COP30 president calls for ‘global NDC’ to spur collective action on climate change
The COP30 president André Aranha Corrêa do Lago has called for more coordinated global action on climate change and efforts to connect climate ambition with development opportunities.
In his most recent Letter from the Presidency, Corrêa do Lago said that “despite outstanding breakthroughs and progress, we are still off track to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement” and said his aim is to “bring a new dynamic” to global climate action that aligns the efforts of governments, businesses and civil society in coordinated action.
The 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP30, takes place from 10-21 November in Belém, Brazil, and Corrêa do Lago said there was a need to use the conference to “course correct” to be able to reach commitments made to reduce carbon emissions.
The latest update comes amid concerns that the goals of the Paris Agreement, intended to limit global warming to 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to keep it to within 1.5°C, are out of reach.
Studies revealed late last year that global temperatures are set to rise to around 2.7°C, and Corrêa do Lago said the nations of the world “must exponentially scale and speed up efforts to meet the commitments we made”.
He called for the COP to agree a “globally determined contribution”, in addition to the nationally determined contributions, which are the climate change pledges individual countries make that sit at the heart of the Paris Agreement.
Corrêa do Lago’s team is working to ensure that the Global Climate Action Agenda and other dimensions of COP30 “contribute to putting into practice what we have collectively agreed so far”.
By strengthening multilateralism, connecting the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to peoples’ lives and accelerating the Paris Agreement implementation, the agenda for the COP would address three major challenges, he said.
These challenges are: aligning policy what has already been collectively agreed under successive COPs and the Paris Agreement; leveraging existing initiatives to accelerate and scale climate implementation; and driving transparency, monitoring and accountability of existing and new pledges and initiatives.
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Mutirão: making the case for collective action
Corrêa do Lago’s vision for better coordinated global action ties in with the theme of COP30 to advance a global Mutirão against climate change. The Portuguese word ‘mutirão’ translates to ‘collective action’.
He said the agenda would look to involve “all corners of the economy, all segments of society, and all levels of government towards multilateral climate goals”, build on the legacy already achieved, and “shift its scope towards the future: from merely complementing negotiations to actively implementing agreed outcomes”.
“We urge all actors to focus on follow-through and implementation of existing initiatives, commitments, and declarations,” he said.
At a press conference held on the day Corrêa do Lago’s Letter from the Presidency was published, COP30 high level champion Dan Ioschpe highlighted that over 400 initiatives had been drawn up at COPs over the last 10 years and that the COP30 team intended to map these and analyse the bottlenecks preventing their implementation.
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Cross-cutting climate action – a new architecture
To support the implementation of the Global Stocktake, Corrêa do Lago set out new architecture for understanding cross-cutting climate action.
The Global Stocktake, which was published by the UN in 2023, summarises how far governments are falling short of their collective climate goals under the Paris Agreement and led to a renewed focus by countries to transition away from fossil fuels and improve renewable energy capacity and energy efficiency by 2030.
Corrêa do Lago said the COP agenda would be shaped around a “reservoir of concrete initiatives” that connect climate ambition with development opportunities in investments, innovation, finance, technology, and capacity-building.
The new agenda will be organised into six thematic axes covering mitigation, adaptation and means of implementation. These are:
- Transitioning energy, industry, and transport
- Stewarding forests, oceans and biodiversity
- Transforming agriculture and food systems
- Building resilience for cities, infrastructure and water
- Fostering human and social development
- Unleashing enablers and accelerators, including on finance, technology, and capacity building
Thirty key objectives have been drawn up under these six areas.
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Corrêa do Lago said the new framework represented a “unique approach” to promoting systemic transformation and broad stakeholder engagement.
He added that solutions to implement the global stocktake should be “concrete, ambitious, designed to generate global impact, based on the best available science, and built upon the synergies between climate action and sustainable development”, such as an aim to combat hunger and promote food security.
“Most importantly, initiatives under the COP30 Action Agenda must be guided by both ethical and scientific imperatives of just transition and equity” and address structural inequalities that exacerbate the vulnerability of specific groups, countries and regions to the climate crisis.
A balanced distribution of the benefits and costs involved in transitioning to low-carbon and climate-resilient economies “will allow us to build a fairer, more inclusive, and safer future”, he said.
“Let COP30 be the moment we inaugurate a new era when collective action becomes our most enduring climate solution,” he concluded.
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About Mia Hunt
Mia has been editor of globalgovernmentforum.com since 2019. She has 15 years’ experience as a journalist and editor and specialises in writing for civil and public servants worldwide, including covering sustainability policy and related issues. She has led the Global Government Women’s Network since it launched in 2023. Previously, she covered commercial property having been market reports and supplements editor at Property Week and deputy editor at Retail Destination. She graduated from Kingston University London with a first-class honours degree in journalism and was part of the team that produced The River newspaper, which won Publication of the Year at the Guardian Student Media Awards in 2010.
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