Did COP30 Resolve Climate Finance and Fossil Fuel Shift Issues?

COP30 officially concluded on November 22 after two weeks in Belém, Brazil. How effectively did it raise ambitions for climate action, accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels, and increase climate funding for both mitigation and adaptation efforts?

According to the United Nations, countries have agreed on a sweeping package to scale up climate finance and accelerate implementation of the Paris Agreement – but without a clear commitment to move away from fossil fuels.

Despite pressures from over 80 countries, from Europe to Latin America to the Pacific, the summit did not adopt a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels; instead, the final decision reaffirms the “UAE Consensus” from COP28, which calls for a “just, orderly and equitable transition away from fossil fuels.”

Key decisions agreed upon towards the end of the summit include:

• Finance at scale: Mobilise $1.3 trillion annually by 2035 for climate action.
• Adaptation boost: Double climate adaptation finance by 2025 and triple it by 2035.
• Loss and damage fund: Operationalisation and replenishment cycles confirmed.
• New initiatives: Launch of the Global Implementation Accelerator and Belém Mission to 1.5°C to drive ambition and implementation.
• Climate disinformation: Commitment to promote information integrity and counter false narratives.

The Time Group describes the outcomes of the two-week climate summit, dubbed the Implementation COP, the Adaptation COP, the Forest COP, the People’s COP, and the COP of Truth, as “mixed outcomes for vulnerable countries”.

The article notes that while the COP30 ended with increased funding for climate adaptation, it fell short of delivering guaranteed financing for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and the African Group of Negotiators (AGN), as well as the rapid transition from fossil fuels they urgently require.

The Belém Package or the Belém Political Package, agreed upon by 195 parties at the end of COP30, represents the COP30’s central negotiated outcome or the set of decisions that all Parties agreed to by consensus.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP is an opportunity to negotiate new measures and review Parties’ progress toward the overall goal of the UNFCCC to limit climate change. 

Generally, each COP, but not all, agrees on a statement or a binding agreement, reached through intense debate and negotiation among parties, negotiators, and representatives as the summit progresses. The deal is then publicly released at the end of the conference (What is COP, 2025).

Agreements such as the Belém Package from this year’s COP, the Paris Agreement from COP21, the Glasgow Climate Pact from COP26, and the Baku Outcomes from last year’s COP29 are significant because they transition the annual summit’s promises into actionable commitments. These agreements connect global policies to the lives of real people, expand commitments to climate finance, and establish a foundation for future actions.

At the conclusion of COP30, many breakthroughs were achieved; however, a significant criticism of the annual climate conference is that the final agreement does not include a firm, binding plan to phase out fossil fuels. Instead, the agreement only contains a pledge to “plan” for such a transition. (Belém, 2025).  

Shiva Gounden, the head of Pacific at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, says that COP30 finished with an “extremely weak” outcome, adding that “The credibility of COPs is dropping somewhat, but it can be salvaged if there’s a little bit of political will, that is visionary from across the world. The Pacific has shown leadership in this quite a bit in the last few COPs” (Fotheringham, 2025).

Pacific Islands Climate Action Network (PICAN) international policy lead Sindra Sharma said the outcome had not made much progress and that the world would overshoot the 1.5°C Paris Agreement temperature limit. He commented on the agreement’s language, calling it “non-committal and weak”. (Fotheringham, 2025).

Ani Dasgupta, President and CEO of the World Resources Institute, released a statement regarding the outcome of COP30, titled “COP30 Delivers on Forests and Finance, Underdelivers on Fossil Fuels.” In his statement, Dasgupta acknowledged the progress made in climate finance, particularly the tripling of funds for climate adaptation.

He also noted the commitment to protect forests and support Indigenous knowledge and voices, despite a challenging political environment. However, the absence of a clear plan to transition away from fossil fuels has left many feeling disappointed.