how countries are putting the 2015 Paris Agreement into action.

Further reading on COP30

Stay up to date with our daily briefings on COP30 over the next two weeks and view all of our content from last year’s COP here: COP30 | Business Topics