COP30: Climate change
COP30 was the 30th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was held in Belém, Brazil in November 2025.
The summit should have been a crucial platform: the increasing urgency of action has compounded the need for effective negotiations and COP30 also fell at a key stage in the process set out under the Paris Agreement.
Ultimately, the final agreement at COP30 has been widely seen as failing to make sufficient progress, with no mention of phasing out fossil fuels and limited new commitments to collective action.
In the context of shifting politics, COP30 also had the opportunity to keep the world agreed on tackling climate change, avoiding regression on existing commitments. That goal was somewhat met, as although the outcome of negotiations did not sufficiently increase global aspirations, it also did not lead to meaningful regression.
Learn more about our key messages for COP30 in our position piece: ‘Delivering change in a complex world’.
To find out more about the topic, you can watch the 2025 Burntwood Lecture, 'The World after 1.5°C', read our recap on COP30, or find out what happened next at the Santa Marta Climate Conference. To support interdisciplinary climate action, join our Climate Action Community, and to support effective policy delivery, join our Environmental Policy Implementation Community (EPIC).
If you want to support the work of the IES, you can become an affiliate, or if you’re a professional in the environmental sector working with science, consider joining the IES.
Header image credit: © Curioso.Photography | Adobe Stock
