Manuel Pulgar-Vidal is WWF’s Global Climate and Energy Lead and a former Peruvian environment minister and President of COP20 in Lima in 2014
In 2015, the world celebrated the Paris Agreement as a landmark in the global fight against climate change. The principle of “leave no one behind,” carried over from the Sustainable Development Goals, was recognised as a core ethical foundation of the agreement. It represented values of equity, inclusiveness, and justice—ideas essential to tackling both the causes and consequences of climate change.
Yet, in the years that followed, these values drifted into the background. Ethical discussions became marginal, often confined to faith-based initiatives such as Pope Francis’ Laudato Si and Laudate Deum.
Now, in 2025, there are signs of change. On the road to COP30, Brazil has introduced the Global Ethical Stocktake, putting ethics squarely back at the centre of the climate negotiations. It acknowledges what has long been missing from the process and challenges us to rebuild climate action on the foundations of justice, responsibility, and solidarity.
Building the Climate Narrative on Ethical Values
The climate crisis is not just a scientific or political problem—it is also a deeply moral one. Rising emissions and warming temperatures are tied to inequitable development, unchecked consumption, and a reliance on fossil fuels, even when their dangers are well known.
Embedding ethics into climate talks means recognizing the values that should guide us: respect, responsibility, justice, integrity, solidarity, freedom, tolerance, empathy, and equity. These are not abstract ideals. They are the compass we need to navigate the crisis and ensure the planet remains liveable for current and future generations.
If we ignore this ethical dimension, the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN climate process risk becoming hollow commitments—fine words without meaningful action.
The Role of Courts in Advancing an Ethical Climate Narrative
In recent months, two international courts have issued landmark opinions that reshape the conversation about responsibility and justice in the climate crisis.
-The Inter-American Court of Human Rights recognized that the right to a healthy environment is inseparable from the right to a healthy climate. It laid out three obligations for states: to respect rights, to guarantee rights with reinforced due diligence, and to embed these responsibilities in domestic law.
-The International Court of Justice reaffirmed that climate treaties are built on the principles of equity and intergenerational justice.
These decisions bring ethics and law closer together. They highlight that access to food, water, housing, and a safe climate are fundamental human rights—and that governments cannot ignore their obligations without consequence.
Restoring Credibility Through Ethics
One of the biggest criticisms of global climate negotiations is the gap between promises and delivery. Emissions are not falling fast enough. Adaptation is underfunded. Finance for vulnerable countries lags commitments. The result is widespread frustration and a loss of credibility in the process.
Restoring credibility is not just a technical matter—it is a moral imperative. Countries must not only increase the ambition of their NDCs but also fully implement them. Accountability rules are essential to identify those who delay or fail to act.
The same applies to the private sector. Many corporations make bold claims about being “carbon neutral” or “net zero,” yet their pathways often lack scientific rigor and independent monitoring. When such claims amount to greenwashing, they erode trust.
Ethics provides the framework to rebuild credibility—by linking obligations with accountability and connecting responsibilities directly to citizens and consumers.
Ethics as a Guide for Negotiators
As we approach COP30—more than three decades after the creation of the UNFCCC—negotiators continue to face slow and politicized processes. Too often, meetings are delayed by disputes over agendas, while the climate emergency worsens in real time.
Negotiators may represent their states, but they must also reckon with the moral consequences of inaction. Every year of delay brings more lives lost, more ecosystems destroyed, and more communities displaced.
The Global Ethical Stocktake should serve as a constant reminder of these consequences, awakening the moral conscience that must guide climate diplomacy.
Just as the Global Stocktake in 2023 (COP28) assessed progress and recommended next steps, the ethical debate must reach the heart of negotiations to unlock what political posturing has left unresolved.
Centring Adaptation, Resilience, and Loss and Damage
Since the early 1990s, countries have committed to both decarbonization and building resilience. Yet adaptation lags far behind. Communities most exposed to climate impacts—particularly in the Global South—still lack the resources to protect themselves.
This failure is not only practical but ethical. Without adaptation, vulnerable populations lose the material conditions for survival: food, water, housing, and livelihoods.
