Brazil, the COP30 host nation, managed to head off an expected public clash over the UN summit’s agenda during its opening session, after countries submitted eight proposals for new items they want to see tackled at the talks.

COP30 boss André Aranha Corrêa do Lago announced a compromise solution reached after informal meetings with delegation heads, which he said showed “strong desire for a smooth and swift” start to the proceedings that would “set a positive tone”. 

The summit’s formal agenda was adopted on Monday as originally drafted without any amendments. 

To deal with the proposed additions, Brazil’s presidency will hold consultations on four requests for dedicated discussions on particularly thorny topics: provision of finance from rich countries and unilateral trade measures – demanded by the Like-Minded Group of Developing Countries (LMDCs) and the Arab Group – boosting emissions-cutting ambition in line with a warming limit of 1.5C, which small island states asked for, and transparency of national climate data, advocated for by the EU. 

Corrêa do Lago said he would give an update on those discussions at a special “stock-taking plenary” due to be held this Wednesday. 

He added that the presidency will hold separate consultations on the “special needs of Africa” and on mountains and climate change, with the outcome to be included in the final report of COP30. 

It was decided that the links between climate change and health, for which Zimbabwe wanted a dedicated space, will instead be folded into discussions on adaptation. 

No separate talks will take place on finance to curb deforestation after Honduras, Suriname and Papua New Guinea withdrew their proposal for an additional agenda item. 

“I would like to express my deep appreciation to parties for their flexibility, support and commitment to reaching an agreement on the adoption of the agendas this morning and ensure we launch our work smoothly today,” Corrêa do Lago said. 

It appears that, at least for now, countries have heeded the COP president’s calls to “evolve into one cohesive team”, as spelled out in his final letter to the international community published on the eve of COP30’s opening day.

Here’s a look at some of the agenda items countries had proposed in more detail:

Emerging economies asked for talks on finance and trade

The Like-Minded Group of Developing Countries (LMDCs), which includes China, India and Saudi Arabia, with support from the Arab Group of predominantly oil-rich nations tabled proposals that covered well-trodden territory: climate finance and trade.

On finance, the bloc wants dedicated discussions on Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement, which sets out an obligation for developed countries to provide financial help for developing nations’ efforts to cut emissions and adapt to a warming world. 

Their demand that rich governments stump up cash is nothing new. But that has now been fuelled further by disappointment over the outcome of last year’s negotiations which produced the new UN climate finance goal of $300 billion a year by 2035. The LMDCs are now calling for a three-year “work programme” to discuss how the provision of money from developed nations under Article 9.1 is crucial to reach a broad range of goals in the Paris accord. 

The bloc also wants the summit to tackle “unilateral trade-restrictive measures”. That is code for mechanisms such as the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), which is essentially a carbon tax on imports aimed at creating a level-playing field between domestic and overseas producers. 

But emerging economies – such as China and India – say those measures are protectionist, do not take different levels of development into account, and would harm their economies. They have been calling for the inclusion of this agenda item at the previous two COPs, but so far have not succeeded in their bid to separate the topic out from existing discussions. 

Since taking on the presidency, Brazil has been trying to defuse a likely COP30 agenda fight over trade measures. But Do Lago’s earlier proposal to create a new forum to discuss climate and trade outside of the UN climate regime was met with a lukewarm response. 

Small islands push ‘survival’ agenda

Hot on the heels of UN chief Antonio Guterres conceding that a breach of the 1.5C warming limit is “inevitable”, the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) put forward a proposal for discussions on how to react to that and raise emission-cutting ambition. 

The group, predominantly composed of low-lying Pacific island nations, wants to create a dedicated track at the talks to agree “on concrete follow-up actions” to accelerate implementation of efforts before 2030. This also feeds into existing divisions over how COP30 should respond to a wide shortfall in ambition in countries’ updated national climate plans (NDCs) submitted this year.  

“We are proposing this agenda item because the world’s current trajectory toward climate catastrophe is unacceptable – morally, scientifically and legally,” said AOSIS Chair Ambassador Ilana Seid. “For small island nations, this is not about negotiation tactics – it’s about survival.”

The EU, for its part, wants dedicated discussions on a transparency mechanism of the Paris Agreement that requires countries to report a vast amount of national-level information, including inventories of greenhouse gas emissions and measures taken to act on promises made in their NDCs. 

