By Paula Brufman

COP30 closed last Friday in the Amazonian city of Belém after two weeks of intense and often chaotic negotiations. The final outcome – a package of 29 decisions collectively called the Belém Package, or “Global Mutirão” – will not be remembered as a historic breakthrough on the scale of Paris 2015. Yet, the fact that multilateralism held together at all is itself noteworthy.

Urge remains the operative word

The central achievement lies in finance and adaptation. Parties agreed to urge developed countries to triple adaptation finance by 2035 and reaffirmed the broader collective goal of mobilising USD 1.3 trillion per year in total climate finance for developing countries. The language remains non-binding – ‘urge’ is still the operative word – but it establishes a political benchmark that will be extraordinarily difficult to reverse. For practitioners who design bankable projects for the Green Climate Fund, the Global Environment Facility, and bilateral donors, this is tangible progress: it means a steadily growing pipeline of resources for resilient infrastructure, early-warning systems, climate-smart agriculture, and nature-based solutions.

From good practice to global expectation

A second, quieter but profoundly important win is the formal establishment of the Just Transition Work Programme under the UNFCCC. For years ‘just transition’ has been a powerful slogan – the idea that the shift away from coal, oil, and gas must not abandon miners, factory workers, or entire fossil-dependent regions. Until Belém, however, the UNFCCC had no permanent institutional home to translate that principle into concrete rules, guidelines, or funding requirements. COP30 changed that. Workforce retraining, community economic diversification, inclusive governance, and gender-responsive approaches are no longer optional add-ons; they are rapidly becoming core requirements for project approval by the major climate funds. The conference also adopted an enhanced Gender Action Plan that strengthens national gender-and-climate focal points, promotes gender-responsive budgeting and finance, and explicitly recognises the leadership of Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and rural women. At E Co., these dimensions have been part of our project design for years; COP30 has now elevated them from good practice to global expectation.

On forests and nature, the picture is more mixed. Over USD 9.5 billion in new pledges were announced for tropical forest protection, and Brazil launched the RAIZ Accelerator to channel private capital into land restoration. These are meaningful commitments, yet the decision text stopped short of a binding 2030 global deforestation target, relegating it instead to a voluntary presidential initiative for COP31. Similarly, language on phasing out all fossil fuels – supported by more than eighty countries – was blocked outright by petrostates, leaving only voluntary transition plans announced outside the formal UNFCCC process.

The formal COP texts are increasingly becoming floors rather than ceilings

What Belém did deliver, however, is a set of new implementation mechanisms designed to keep momentum alive between COPs:

• The Global Implementation Accelerator, a collaborative and voluntary initiative led jointly by the COP30 (Brazil) and COP31 (Türkiye) Presidencies, will provide dedicated support to countries as they turn their NDCs and National Adaptation Plans into concrete policies and projects on the ground.
• The Belém Mission to 1.5, an action-oriented platform under the COP29–COP31 troika (Azerbaijan–Brazil–Türkiye), aims to sustain political focus and foster enhanced ambition and international cooperation across mitigation, adaptation, and investment through 2030.
• The Belém Health Action Plan, adopted by over 30 countries and more than 50 organisations, has made health a central pillar of global climate action. Supported by USD 300 million from the Climate and Health Funders Coalition, the plan will bolster climate-resilient health systems, hospitals, disease surveillance, and prevention efforts, with a particular focus on the Global South.

These plans represent a deliberate shift from endless negotiation to accelerated delivery, exactly the kind of bridge the climate regime has needed. Taken together, Belém reinforces a pattern we have observed since COP28 in Dubai: the formal COP texts are increasingly becoming floors rather than ceilings. The real energy now flows through coalitions of the willing that are moving faster than the intergovernmental process sometimes permits. 

All eyes on NDCs, as the policy landscape is sharpening

The next litmus test will be the new round of NDCs due in early 2026. Countries have been put on clear notice that these plans must be fully 1.5°C-consistent and economy-wide. Many will fall short, but the strongest ones will unlock significant new policy and investment opportunities.

For the governments, funds, and private-sector partners we work with, the message from Belém is unambiguous: the funding architecture is expanding, social and gender safeguards are tightening, delivery mechanisms are being strengthened, and the policy signals for 2025–2030 are sharpening. The multilateral process is bruised and slower than any of us would like, but it is still moving forward.

At E Co., our role is to translate these political signals into bankable, approvable projects that lower risk, increase predictability, and deliver genuine low-carbon, climate-resilient outcomes on the ground. Whether you are preparing a new GCF concept note, updating a National Adaptation Plan, or structuring blended finance for forest restoration, the post-COP30 landscape has just become a little clearer and a little more demanding.

Ten years have passed since the Paris Agreement was hailed as humanity’s great turning point. Back then, the world celebrated a hard-won consensus: keep warming well below 2°C, pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C, and mobilise finance and technology to protect the most vulnerable. And ten years later, the conference center in Belém, Brazil, stands nearly empty. The microphones are off, the banners are coming down, and the delegates have flown home. The speeches are over. But outside those halls, the real work is only beginning.

We invite you to explore E Co’s full range of technical advisory and climate finance consultancy services to ensure your projects and policies are inclusive and participatory.

Explore the rest of our road to Belém series to gain deeper insights into global climate action ahead of COP30.

• Why COP30 in Brazil could be a turning point for global climate action
• High stakes: NDCs and the global stocktake
• The Belém mandate: Why collaborative networks will define the success of COP30
• Reframing climate multilateralism: The Mutirão and the power of Indigenous collaboration
• From ambition to action: COP30 and accelerating the agriculture and food systems transformation
• Human & social development: Placing just transition, health, jobs, and equity at the centre
• Turning pledges into projects: Enablers for climate action at COP30 and beyond
• From COP30 to contract: Turning climate ambition into bankable infrastructure