Dispatch From UN Climate Change Conference: Friday, Nov. 21

Danielle Nierenberg

Danielle Nierenberg

Today is, officially, the last day of COP30 in Belém, Brazil—but plenty of key negotiating points are still on the table.

Let’s put numbers on the situation: Of the 121 items on the official agenda, countries have so far reached agreement on only 52 of them, per Carbon Brief. Another 41 agenda items either have draft text or informal language at this point, which still leaves several completely untouched or postponed entirely. All this, of course, follows fierce debate over whether some key points—including topics surrounding global finance and a fossil fuel phase-out—should be on the agenda at all.

We might see a final COP30 deal unveiled today, but if previous years’ UN Climate Change Conferences are any indication, discussions will likely last through the night and into the weekend. Discussions were also derailed when a terrifying fire broke out yesterday in the diplomatic Blue Zone, which shut down the venue for much of the evening—and fortunately, no one was seriously injured.

During a speech in Belém yesterday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres gave an impassioned plea for negotiators.

“We are down to the wire and the world is watching Belém,” he said. “Communities on the front lines are watching, too—counting flooded homes, failed harvests, lost livelihoods—and asking, ‘How much more must we suffer?’” 

“Please engage in good faith to reach ambitious compromise,” Guterres continued. “This is the hour for leadership. Be bold. Follow the science. Put people before profit.”

Here’s the truth: Climate change is happening, everywhere, every day. Either we take action, or we don’t. Either we try to stop the climate crisis from getting worse, or we let the devastation cascade. Either we help communities adapt, or we turn our backs on our vulnerable neighbors. Either we be good stewards of the earth and one another—or we choose not to. 

Some global leaders realize what needs to happen. All throughout COP30, Food Tank has been using this newsletter to highlight success stories, steps in the right direction. Yesterday, for example, Germany agreed to invest €1 billion (US$1.1 billion) into Brazil’s global rainforest-preservation fund, Tropical Forest Forever Facility, adding to the US$5.5 billion already committed by nations including Brazil, Indonesia, Norway, France, Portugal, and the Netherlands.

But some global leaders seem unwilling to make difficult but necessary choices. The Guardian reported yesterday that, despite 82 countries—about half of those here at COP30—calling for a roadmap toward phasing out fossil fuels, the major fossil fuel-producing countries appear to be blocking that language from being included in the final draft deal. 

As I’ve said from the beginning, the official dealmaking that results from global conferences like COP are important. Powerful countries have the ability to move the needle in significant, meaningful ways. But if they fall short, the work still remains to be done—and we’ll need to do it ourselves.

The Atlantic Council and NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) announced a new collaborative effort here that connects more than 100 organizations—development banks, investors, insurers, philanthropies, and more—to strengthen collaboration between public and private financial sectors. The initiative is called the Fostering Investable National Planning and Implementation (FINI) for Adaptation and Resilience.

“FINI allows us to collaborate across sectors and geographies. We need to ensure that we're all around a shared table—because we're sharing the same future,” said Jorge Gastelumendi, the Senior Director of the Atlantic Council’s Climate Resilience Center.

Also here at COP30, 62 faith-based institutions announced a divestment from fossil fuel companies—one of the largest such actions to date. 

Scientists are raising their voices, too.

In a public statement, a group of the world’s leading authorities on planetary science, forests and oceans write: “The global curve of GHG emissions needs to bend next year, 2026, not sometime in the future. … This must happen in order to have a chance to avoid unmanageable and extremely costly climate impacts affecting all people in the world.” 

The final results of COP30 negotiations have yet to be seen. But the work of combatting the climate crisis does not end when COP30 comes to a close.

This is my last daily dispatch newsletter to you from COP30 in Belém. But before I head home, I’m spending time ground-truthing in Guatemala, meeting and learning with folks on the front lines of resilient food and agriculture systems. I look forward to sharing more in the weeks ahead! 

And in the meantime, let’s keep the conversation going. As always, you can email me personally at danielle@foodtank.com, so please reach out with success stories from your own communities of the inspiring changemakers who know that climate action is not a once-a-year discussion topic—it’s an everyday mission.

(Danielle Nierenberg is the President of Food Tank and can be reached at danielle@foodtank.com)