The ethical debate must focus strongly on adaptation, loss and damage, and just transition policies. It must highlight the values of solidarity, justice, empathy, and equity in building resilience.
Respecting Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities
Any ethical climate debate must put inclusion at its core. Indigenous peoples and local communities, who have often borne the brunt of exclusion and rights violations, must be central actors in climate solutions.
Their traditional knowledge is not a relic of the past but a living resource. It complements scientific expertise and offers proven pathways for adaptation and ecosystem stewardship. Recognizing and respecting these contributions is both an ethical obligation and a practical necessity.
Making the Global Ethical Debate Permanent
If the Global Ethical Stocktake remains a one-off event, its potential will be wasted. It must become a permanent feature of the climate process.
Brazil should present the results of the Global Ethical Debate at COP30 and propose that future ethical stocktakes align with the Global Stocktake cycle. Champions could be appointed to ensure follow-up, and mechanisms should be created to embed ethics into national planning processes, from NDCs to adaptation plans.
Such steps would make ethics not just a side conversation but a structural element of climate governance.
A Call to Conscience
The climate crisis is a test not only of our science and technology but of our values and humanity. Denialism, polarization, and geopolitical rivalries continue to stall progress. Re-centring ethics offers a bridge between governments and citizens, between technical negotiations and lived realities.
As we look toward COP30 and beyond, the message is clear: ethics is not an optional extra. It is the foundation on which meaningful climate action must be built. If we embrace this truth, guided by both intergenerational and intergenerational responsibility, we can turn commitments into action and leave behind a liveable planet for all.
The post Why ethics must be at the heart of global climate action appeared first on Climate Home News.
The Turkish government has announced the dates and venues for the COP31 leaders’ summit and pre-COP meetings, and appointed a Turkish waste campaigner and Australian cattle farmer as climate “champions”.
In an open letter, published by the UN climate body on Tuesday, the Turkish environment minister and COP31 President-Designate Murat Kurum said the COP31 World Leaders’ Summit, at which dozens of heads of government are expected, will take place in Antalya, on Türkiye’s south coast, on November 11 and 12.
Previous leaders’ summits have taken place on the first two days of the COP negotiations or, at last year’s conference in Belém, before the start. But this year’s gathering will take place on the third and fourth day (Wednesday and Thursday) of the November 9-20 talks. Kurum said the summit “will be a key moment in generating political momentum and visibility for COP31”.
Last November, when Türkiye was chosen as host of the annual UN climate summit, Kurum said that, while the negotiations would be in the resort city of Antalya, the leaders’ summit would take place in the country’s largest city Istanbul. No explanation for the change of decision was given in Kurum’s letter.
Pacific pre-COP
Every COP conference is preceded by a smaller pre-COP gathering, attended by government climate negotiators. Because of a deal struck with Australia, which gave up its bid to physically host the summit in exchange for leading the COP31 discussions, this year’s pre-COP will take place on the Pacific island of Fiji, with a “leaders’ event” a 2.5-hour flight north in Tuvalu.
Kurum’s letter said both events would take place between October 5-8 and “will contribute to reflecting diverse perspectives in an inclusive manner”.
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The letter confirms that Australia’s climate and energy minister, Chris Bowen, will be given the title of “President of Negotiations” and “will have exclusive authority in leading the COP31 Negotiations, in consultation with Türkiye”.
“I have complete faith in his work,” said Kurum, adding that the two will send out a joint letter “in the coming weeks” which outlines their priorities regarding the negotiations.
The COP negotiations will be discussed at the annual Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin on April 21 and 22. German State Secretary Jochen Flasbarth recently announced plans to travel to Australia and meet with Bowen to discuss the talks.
COP31 champions
In his letter, Kurum announced that Samed Ağırbaş, president of Türkiye’s Zero Waste Foundation, which was set up by the country’s First Lady, has been appointed as the COP31 Climate High-Level Champion, tasked with working with business, cities and regions and civil society to promote climate action.
Sally Higgins, a young Australian cattle farmer and sustainability consultant who has also carried out research on land-use change, has been appointed as Youth Climate Champion. Kurum said she “is a passionate advocate for climate change and elevating the voices of young people”.
