Brazil is ending its year-long presidency of the United Nations climate process with two roadmaps designed to turn past climate promises into action: one for shifting away from fossil fuels, and one for protecting the world’s forests.
COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago, who led last November’s UN climate summit in Belém, said governments must now weave climate goals into everyday policymaking, bringing finance, infrastructure and transport ministers to the table alongside environment officials.
“We don’t need more negotiations. What we need is for governments to start taking action,” Corrêa do Lago told Reuters. “We need to completely change the way governments deal with climate change.”
The stakes are high. Moving away from fossil fuels and curbing deforestation are considered essential to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the goal set at the Paris climate talks in 2015. A UN report last month showed that target was increasingly out of reach, and oil-producing nations have been reluctant to embrace measures that could undermine a key source of revenue.
In Belém, Brazil sought to formalise an energy transition roadmap, building on the agreement by more than 100 countries at COP28 in Dubai in 2023 to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030. The plan won European support but failed to secure consensus after opposition from major oil-producing countries.
Under the roadmap, countries would spend the period to 2028 assessing their energy systems, strengthening regulations and institutions, and developing national transition plans ahead of the second Global Stocktake, the UN’s check on whether the world is on course to contain warming. By 2030, infrastructure upgrades and renewable energy investment should be under way, with a final phase between 2031 and 2033 focused on accelerating clean energy, replacing fossil fuels and consolidating cleaner systems.
Global renewable energy capacity reached a record 5,149 gigawatts at the end of 2025, up 692 gigawatts on the previous year, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. But Brazil’s roadmap notes that most recent growth has gone towards meeting new demand rather than replacing fossil fuel use.
“My opinion is that it doesn’t need to be negotiated again because that negotiation has already taken place,” Corrêa do Lago said. “It needs to be implemented.”
The forest roadmap faced a similar fate: a lack of consensus kept it out of the final COP30 agreement, reflecting persistent disagreements over how to pay for forest protection. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, annual funding for forests must rise from $84.5 billion in 2023 to more than $300 billion by 2030.
Most current funding comes from national governments, which account for 88.3% of forest finance, while international public funding stands at only 3.4%, placing much of the burden on the developing countries where most tropical forests are located.
Brazil has proposed a Tropical Forests Forever Facility that would use returns from a sovereign fund to provide ongoing payments to countries that preserve their forests. The initiative had secured $7.6 billion by the end of COP30, against a target of $10 billion, Corrêa do Lago said.
The roadmap also calls for expanding other funding routes, including stronger carbon markets, better direct access to finance for Indigenous peoples and local communities, and debt-relief instruments.
“Public financing from developed countries is absolutely essential,” Corrêa do Lago said. “But we have a much more sophisticated and diversified way of financing the various activities that would reduce deforestation.”
Attention now turns to COP31, due to get under way in Antalya in southern Turkey on 9 November. Its president, Turkish environment minister Murat Kurum, has said the agenda will also focus on implementation rather than new pledges, based on “dialogue, consensus and action”.
Sources: Reuters, “Brazil wraps up COP30 with fossil fuel, forest roadmaps, urging shift from talks to action”, 3 November 2026, https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/cop/brazil-wraps-up-cop30-with-fossil-fuel-forest-roadmaps-urging-shift-talks-action-2026-11-03/
