https://unfccc.int/news/simon-stiell-closing-speech-cop30-showed-that-cl...
Excellencies, Colleagues,
Dear Friends,
We knew this COP would take place in stormy political waters.
Denial, division and geopolitics has dealt international cooperation some heavy blows this year.
But friends. COP30 showed that climate cooperation is alive and kicking, keeping humanity in the fight for a livable planet, with a firm resolve to keep 1.5C within reach.
I’m not saying we’re winning the climate fight. But we are undeniably still in it, and we are fighting back.
Here in Belem, nations chose unity, science, and economic common sense.
This year there has been a lot of attention on one country stepping back.
But amid the gale-force political headwinds, 194 countries stood firm in solidarity - rock-solid in support of climate cooperation.
194 countries representing billions of people have said in one voice that “the Paris Agreement is working", and resolved to make it go further and faster.
We see progress in a new agreement on just transition, signaling that building climate resilience and the clean economy must also be fair, with every nation and every person able to share in its vast benefits.
We see it in the agreement to triple adaptation finance.
Ensuring more countries have the support they need, even as climate disasters wreck lives and slam into global supply chains, on which every economy depends.
For the first time, 194 nations said in unison:
‘...the global transition to low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilience is irreversible and the trend of the future.’
194 nations agreed this word by word, because it is the truth - backed up by investment flows into renewables that now double fossil fuels.
This is a political and market signal that cannot be ignored.
In this new era, we must bring our process closer to the real economy, to deliver concrete results faster, and spread the benefits to billions more people.
At COP30 - through the Action Agenda - that is exactly what we did.
A trillion dollars for clean grids.
Hundreds of millions of hectares of forest, land and oceans protected or restored.
Over 400 million people becoming more resilient. And many more.
These achievements are not a side-show – they are real-world progress on the things billions of people care about most.
Outside these halls, billions are asking basic questions: Will there be enough food for my family?
Will I be able to pay my fuel bill?
Will my child breathe clean air?
Are the people and places I love, will they be safe from the next flood, fire, or storm?
This COP has started to deliver on these everyday concerns. Not perfectly, not fast enough but concretely.
Markets are moving, and a new economy is rising. The old polluting economy is running out of road.
But disinformation is trying to keep it alive. Its impacts run deep.
It has distorted the political landscape.
It obscures the experiences of people around the world living under severe personal strain.
The multiple effects of climate change fuel fear. Disinformation then weaponises it.
So as climate pressures push up prices, economies destabilise and communities are put under strain.
Disinformation actors are opportunistic – they exploit that anxiety. Everything is blamed except the real cause.
A COP of truth is fighting back. It also means we must also be realistic.
Many countries wanted to move faster on fossil fuels, finance, and responding to spiraling climate disasters.
I understand that frustration, and many of those I share myself.
But let's not ignore how far this COP has moved us forward.
With or without Navigation Aids, our direction is clear: the shift from fossil fuels to renewables and resilience is unstoppable.
We’ve committed to speeding up the full implementation of national climate plans, and to strive to do better, collectively and cooperatively, together with the Action Agenda, driving forward this acceleration.
For two weeks each year, COP brings climate to the top of the agenda. As we leave here, our job is to keep it there for another fifty.
We’ve now seen the Indigenous word for a collective effort - ‘mutirão’ - in action.
We need to carry on this spirit of mutirão that has won out here at COP30, and for that, I thank the Presidency, the people of Brazil, my colleagues at the Secretariat and all of you.
I thank you.
Obrigado.