In its submission, the EU says it is “crucial” that good practices are shared and that barriers to boosting climate action are identified and urgently fixed. 

UN climate chief: Fight the climate crisis not each other

The head of the UN’s climate body kicked off the summit with a reminder to governments that “your job here is not to fight one another – your job is to fight this climate crisis, together”.

Countries appeared to have taken that on board, at least at the start of the talks, as the Brazilian presidency managed to sidestep a looming fight over several new agenda items put forward by countries in the run-up to the conference

Simon Stiell told the assembled delegates he wasn’t “sugar-coating” the challenge ahead. “We have so much more work to do,” he said in his opening speech. “We must move much, much, faster on both reductions of emissions and strengthening resilience,” he added.

While the Paris Agreement, adopted 10 years ago, has started to bend the emissions curve downwards, it will not be enough to meet the lowest 1.5C warming limit in the accord, the UN has admitted in recent days based on new national climate plans (NDCs) submitted for the next 10 years. 

“We can and must bring temperatures back down to 1.5C after any temporary overshoot,” Stiell said. For that to happen, countries need to make decisions in Belem to move forward on things they have already agreed, he emphasised. 

For example, at COP28 in Dubai two years ago, governments pledged to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems. “Now’s the time to focus on how we do it fairly and orderly,” said Stiell. “Focusing on which deals to strike, to accelerate the tripling of renewables and doubling energy efficiency.”

Other agreed areas for action at COP30 that need “strong and clear outcomes” include a roadmap to raise climate finance to $1.3 trillion a year by 2035, a set of indicators to measure progress on the Global Goal on Adaptation, a technology implementation programme and just transition pathways for economies and societies, he added.

World leaders get behind climate action at first COP in the Amazon

Stiell did not mince his words about the ramifications if the talks do not spur greater climate action in the real world. He told delegates that squabbling while famines, extreme weather and conflicts ruin the lives of millions would never be forgotten or forgiven.

“We don’t need to wait for late NDCs to slowly trickle in, to spot the gap and design the innovations necessary to tackle it,” he said, emphasising that the solutions already exist. “Not one single nation among you can afford this, as climate disasters rip double-digits off GDP,” he warned. 

While noting that the Paris Agreement “is working to deliver real progress”, Stiell ended his speech by calling on the assembled negotiators to “strive valiantly for more”.  

New climate plans will cut emissions 12% by 2035, UN says

An updated UN analysis of national climate plans suggests that, when accounting for the 86 nationally determined contributions (NDCs) filed so far (covering 113 countries, including EU member states), global emissions are on track to fall by 12% by 2035 from 2019 levels.

UN climate chief Simon Stiell described the findings as “a big deal”, and added that the world’s governments would be bending the emissions curve for the first time in history if those climate plans are achieved.

“Every fraction of a degree of heating avoided will save millions of lives and billions of dollars in climate damage,” Stiell told a press conference at COP30 in Belém.

Scientists say global emissions need to fall by about 60 percent by 2035 to limit global warming to the 1.5C limit in the Paris Agreement, leaving a large gap to fill. 

UN accepts overshooting 1.5C warming limit – at least temporarily – is “inevitable”

While not all countries have yet submitted their NDCs, 86 climate plans were covered by the analysis, marking a significant improvement from the first version of the report released in October – which covered only 22. In total, the current analysis covers 69% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. 

According to the analysis, before the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, mathematical models projected that emissions would continue to rise between 20 and 48% by 2035, instead of falling.

“The Paris Agreement is delivering real progress,” Stiell said at the press conference.

“Policies once unthinkable are now rippling through markets, and change is becoming unstoppable – extraordinary progress that was unimaginable a decade ago.”

Brazil’s Lula celebrates first Amazon COP

Amid 32C heat and bright sunshine, COP30 became the first UN climate summit to be held in the Amazon region – a major feat that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said should inspire diplomats to reach agreement in Belém.

“It would’ve been way easier to have the COP in a ‘finished’ city,” Lula said at the COP30 opening ceremony, referring to the tricky logistics of accommodating the talks in Belém on the edge of the rainforest. “But we decided to host the COP in a state of the Amazon region to prove that when you have political will and commitment to the truth, then nothing is impossible.”

Built on the site of an old airport, the new 50-hectare “Parque da Cidade” where the summit is being held is an example of such effort. The new urban park was inaugurated in July and celebrated by the Brazilian government as a symbol of the city’s transformation.

