The Brazilian diplomats who will preside over the COP30 climate summit in November say they are focused on ensuring the hundreds of climate pledges already made by governments, corporations and others at previous COP meetings are met, rather than getting them to make fresh promises.
COP30’s High Level Champion Dan Ioschpe told journalists on Thursday that, while “we are not against new initiatives”, his team are “very much focused on what has already been drawn [up] and solutions that are already coming up over time”.
He said there have been over 400 initiatives coming out of COPs over the last ten years – on everything from methane to forests and conflict-affected states – and the COP30 team wants to map them and then analyse the bottlenecks preventing their implementation.
Before COP29 last year, for example, the Azerbaijani presidency announced a plan to get fossil fuel producers to put money into a climate fund – but an event where it was due to be unveiled in Baku was quietly dropped and nothing further has been announced since. Another Azerbaijani idea for a COP29 truce was criticised as a “PR exercise” and failed to bring temporary global peace as hoped.
Global Stocktake response
In his fourth open letter this year, released on Friday, COP30 President André Aranha Corrêa do Lago said he wanted organisations around the world – including businesses, civil society and national and local governments – to help implement the key goals set in response to the Global Stocktake under the UN climate process.
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The stocktake is a 46-page document produced after months of research and consultation by the United Nations in September 2023, which summarises how far governments are falling short of their collective climate goals under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
A few months later at COP28 in Dubai, all governments agreed to respond to the stocktake by calling on each other to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems and triple renewable energy capacity and double energy-efficiency improvements by 2030 – among other measures.
Since COP28 though, some oil-dependent governments like Saudi Arabia have downplayed the commitment to transition away from fossil fuels and government negotiations on implementing it have floundered as a result, struggling to find consensus even to repeat the same language in documents.
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But Corrêa do Lago emphasised the stocktake’s continued importance, calling it “our compass for Mission 1.5”, referring to efforts to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limit warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial times.
He said the COP30 Presidency’s aim is to bring “a new dynamic to global climate action”, aligning everybody’s efforts in a global mobilisation (or mutirão) to achieve the Global Stocktake goals as a “global NDC” or “globally determined contribution”. NDCs (nationally determined contributions) are the climate plans each government is expected to submit to the UN every five years.
Corrêa do Lago announced a list of 30 “thematic areas” under six “axes” that will be pursued, including ensuring universal access to energy, improving solid waste management and tackling disinformation about climate change.
Special COP30 pavilions
COP30 CEO Ana Toni said that each axis – for example transitioning energy, industry and transport – would have its own physical pavilion at COP30 in Belém – where it can be discussed by delegates.
Kaveh Guilanpour, vice president for international strategies at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, who followed the stocktake discussions closely, said the Brazilian proposal was “a really good idea” and praised the COP30 host nation for “thinking outside of the box”.
It will help governments, businesses and other organisations interested in particular parts of the global stocktake response – like doubling energy efficiency – to find help to pursue those goals, he said.
Greenpeace has called on Brazil to get all countries to agree to a joint political statement – known as a cover decision – at COP30 which would include setting out how they will meet a global goal to halt and reverse forest destruction by 2030.
Since governments committed to that goal in 2023, the loss of tropical primary forests has increased. Toni said Brazil had not yet decided if there would be a cover decision in Belém.
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Climate campaign group 350.org said the reforms presented on Friday by the COP30 presidency offer a “useful streamlining” by addressing the proliferation of initiatives and lack of overarching coherence.
But, Andreas Sieber, the group’s associate director of policy and campaigns said the presidency should not assume that this alone “will be sufficient to respond to the glaring crisis we must address at the negotiations”. “Reforms are not enough to meet the moment,” he added.
He called for commitments to phase out fossil fuels and accelerate renewable energy to be reflected in the formal outcome at COP30 and urged leaders to offer concrete steps to “advance a just transition”.
The post Brazil: Let’s deliver on our old climate promises before making new ones appeared first on Climate Home News.
Brazil: Let’s deliver on our old climate promises before making new ones
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Climate Change
DeBriefed 19 June 2026: Bonn talks end in ‘gridlock’ | Energy’s ‘new era’ | Oceans in climate negotiations
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
This week
Bonn talks close
‘SIDE-STEPPING AND STALLING’: UN climate talks in Bonn have ended in “gridlock”, according to Climate Home News. The outlet reported on the failure to balance developing countries’ need for climate-adaptation finance with “richer nations’ desire to move forward” on emissions cuts. It added that both topics were subject to “rule 16”, meaning no agreement could be reached and work will be pushed to the COP31 summit in Turkey. Inside Climate News quoted UN climate executive secretary Simon Stiell, who said the talks had seen “side-stepping and stalling”.
