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The 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP30, opened in Belem, Brazil, on 10 November 2026, the first COP ever held in the Amazon. The conference runs until 21 November, and it comes ten years after the Paris Agreement was adopted. A leaders' summit on 6 and 7 November opened the conference, with more than 100 national delegations taking part, before the formal negotiations began on 10 November.
Countries at the summit agreed the conference agenda on the opening day, but four of the eight items proposed by delegations were left off and handed to presidency consultations, including disputes over climate finance and trade. The early agreement on the agenda means formal negotiations can begin on schedule, but the hardest arguments have been deferred rather than settled. Nearly 200 countries have gathered for the conference.
Ambassador Andre Correa do Lago was elected president of COP30 at the opening plenary and commended delegations for agreeing the agenda quickly, in what the presidency described as a strong show of consensus for multilateral action. The first two days of the summit are themed around adaptation, cities, infrastructure, water, waste, local government, the bioeconomy, the circular economy, science, technology and artificial intelligence.
On the opening day, representatives from signatory countries gathered to discuss the Belem Declaration on Hunger, Poverty and People-Centred Climate Action, launched during the leaders' summit on 7 November and endorsed by 44 countries. The declaration underscores that the impacts of climate change are already severely affecting populations, particularly the most vulnerable. A high-level ministerial event on combating hunger and poverty for climate justice was held on the opening day.
COP30 marked 20 years since the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol and 10 years since the adoption of the Paris Agreement. The conference also presented the Roadmap from Baku to Belem, aimed at increasing global climate finance to 1.3 trillion dollars a year by 2035. Past COPs have often run past their scheduled end date as negotiators work on the final text, so the outcome may not be clear until after 21 November.
Source: COP30 Brazil