Turkish officials Fatma Varank, Halil Hasar and Mehmet Ali Kahraman have been appointed as COP31 CEO, Chief Climate Diplomacy Officer and Director of the COP31 Presidency Office respectively. Deputy environment ministers Ömer Bulut and Burak Demiralp will lead on construction and infrastructure, and operational and logistical processes.
Kurum said Türkiye’s Presidency would continue to use the Troika approach – a term coined two years ago under Azerbaijan’s COP29 Presidency, which worked with the previous Emirati COP28 and subsequent Brazilian COP30 hosts.
Kurum said the Troika approach offers “stability and predictability by connecting past, current and future presidencies” and that “in this regard” Türkiye and Australia would work “in close cooperation with Azerbaijan and Brazil”. This appears to overlook the 2027 COP32 host – Ethiopia.
The post Türkiye sets COP31 dates and appoints Australian cattle farmer as youth champion appeared first on Climate Home News.
Türkiye sets COP31 dates and appoints Australian cattle farmer as youth champion
Mae Buenaventura is the manager of the debt justice programme of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development, a regional alliance of peoples’ movements, community organizations, coalitions, NGOs and networks
A potentially historic shift in public debt governance is set to unfold in Washington DC this week as Global South governments take a collective stand to stop a “silent killer” of development financing.
The first-ever UN-hosted borrowers’ forum will officially be launched on April 15 on the sidelines of the 2026 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Led by five convening countries – Zambia, Egypt, Nepal, the Maldives and Pakistan – the initiative is one of the key wins of last year’s 4th Financing for Development Conference (FFD4) in Sevilla, Spain.
The forum’s mandate is to establish a platform for borrower countries, supported by a UN secretariat, “to discuss technical issues, share information and experiences in addressing debt challenges, increase access to technical assistance and capacity-building in debt management, coordinate approaches and strengthen borrower countries’ voices in the global debt architecture”.
Instead of facing lenders alone, these countries will now use a UN-backed platform to share technical expertise and coordinate their approach to a global debt system that is fundamentally broken.
Debt grips climate-vulnerable nations
The human cost of the current debt architecture is staggering. According to the UN trade and development agency, UNCTAD, more than 40% of the global population – roughly 3.4 billion people – live in countries where the government is forced to spend more on debt payments than on the health, education and social protection of its citizens.
In so-called low-income countries, governments spend an average of 7.5% of their total budgets on debt service, with interest payments consuming up to 20% of total government revenue in these regions.
The Philippines is a case study in this financial stranglehold. It is part of a global majority forced to watch its public services crumble and infrastructure lag while its wealth is siphoned off to satisfy foreign lenders.
The policy of automatic appropriations – a legacy of the rule of late former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. – mandates that debt servicing takes precedence over any other public expenditure, effectively placing the demands of lenders above the needs of the Filipino people. Even as it faces a $1.5 trillion regional financing gap to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, its hands remain tied by a legal framework that values credit ratings over human lives.
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As a “middle-income country” (MIC), the Philippines is stuck in a frustrating purgatory. It is often deemed “too wealthy” for the G20’s debt-relief framework, yet too poor to absorb global economic shocks. Last year, Finance Undersecretary Joven Balbosa hit the nail on the head when he called for support that goes “beyond the simplistic income categorization” that ignores a country’s actual vulnerabilities.
Without an inclusive and equitable global debt architecture, nations including the Philippines are left to navigate catastrophic climate risks and economic shocks with zero fiscal breathing space.
No respite during climate disasters
The regional evidence of this systemic failure is everywhere. Take Pakistan, which in 2022 was hit by catastrophic flooding that submerged a third of the country and caused billions in losses. Despite this climate-driven disaster, World Bank data shows that Pakistan made payments in 2023 of $11.8 billion for public and publicly guaranteed (PPG) external debt, while its PPG external debt reached $93 billion that same year, surpassing pre-pandemic debt of $87 billion (2020).
