As countries ramp up pressure for a COP30 decision on a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels, they have yet to push hard in the Amazon city of Belém for another much-anticipated roadmap to end deforestation.
Discussions on both mechanisms took off after Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told world leaders at the summit’s opening that COP30 must deliver “roadmaps to plan in a fair way the reversal of deforestation, reducing the dependency on fossil fuels and to mobilise the necessary resources to reach these objectives”.
Since then, more than 80 countries have rallied behind a fossil fuel transition roadmap – yet negotiators from tropical countries and observers say a roadmap to end deforestation has not gained the same momentum at the UN climate talks.
At least 42 countries have expressed support for a deforestation roadmap – among them the European Union, the AILAC group of Latin American countries and the Environmental Integrity Group which includes Mexico, Liechtenstein, Monaco, South Korea, Switzerland and Georgia.
World failing on goal to halt deforestation by 2030, raising stakes for Amazon COP
Current negotiating drafts include an option to convene a dialogue of ministers on the creation of national roadmaps to end deforestation, which observers told Climate Home News is a weak option that must be improved with more pressure from countries.
Panama’s head of delegation Juan Carlos Monterrey told an event hosted by Climate Home News this week that a plan to protect forestats has to be one of the key outcomes of COP30. “If we don’t get a roadmap to end deforestation at the Amazonia COP, we will never get it,” he said.
Irene Vélez Torres, Colombia’s environment minister, called on countries to support the roadmap in an op-ed, adding that time is of the essence – and that ending deforestation can’t be achieved by “just blindly marching forward without a clear sense of direction”.
At COP26, more than 140 countries agreed to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030 – a pledge that was reiterated in the landmark COP28 deal where countries also agreed to transition away from fossil fuels.
But a recent report by conservation groups and research institutions shows that governments are far off track, as deforestation levels last year were 63% higher they should be to meet the deforestation goal.
Need to pick up momentum
Observers told Climate Home News that forests have been a predominant theme in Belém outside the formal talks, where the Brazilian government has launched initiatives like the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) – a new fund to protect rainforests.
But inside the negotiations, countries need to pick momentum, said Fernanda Carvalho, head of policy for climate and energy at WWF, given that they have been presented with a “unique opportunity” to agree on a deforestation roadmap.
Norway pledges $3bn in boost for Brazil-led tropical forest fund
Carolina Pasquali, executive director of Greenpeace Brazil, said conversations should include commitments on both fossil fuels and forests, adding “it’s not one or the other”.
“For me, the sad part about this is that I have not heard a single party saying they are against it. So if this doesn’t happen just because not enough momentum was created, what kind of result is that?” she told journalists in Belém.
Any roadmap to end deforestation would need to create a “clear international process” that allows countries to coordinate action and “send a strong signal that forests are central to the climate solution”, said Kendall Damon, climate policy associate at The Nature Conservancy.
Veteran Brazilian tropical scientist Carlos Nobre told a press conference that important ecosystems like the Amazon rainforest and coral reefs across the world are approaching a dangerous tipping point, which could cause them to collapse irreversibly.
Indigenous peoples call for forest outcome
A strong outcome in the COP30 “Mutirão” political decision on reversing deforestation is one of the main Indigenous demands, said Juan Carlos Jintiach, an Indigenous activist from the Ecuadorian Amazon and executive secretary of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities.
He added that any plan to reverse deforestation must also address the rights of Indigenous communities, emphasising that “for us, any conversation on forests is a conversation on land tenure”.
During COP30, Indigenous groups in Brazil have secured major victories in demarcation of their land, with the creation of 10 new territories, after several protests at the conference venue in Belém and a meeting on the sidelines with the ministers for environment and Indigenous peoples.
Earlier in the two-week summit, 35 countries and philanthropic organisations renewed a five-year pledge to provide Indigenous people, local communities and Afro-descendent communities with $1.8 billion to help secure their land rights in key ecosystems.
“We will cooperate with any goal to halt deforestation – but governments need to work with us directly,” said Jintiach. “Countries need to be coherent in the applicability of their commitments.”
