COP30 – Everything You Need To Know!

COP30 will take place in Belém, Brazil, from 10-21 November 2025. But what is a COP meeting? What will be discussed at it and why is it so important?

COP stands for Conference of Parties and it’s a meeting that takes place in a different location each year where countries come together to come up with solutions and make solid commitments to address climate change. The meeting is attended by countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). he UNFCCC was an agreement made in 1992 when countries came together and agreed that they would avoid any behaviours that could lead to “dangerous climate change”.

This year will be the 30th COP event and will take place at the mouth of the Amazon, one of our natural global lungs, in Belém, Brazil. The poignant location highlights the importance of protecting what’s on our doorstep, while also seeing the impact of doing the opposite. COP 30 is really about action and implementation rather than talking about what is going on

Those in attendance at COP30 include world leaders, scientists, activists, negotiators, diplomats, Indigenous Peoples and other affected communities. 

COP30 takes place at a pivotal time. In recent days the United Nations’ Environment Programme announced that the world has failed to meet its main climate change target of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius from the 2015 Paris Agreement, and will likely breach this threshold in the next decade.

In other words, this COP could not be more important in terms of urgency and the need for bold, coordinated action. Climate science experts report that by 2100 the world is on course to be 2.8°C above pre-industrial levels. This will have a devastating impact on billions of people and ecosystems.

At last year’s COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, states and parties agreed on a new annual climate finance target of USD 300 billion by 2035, which is meant to help lower income countries respond and adapt to the effects of climate change. In addition to providing USD 300 billion, they also agreed to “mobilize” USD 1.3 trillion.

States and parties also signed up to submit their own national climate plans or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) by February 2025. However, only 69 countries have submitted their NDC to date and 128 are still yet to submit a plan.

After an initial review of the NDCs that have come in, the UN’s top climate official said emissions are only on track to fall by 10% by 2035 – way below the 60% deemed necessary to have a chance of keeping warming to 1.5 degrees.

Ireland’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are part of the European Union’s climate action plan. This action plan outlines commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to climate change and provide support for these actions. The EU, and therefore Ireland, aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, It also aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. The updated targets and legislation will align with the new EU 2030 goal of at least 55% reduction in emissions.

This COP will be important for Ireland ahead of next year’s COP31, which will coincide with Ireland’s presidency of the EU Council. That will mean that Ireland will be heading up the EU’s side of negotiations at COP31.