At U.N. Climate Negotiations, Some Ambitious Efforts to Protect Nature Move Forward
After two-week session in Belém, Brazil, more action is needed to tackle global challenges
World leaders, scientists, nongovernmental organizations, and others have concluded negotiations at the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 30), held Nov. 10-21, with renewed momentum toward meeting global commitments. The decisions made over the past two weeks in Belém, Brazil, will shape not only the planet’s future but also the well-being, security, and livelihoods of billions of people around the world.
Each year, these talks grow in importance, and the pressure to deliver real change is magnified. As ocean acidification, wildfires, floods, and destructive weather test the health of global biodiversity and nature, as well as communities’ ability to adapt, the stakes couldn’t be higher. In the decade since the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change, countries have made steady progress on reducing emissions and addressing climate impacts. According to the U.N. Environment Programme, the policies and pledges countries have implemented to date have brought projected planetary warming down from 4°C to 2.8°C, but experts say that more needs to be done. This week, however, countries agreed to go further on climate finance and to incorporate trade considerations into future COPs for the first time.
Representatives from The Pew Charitable Trusts and partner organizations attended COP30 to support countries’ efforts to address climate change. Here are some opportunities for further progress from the conference.
Leverage climate action plans to shore up progress
Every five years, parties to the Paris Agreement must submit increasingly ambitious action plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), to reduce emissions and help communities adapt to climate effects. This year marked the third round of updates to NDCs, making COP30 a crucial milestone for raising global climate aspirations.
In particular, marine and coastal ecosystem solutions – such as protecting mangroves, seagrasses, and saltmarshes, which store vast amounts of carbon, buffer coastal communities from storms, sustain fisheries, and support livelihoods – played a growing role in countries’ NDCs. Since 2019, Pew has supported several countries in strengthening their research, technical, and financing capacity to include these ecosystems in their NDCs. And in 2025, many of the countries we work with – including Belize, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Kenya, and Panama – made bold commitments to conserve and restore coastal wetlands.
These countries’ NDCs are not only concrete steps toward achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement but are also inspiring examples of how environmental protection can align with social and economic opportunity. These nations’ leadership should serve as a call to other major economies to match this level of ambition.
Commit more funds to climate finance
At COP29 in 2024, governments agreed to raise US$300 billion annually by 2035 from public sources to support climate efforts in developing nations, and they set a broader goal of mobilizing at least $1.3 trillion a year from all sources, including the private sector and innovative approaches. Leaders in Belém focused on implementing these commitments under the “Baku to Belém Roadmap to 1.3T.” Together, they established a two-year “work programme” aimed at identifying the steps necessary to achieve the $1.3 trillion target, with an emphasis on practical and durable solutions. Leaders also agreed to triple adaptation finance by 2035. These funds will be critical, and the initial progress made shows that the world remains committed to cooperation on climate.
Another notable development was the launch of the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, an initiative to end deforestation and support sustainable livelihoods through a creative financing model that combines public and private investment. The program aims to mobilize financing for more than 70 countries with tropical forests, which are critical “carbon sinks” – ecosystems that absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. At COP30, countries pledged over $6 billion toward the effort. The funding would help protect these ecosystems, safeguard Indigenous territories, and sustain millions of people whose lives and cultures depend on healthy tropical forests.
Climate finance and conservation are Pew priorities. Our efforts include being a founding member of the Debt for Nature Coalition, which refinances portions of countries’ debt, allowing more funding to be channeled into conservation initiatives. To date, coalition members have secured more than $1.4 billion to protect vital ecosystems through debt conversions in ecologically sensitive locations around the world, such as the Galápagos. Pew and its partners expect these projects to grow significantly over the next five years, and the coalition is working to unlock more than $3 billion in funding.
Drive nature-based solutions through impactful partnerships
Collaboration among governments, Indigenous peoples, nongovernmental organizations, and philanthropic groups remains key to meeting the planet’s conservation challenges. Pew is part of several partnerships that aim to scale up durable protections, such as Enduring Earth, which helps create long-term conservation and financing mechanisms to strengthen local economies and empower communities.
It was fitting, then, that this COP in Brazil featured a major expansion of the Amazon Region Protected Areas (ARPA) program. The new ARPA Comunidades, supported by our Enduring Earth partner World Wildlife Fund and by others, builds on more than a decade of success conserving the Brazilian Amazon to strengthen community resilience and promote sustainable use of natural resources.
Translate ambition into action for COP31
Plans for COP31 – which will be held in Türkiye in 2026, with Australia presiding over negotiations – have already begun. Implementing NDCs, developing new targets, and raising funds for adaptation and conservation remain critically important. Over the next year, ambition must translate into action, with more countries protecting biodiversity, more partnerships linking conservation and economic development, and more financing reaching the local level, where change happens every day.
Roger-Mark De Souza is a vice president at The Pew Charitable Trusts, leading work on the organization’s environment portfolio, and Courtney Durham Shane is a senior officer for Pew’s climate mitigation work.
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