“In the next two weeks, Belém will become the capital of the world,” Lula said in his speech. “To bring COP to the heart of the Amazon is a very difficult task but very necessary.” He urged negotiators to embrace local culture during their stay in Belém.

The Amazon region still faces “immense economic and social challenges,” Lula noted. More than 20% of its population live below the poverty line, which is evident in  Belém’s abandoned buildings and street-dwellers.

That has contributed to Pará state having one of Brazil’s highest deforestation rates, losing an area the size of Luxembourg in 2020. But deforestation has been steadily decreasing in the Amazon since peaking at the height of the previous Bolsonaro government. It fell by 80% between 2019 and 2025.

“The world will finally be able to say that it now knows the reality of the Amazon rainforest,” Lula told government negotiators from around 195 countries during the opening session of the talks.

Indigenous peoples: “We are the solution” 

Brazil has promised that COP30 will see the largest Indigenous participation in the history of the UN climate conference. On the first day of the talks, Indigenous groups came out in force to make their voices heard, urging countries to put the protection of their rights at the heart of climate action. 

This, they said, should include a proposal by the Brazilian presidency to recognise the demarcation of Indigenous lands as a key policy tool to address the climate crisis. 

“We ask that the final text of COP30… includes obligatory safeguards so no climate action can make our rights more vulnerable,” said Fany Kuiru Castro, coordinator of the Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organisations of the Amazon Basin (COICA). 

Castro warned that designing reforestation, carbon markets and renewable energy projects without the full participation of Indigenous peoples erodes their rights and damages the ecosystems the world needs to protect to fight global warming. 

“Without our knowledge, without the respect of our rights … there will be no solutions to the climate crisis. The answer is us,” she said. 

Edson Krenak, an Indigenous activist from Brazil, warned that the acceleration of unchecked mining for the energy transition combined with worsening climate impacts was making the lives of many Indigenous Peoples “unbearable”.  

Indigenous groups want to see explicit language in the Just Transition Work Programme being negotiated at COP30 on their rights to free, prior and informed consent over renewable and energy-transition mineral extraction projects on their land. The text should also include a commitment to ban mining on the land of uncontacted tribes, they say. 

“This is an important moment… for Brazil to take a stance and say energy security needs to respect the rights of Indigenous peoples and key ecosystems,” said Bryan Bixcul, coordinator for the SIRGE Coalition, which works to secure those rights in the green economy. 

Toya Manchineri, COICA’s executive coordinator, said Indigenous peoples will not stop until countries meet all their demands. The group has already started discussing the role of Indigenous peoples in climate action with Australia, which is in the running to host COP31, he said.

Africa pushes for delivery of finance goal

African diplomats arrived at COP30 seeking to ensure delivery of a new global climate finance target agreed last year, which commits wealthy nations to provide $300 billion a year to developing countries by 2035.

Evans Njewa, negotiator from Malawi and chair of the group of Least Developed Countries (LDCs), told a press conference at COP30 that the group would demand a “dedicated implementation track” that creates a clear timeline for the delivery of the new goal.

Tanzanian chair of the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) Richard Muyungi, said that at COP30 “Africa is not ready to take additional burden in terms of financing.” 

The veteran negotiator said the continent will be prioritising climate finance – including grants and highly concessional loans – in the group’s negotiating agenda. He also mentioned a just transition and loss and damage as key issues.

African diplomats will arrive in Belém “to denounce issues of climate injustice” and “to make sure that Africans are not going to be treated as if they were just the vulnerable crowd, the people that are suffering, the ones that need to be helped,” Carlos Lopes, COP30 Africa envoy, told Climate Home News.

Echoing these views, African civil society also called for debt-free finance for the continent’s transition to renewable energy. The region is home to over 600 million living without electricity, which activists said creates a “moral and climate imperative” for energy access.

“Climate finance must not reinforce dependence but expand fiscal space for just people-centered transitions,” said Mithika Mwenda, co-founder of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) at a press conference. 

Mwenda also called for loss and damage and adaptation funding to take a more prominent role. As the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage became operational on Monday and is now preparing to approve its first set of projects, Mwenda said it “must be accessible, simplified and grant-based”. 

He added that payments should “flow directly to affected communities, protecting livelihoods, workers and children displaced by disasters”.