The 2025 Belém Conference on climate change (COP30) ended on Saturday 22 November with the adoption of the ‘Global Mutirão’ text, a compromise that many delegations considered to be limited.
With no explicit mention of the phasing-out of fossil fuels, the agreement merely reiterates the urgent need to step up action to maintain the 1.5°C limit, and notes that national commitments are not up to the task.
In addition, the meeting resulted in two initiatives: the ‘Belém Mission to 1.5’, aimed at raising national ambitions, and the ‘Global Implementation Accelerator’, for the voluntary implementation of climate plans.
The text of the decision also calls on Member States to draw up development strategies in line with carbon neutrality trajectories by 2050, but does not create any legal obligation to achieve this.
With regard to adaptation, the agreement confirms the objective of tripling funding by 2035, a step forward that several negotiators from vulnerable countries described as the minimum acceptable. Mutirão also focuses on giving greater consideration to local and regional authorities in the implementation of climate policies.
These results were deemed disappointing overall by the MEPs who are active in climate and environmental policy within the EU. The European Commissioner for Climate, Wopke Hoekstra, himself acknowledged that a “major step forward” had been taken, but that the final agreement was “not perfect”.
“This COP could have made it possible to agree to phase out fossil fuels, but the governments of Saudi Arabia, India and other countries have put the brakes on the international community”, criticised Bas Eikhout, President of the Greens/EFA and member of the European Parliament delegation to COP30.
However, the Dutch MEP acknowledged that in these difficult geopolitical times, the compromise represents a small step in the right direction.
From the Renew Europe group, Brigitte van den Berg (Dutch) said that the EU must show greater ambition and unity at this COP.
“Our next chance to make real progress lies in the initiative announced by Colombia and the Netherlands to organise the first international conference on the energy transition, away from fossil fuels, in April 2026”, she stressed.
In a similar vein, Mohammed Chahim, vice-Chair of the European Parliament delegation to COP30, acknowledged that the EU now needed to focus, “as a matter of urgency, on consolidating coalitions to avoid finding itself isolated again in the forthcoming negotiations”.
For Peter Liese (EPP, German), it is important to stress that the United States (through its absence) did not succeed in sabotaging the decision-making process of this COP, like other processes, citing that of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) (see EUROPE 13733/27).
According to the European Committee of the Regions, the COP remains an essential forum, despite its limitations. The progress achieved remains modest, but it represents a starting point that must now be translated into action in the regions.
The G20 summit(see other news), which concluded the following day in Johannesburg (South Africa), also aimed to defend a weakened multilateralism, with the United States once again absent. The leaders welcomed the “progress” achieved in Belém and reiterated their shared commitment to implementing the Paris Agreement and stepping up efforts to maintain the 1.5°C target.
To see the text of the COP30 decision: https://aeur.eu/f/jmk
To see the G20 declaration: https://aeur.eu/f/jm7 (Original version in French by Pauline Denys and Nithya Paquiry)