The 2025 UN Climate Change Conference (COP 30) is underway in Belém, Brazil. This annual meeting on tackling climate change runs from November 10 to 21, 2025. The summit for world leaders took place on November 6 and 7 before the main talks began. Trinidad and Tobago is a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (Rio 92) and is represented at COP 30.
Countries pledged in the Paris Climate Agreement (2015) that they will try to restrict the rise of global temperature to 1.5 °C. António Guterres, Secretary General of the UN, says this goal will not be achieved. “There is very strong scientific evidence that the impacts of climate change, from extreme heat to sea-level rise, would be far greater at 2 °C than at 1.5 °C. But while the use of renewable energy, particularly solar power, is growing rapidly, countries’ climate plans have fallen short of what the 1.5 °C goal requires” (BBC).
A total of 195 countries adopted the 2015 Paris Agreement, which is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. The agreement was adopted in December 2015 and entered into force on November 4, 2016. This year, many world leaders are absent from COP 30. Elliot Waldman, editor-in-chief of World Politics Review, stated recently: “The heads of four of the world’s five top polluters—China, the United States, India, and Russia—declined to attend, even though those four countries account for nearly half of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. For the first time since these gatherings began three decades ago, the United States is boycotting the event completely. Meanwhile, the other three top emitters have sent lower-level envoys. While that seems like a bad omen, delegates say there are enough heavy hitters in attendance to make meaningful progress.”
Around 50,000 people are expected to attend, including Heads of State, leaders, politicians, diplomats, scientists, negotiators, campaigners, NGOs, journalists, and other stakeholders. At the Belém Climate Summit’s energy transition roundtable, Guterres said: “To return below 1.5 degrees by century’s end, global emissions must fall by almost half by 2030, reach net zero by 2050, and go net negative afterwards.” Read the five urgent priorities Guterres outlined at the summit (https://unfccc.int).
Simon Stiell, executive secretary, UN Climate Change, rightly states that “climate disasters are still outpacing our efforts to contain climate change… COP 30 must respond clearly and strongly to what the latest data and science are saying about progress made and where acceleration is most needed. It must show that climate multilateralism continues to deliver, with strong outcomes across all negotiations.
“It must spur faster and wider implementation, across all sectors and economies, leaving no one behind. That means delivering for the most vulnerable in all regions, especially emerging and developing countries. It must connect climate actions more directly to real lives everywhere, showing that bold climate action means better jobs, higher living standards, cleaner air, healthier lives, more secure food, affordable clean energy, and transport. Together we must work to spread these vast benefits to far more people, in all parts of the world.”
At the Leaders’ Summit, Stiell “issued a clear call for faster, fairer delivery of climate action and finance.” He said the goal of scaling climate finance from $300 billion to $1.3 trillion a year by 2035 must become a reality. “This is shared interest, not charity, an investment in stability and prosperity.” He emphasised the multiple dividends of every climate dollar invested: jobs, cleaner air, health, security, and resilience.
The ecological crisis is a moral issue. Years ago, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI told us: “Our earth speaks to us, and we must listen if we want to survive.”
He said: “We are all in the world not as owners but as tenants and stewards… The environment is God’s gift to us… God is sovereign of all that exists and has instilled in every creature, including humans, laws and purposes which must be observed.”
This year marks the tenth anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si (On Care for Our Common Home). Inter alia, he calls for:
• An integral ecology, an authentic human ecology which connects ecological issues and life issues. This approach recognises the interconnectedness and interdependence between human beings and the earth,
• Conversion of hearts, minds, and lifestyles, if we are to save our planet.
Read Pope Leo XIV’s message to COP 30, delivered by Cardinal Parolin. He reminds us that peace and the care of our common home go hand in hand.
Let’s respect the integrity of creation.