JUST TRANSITION: One “glimmer of hope” came from negotiations on achieving a “just transition”, reported Euronews. The news outlet said negotiators “made headway on operationalising the Belém-Antalya mechanism”, intended to support people in the shift to a low-carbon economy. However, Politico concluded that much of the focus in Bonn had “shift[ed] to efforts outside diplomatic talks – raising questions about the future of global climate negotiations”.
‘ATTACKING SCIENCE’: Agence France-Presse reported on the EU, Switzerland and “dozens of developing nations” warning of “attacks on science” by a “small group of fossil-fuels interests” in Bonn. Table Briefings explained that “the 1.5C target is increasingly being challenged” and the role of the UN climate-science panel – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – in an upcoming assessment of global climate progress “remains controversial”. See Carbon Brief’s full write-up of the talks for more detail.
US-Iran deal
PRICE DROP: The US and Iran announced that they have reached an interim agreement to halt the war and reopen the strait of Hormuz, reported Bloomberg. Oil prices have fallen, as the “long-awaited deal” began the process of “eas[ing]” the global energy crisis triggered by the conflict, according to the New York Times. The Associated Press noted that high fuel prices will “likely outlast the Iran war”.
‘OIL GLUT’: The Financial Times reported that the International Energy Agency (IEA) has forecast a “glut of oil” emerging next year, if the peace deal holds. The IEA said this would allow countries to build new strategic reserves, as they “review their energy strategies and policies in response to the crisis”, according to Reuters.
‘NEW ERA’: Agence France-Presse reported that oil and gas companies have “few illusions about a return to normal for the Gulf energy industry after more than three months of blockage”. One analyst told the newswire that the war “showed the oil and gas industry that Hormuz risk is no longer just a geopolitical headline”.
Around the world
- OCEAN MONITOR: The Trump administration is “abandoning its plan” to dismantle a $368m ocean monitoring system key for tracking climate change after a “bipartisan backlash on Capitol Hill”, reported the New York Times.
- CORAL HAVEN: The New York Times covered preliminary research, presented at the Our Ocean Conference in Kenya, suggesting there could be three times as many “coral refugia” – where corals are relatively safe from climate change – than previously thought.
- BAD CREDIT: Down to Earth reported that the first carbon credits issued under the Paris Agreement’s new Article 6.4 mechanism are “facing scrutiny over alleged links to institutions controlled by Myanmar’s military junta”.
- OIL BACKTRACK: Reuters reported that oil-and-gas company Equinor has dropped a renewable-energy target and scaled back clean investments, while another Reuters story noted that Shell is selling off its offshore wind assets.
1.1 billion
The number of children facing “at least three overlapping climate hazards”, according to a new Unicef report covered by Agence France-Presse.
Latest climate research
- Including the “permafrost carbon-climate feedback” in climate models increases the chance of exceeding “tipping elements” – such as the Greenland ice sheets, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation or Amazon rainforest – by up to 50% | Environmental Research Letters
- The intensity of influenza outbreaks could decline in temperate regions, but increase in tropical areas over the next century, as the climate warms | PNAS Nexus
- European snow cover has declined by 20% for December and January since the start of the industrial era, revealing an “unprecedented ongoing shrinkage of European winters” | Communications Earth & Environment
(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
Captured
The more than 2m battery electric vehicles (BEVs), 1m “plug-in” hybrids (PHEVs) and 100,000 electric vans on UK roads are already saving drivers a total of around £3bn a year, according to new Carbon Brief analysis. This amounts to savings of more than £1,100 a year in fuel costs for each BEV driver in the UK. The analysis comes amid reports in UK media this week that the government is considering “watering down” its EV sales targets.
Spotlight
Oceans rising at UN climate talks
The state of the world’s oceans is inextricably linked to the changing climate – and many delegates at UN climate talks want to see more focus on this issue, reports Carbon Brief.
Oceans are often described as the world’s “greatest ally” against climate change – absorbing 30% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and most of the heat generated by those emissions.