The post As fossil fuels dominate Amazon COP, a roadmap to end deforestation falls behind appeared first on Climate Home News.
As fossil fuels dominate Amazon COP, a roadmap to end deforestation falls behind
SYDNEY, Thursday 30 October 2026 — In response to reports that the Albanese government is set to introduce draft legislation this year that would seek to ban data centres in Australia’s suburbs, Joe Rafalowicz, Head of Climate and Energy at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said:
“These reports are a testament to the growing community opposition to these completely inappropriate AI factories that have sprung up across our suburbs, and Big Tech corporations should take heed — the data centre build-out must not happen without the endorsement of the Australian people.
“But the government can’t simply ship this problem out to regional Australia without addressing the fundamental issues with this extractive new industry.
“We’re already seeing a trend of AI data centre proposals moving to the regions, in areas that are more water-scarce, more environmentally sensitive, and next to sources of fracked and coal seam gas to support their massive BYO gas-fired power plans — a pattern we’ve seen play out in the United States.
“From the Beetaloo Basin in the NT to the Western Downs in Qld, we’re seeing a wave of AI data centre proposals that would see new gas fast-tracked to support their massive energy demand, and threaten to completely derail Australia’s energy transition.
“Just as suburban Australians are asking, “what for?”, regional communities like Berry Springs and Dalby do not want dirty data centres setting up shop with absolutely no benefit to their communities. Greenpeace is calling for a moratorium on AI data centre developments until strict and enforceable safeguards are in place to protect our climate and our communities.”
-ENDS-
Media contact
Kate O’Callaghan on +61 406 231 892 or kate.ocallaghan@greenpeace.org
AI data centre ban in suburbs would not address fundamental issues: Greenpeace
In the thick of the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan in 2024, the UN climate talks were rattled by what can only be described as a major PR disaster. The BBC, Reuters and The Guardian all carried headlines, attributed to leading climate policy experts, that the COPs were “no longer fit for purpose”.
The articles outlined a series of reforms called for in an open letter signed by 22 eminent scientists and politicians, including a former UN secretary-general and previous UN climate chief, with a further 150 lending their support. The headlines shook confidence in the COP process, just as governments were wrestling over a new climate finance goal.
The Club of Rome – which handled the media relations for the letter – hurried to say that its “constructive, supportive ideas” had been “misinterpreted”. Negotiators kept calm(ish) and carried on, in the end landing the finance goal after some high-stakes drama on the final day.
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Early speakers’ list suggests few powerful leaders will attend COP31
Just 77 heads of state or government are scheduled to address the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, a third less than the COP28 peak -
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To my surprise, when I went back this week to read the letter again, I could not find the offending line about the COPs not being fit for purpose. The Club of Rome has yet to respond to my query about its disappearance.
Whatever happened to the wording, that sentiment has been widely shared. COPs have ballooned in size while the importance of their outcomes seems to have diminished since the 2015 Paris Agreement (with the exception of the 2023 COP in Dubai where countries agreed to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems).
The same on the surface
Two years on from those painful headlines in Baku, has anything changed for the better? You might be forgiven for thinking not. Official decisions are still made by consensus rather than the majority voting some have called for to stop blockers.
Tens of thousands of officials, activists and business execs still scurry around the halls to an ever-growing list of side events, roundtables and dialogues, while deals still come down to rows, all-nighters and jargon-filled texts adopted to rounds of applause.
But it would not be true to say that COPs have completely failed to respond to the very real need to translate the words of the Paris Agreement into action in the outside world.
Global warming is projected to be around 1.3C lower this century than it would have been if the world had not committed to tackle the climate crisis under that accord. Developing countries have a valued space at COPs in which their voices have equal weight in decision-making, unlike in many other international fora. And most importantly, perhaps, there has been a subtle shift, tipping the balance away from negotiating towards doing.