Sri Lanka followed IMF prescriptions throughout 16 lending programs since 1991, only to become the first Asian country this century to default. Its MIC status prevents application for debt relief and restructuring measures. Today, the Sri Lankan people bear the brunt of harsh conditionalities, including raising VAT from 8% to 15%, slashing food and fuel subsidies, and the erosion of hard-earned worker pensions.
Currently, the global rules of lending and borrowing are set by a “creditors’ club” composed of the IMF, the World Bank and the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable it set up, and the Paris Club.
These institutions measure “debt sustainability” through a narrow lens of a country’s capacity to make timely repayments. They largely ignore internal economic inequalities, gender disparities and the existential threat of climate change.
Crises should trigger debt service cancellation
By organising the new borrowers’ forum, the Global South is signalling that the era of passive “standard-setting” by lenders is over.
The ultimate goal for global civil society and debt justice movements is the establishment of a UN Debt Convention; a democratic, binding and inclusive framework that governs both lenders and borrowers. This mechanism would ensure that debt restructuring and cancellation are sufficient to allow countries to fulfill their international human rights obligations and implement necessary climate actions.
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To be truly transformative, debt sustainability analyses must align with human rights and sustainable development needs. This means conducting impact assessments – both before and after loans are issued – to identify “illegitimate” debts that do not benefit the public.
Crucially, we need an automatic debt service cancellation mechanism that triggers during extreme climatic, environmental or health shocks. We also need a binding global debt registry to ensure that every loan is transparent and subject to public scrutiny.
Whether the borrowers’ forum becomes a true milestone depends on its courage to challenge the status quo. We can no longer allow debt to act as a “silent killer” of our future. It is time to demand a financial system that serves humanity, not just the balance sheets of the powerful.
The post Broken debt system must be fixed to confront future climate shocks appeared first on Climate Home News.
Broken debt system must be fixed to confront future climate shocks
Greenpeace and allies will be protesting outside Woodside’s Annual General Meeting to show the WA and federal governments strong community opposition to Woodside’s proposal to drill for gas at Scott Reef.
What: Protest outside Woodside Energy’s Annual General Meeting
When: 8am Thursday 23rd April 2026Where: Kagoshima Park (on the corner of Great Eastern Highway and Bolton Avenue)
What’s at stake
Scott Reef is a pristine ocean ecosystem off the north-west coast of Australia.
It is home to endangered and endemic species, including pygmy blue whales and the dusky sea snake, and a nesting ground for green sea turtles. Scott Reef is a place of extraordinary natural beauty, and a vital marine environment that supports a wide range of marine life.
What Woodside is proposing
Dirty fossil fuel corporation, Woodside Energy, is seeking approval to drill more than 50 gas wells underneath and around Scott Reef as part of its Browse project.
The gas would be extracted and transported to the Burrup Hub, the most polluting fossil fuel project in Australia. This proposal would industrialise the doorstep of Australia’s largest freestanding oceanic reef system – threatening the marine life that relies on it and the climate.
Why this can’t go ahead
The WA Environmental Protection Authority has already identified the risks of this project as “unacceptable”, issuing a preliminary rejection.
Serious concerns include:
- The risk of an oil spill
- Impacts on pygmy blue whales
- Damage to green sea turtle nesting grounds
These risks are severe, and potentially irreversible. But the decision hasn’t been made yet. The project is still being assessed.
The Federal Environment Minister is approaching a decision that will determine whether Scott Reef is protected – or vulnerable to decades of industrial gas destruction.
This is a defining moment.
Make opposition visible
Across Australia, people are speaking out to protect Scott Reef and oppose Woodside’s Browse project.
Showing that opposition is visible, coordinated and growing helps increase pressure on decision-makers ahead of this critical decision.
Join the protest
A protest outside Woodside’s AGM is a key public moment to demonstrate opposition and help protect Scott Reef.
Kagoshima Park (on the corner of Great Eastern Highway and Bolton Avenue)
8am, Thursday 23rd April 2026
Join the protest and help show how many people support protecting Scott Reef before the government makes its decision.
Join Greenpeace to save Scott Reef from Woodside’s dirty gas
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