They are also the site of important climate solutions, such as huge offshore windfarms and the shipping industry’s transition to cleaner fuels.
At the same time, the oceans themselves present a growing danger to coastal communities and sea life due to sea level rise, marine heatwaves and ocean acidification.
These diverse issues have led to growing calls within the UN climate process for more focus on oceans. During climate negotiations this week in Bonn – known as SB64 – nations and civil society had a chance to air these views during an “ocean and climate change dialogue”.
‘Elevate action’
Oceans first entered UN climate outcomes in 2019, when the final COP25 negotiated text requested a new “dialogue” on “the ocean and climate change to consider how to strengthen mitigation and adaptation action”.
The following years saw this dialogue established as an annual event. However, the political weight of these discussions has been limited.
COP31 is being co-led by Turkey and Australia, but with Pacific islands playing a supporting role. These small islands sometimes self-identify as “large ocean states”, stressing the ocean’s centrality in their societies.
In Bonn, figures from across the presidency threw their weight behind this issue. Chris Bowen, an Australian minister and incoming COP31 “president of negotiations”, told attendees:
“Australia, Turkey and the Pacific see an important opportunity to elevate ocean-based climate action.”
Strategies and finance
The two-day dialogue in Bonn involved a series of panels, statements and breakout groups.
One of the main topics was how oceans are integrated into national climate plans under the Paris Agreement, known as “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs).
Three-quarters of the latest round of NDCs mention oceans, with conservation of “blue carbon” ecosystems the most frequently described action. (Landscapes such as mangroves can both absorb CO2 and protect coastal areas.)
Delegates also discussed alignment with the UN biodiversity process, as well as ocean finance, which currently makes up less than 1% of all climate finance.
(As discussions were taking place in Bonn, country officials also gathered in Mombasa, Kenya for the 11th Our Ocean Conference. Carbon Brief’s associate editor Giuliana Viglione attended the conference and will publish a full summary shortly.)
Developing countries were clear that many of the ocean-related actions in their NDCs would depend on receiving more financial support.
‘Political momentum’
With the backing of the COP31 presidency, delegates were hopeful about where this year’s dialogue could lead.
Charles Hamilton, an advisor for the Bahamas who spoke for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) in the dialogue, told Carbon Brief that island representatives “are not traveling thousands of miles to just talk and pat ourselves on the back”. He added:
“A dialogue that just remains a dialogue is just more talk – no action.”
Given that, he said “discussions in the dialogue must move into COP decisions and the decisions must be actioned”, noting the importance of finance.
Marina Corrêa, oceans lead at WWF-Brazil, pointed to an upcoming UN climate change Standing Committee on Finance forum as a space to ramp up pressure on ocean finance.
More broadly, she wanted to see the presidencies translate their support into a “leader-level ocean initiative” that could “mainstream” oceans across negotiations.
“We have a really interesting opportunity, in terms of political momentum,” Corrêa told Carbon Brief.
Watch, read, listen
‘HOTTER THAN HELL’: An episode of the BBC’s Rare Earth podcast titled “hotter than hell” considered the issue of extreme heat, with input from experts and “people facing up to the hottest temperatures on the planet”.
NOT BROKEN?: John Drake, a professor of ecology at the University of Georgia, wrote an essay for Aeon – also re-published as a Guardian “long read” – questioning the framing of ecosystems and climate systems “breaking down”.
ON COURSE: On his Volts podcast, US climate journalist David Roberts interviewed UK climate minister Katie White, quizzing her about whether the UK will “stay the course with its climate plans”.
Coming up
- 20-28 June: London climate action week
- 21 June: Colombia presidential runoff
- 24 June: UK Climate Change Committee progress in reducing emissions 2026 report to parliament
Pick of the jobs
- Mongabay, managing editor – Africa | Salary: Unknown. Location: Global
- Contexte, environment reporter – Brussels | Salary: €45,000-€60,000. Location: Brussels
- Climate 200, communications director | Salary: Unknown. Location: Australia
- Energy Tracker Asia, energy transition correspondent | Salary: $3,000-$4,000 per month. Location: South-east Asia (remote)
DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to debriefed@carbonbrief.org.
This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s weekly DeBriefed email newsletter. Subscribe for free here.
The post DeBriefed 19 June 2026: Bonn talks end in ‘gridlock’ | Energy’s ‘new era’ | Oceans in climate negotiations appeared first on Carbon Brief.
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