Brazil branded last year’s summit in Belém as the “COP of Implementation”, corralling the sprawling Action Agenda into six axes. This was a bid to impose some structure on the mushrooming efforts between governments, UN agencies, cities, businesses and civil society to set targets and spur faster results on their pet issues, from methane emissions to health and adaptation in conflict zones. COP30 alone saw the launch of 120 “plans to accelerate solutions”.
COP30 roadmaps off the cuff
Meanwhile, as the formal negotiations drew to a close, it was clear that consensus decision-making was evolving into something a little more improvised.
With only around half of all countries on board with the idea of a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels, COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago announced his team would put one together over the coming year, along with another on how to meet a global goal to halt deforestation by 2030. Those roadmaps will be launched next week, presented and discussed at COP31, though it’s still unclear whether or how they’ll be incorporated into the formal negotiating agenda.
Some leading policy-makers don’t think that matters too much. Speaking to journalists before the Antalya summit, COP30 CEO Ana Toni and Dutch climate minister Stientje van Veldhoven said “coalitions of the willing” can move ahead without needing consensus from the COPs. This, they said, was evident this year at the first global conference on TAFF, co-chaired by van Veldhoven and attended by 60 countries.
“Consensus or no-consensus in the general COP doesn’t make a difference for the choices I have to make in my country to get my country to phase out fossil fuels,” said the Dutch minister. The Netherlands recently became one of the first to publish a national TAFF plan.
COP31 banks on flagship voluntary initiatives
This thinking has permeated the management and expected outcomes of this year’s COP too. Earlier this year, Türkiye, supported by international energy agencies, floated the idea of a voluntary goal to boost electrification to 35% of the world’s final energy consumption by 2035 – and this is now being touted as one of the main results to be expected from Antalya.
Türkiye is also championing a pledge on AI and climate, while co-host Australia is pushing to ease access to climate finance for least developed countries and small island states.
COP31 presidency announces AI pledge as UN climate chief says Big Tech ‘on thin ice’
None of these needs consensus. But with a political cover decision already in the works, as trailed by the COP presidents, they – and perhaps the fossil fuel roadmap – may find a home in the official text if language acceptable to most can be found, giving them them additional weight.
UNFCCC reform process in the shadows
Formal reform is underway too, if quietly. UN climate chief Simon Stiell is leading a review informed by ongoing consultations with a group of 15 well-respected climate policy experts, three of whom signed the open letter in 2024.
Among them is leading Swedish climate and sustainability scientist Johan Rockström who has strong ideas about how to make COPs function better, including a switch to majority voting. He told the same press briefing nothing stands in the way of this, because the rules of procedure for making decisions at COPs have never been formally agreed.
Still, to get away from the default setting of consensus would require agreement on a new system that may be impossible to achieve given the rise in bullying tactics by fossil fuel heavyweights.
Comment: The UN climate process was built for negotiation – now it must support implementation
The deliberations with the high-level policy gurus, as reflected in a summary of June’s session in Bonn, largely echo what’s already happening organically, calling for stronger partnerships and accountability both in and between the Action Agenda and negotiations. It doesn’t mention voting.
A general overview of the reform exercise says that “improving and optimizing the [UN climate] process over the medium to long term… will be critical to fostering trust, enhancing collaboration, and catalyzing increased ambition”.
In the short term, don’t hold your breath for anything concrete on reform at COP31 but watch for signs in what ends up dominating the headlines from Türkiye.
The post Editor’s Desk: COP reform is happening quietly, behind the headlines appeared first on Climate Home News.
Editor’s Desk: COP reform is happening quietly, behind the headlines
With the COP31 climate summit in Turkey looming, all eyes are on China to see what the country will push for in the negotiations.
At COP30 last year, China helped to secure a “dialogue” on climate-related “unilateral trade measures”, as well as a two-year “work programme” concerning climate finance.
The nation also championed south-south cooperation throughout the conference and co-led a summit on methane, alongside Brazil and the UK.
In a recent press conference, China’s environment vice-minister Li Gao noted the need to “uphold multilateralism” and send a “clear political signal” that the global community is united around climate action.