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COP Resource Hub

Welcome to the SDSN’s Guide to COP30

The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s (SDSN) COP30 Resource Hub is your trusted guide for navigating and preparing for the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Designed to empower stakeholders across all sectors, this Hub offers essential guidance, tools, and resources to help the SDSN Community effectively engage in the COP meeting, learn about the key issues, and drive meaningful climate action.

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What is COP?

The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the supreme governing body of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC COP, or the UN Climate Conference, reviews national commitments and emissions inventories submitted by Member States. It assesses the measures taken to address climate change and evaluates progress toward the Convention's goals, including the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

The Climate COP convenes annually, with its first meeting held in Berlin, Germany, in 1995. The venue and Presidency rotate among five recognized UN regions. In 2024, the UNFCCC COP29 was held on November 11-22 in Baku, Azerbaijan. COP30 will convene on November 10-21, 2025, in Belém, Brazil.

COP30 marks the first UN Climate Conference ever held in the Amazon Rainforest, one of the planet’s most critical and fragile ecosystems. The Amazon plays a central role in regulating the Earth's climate, yet it faces increasing threats and is nearing an irreversible tipping point. By gathering in Belém, negotiators will be at the very center of the global climate crisis. COP30 President, Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago, has urged participants to join a “Global Mutirão” against climate change — “a global effort of cooperation among peoples for the progress of humanity.”

Calls for Action

For the upcoming COP30, the SDSN is mobilizing its network around the following priorities. We call on leaders to:

  • Conserve and advance sustainable development in tropical forests: The SDSN is advocating for science and evidence-based solutions, integrating Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities' knowledge for conservation and sustainable development across the tropical forest regions in the Amazon, Congo Basin, and Borneo.
  • Scale-up climate finance: The SDSN is working to identify novel mechanisms and funding sources to support the $1.3 trillion agreed for climate mitigation and adaptation in developing countries.
  • Strengthen national and regional climate action: The SDSN is mobilizing national and regional networks to support ambitious, actionable, and integrated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and their implementation.
  • Accelerate a just energy transition: The SDSN is advancing the UN Secretary-General’s goal to triple renewable energy capacity and double energy efficiency by encouraging multinational cooperation.

COP30 will be a pivotal test of global commitment — where pledges to protect tropical forests, scale climate finance, strengthen NDCs, and accelerate a just energy transition must translate into measurable action. The decisions made in Belém will shape climate and development pathways well beyond 2030, making this moment critical for turning ambition into reality.

Key Issues at COP30

Learn more about the key, cross-cutting issues and critical outcomes at COP30.

Tropical Forests

Tropical forests are indispensable to meeting the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. They act as vast carbon sinks, regulate essential hydrological cycles, and sustain some of the planet’s richest biodiversity. They also underpin the livelihoods of more than 1.6 billion people, including 70 million Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities.

Yet these ecosystems are under acute threat from accelerating deforestation, degradation, and environmental crime. In the first Global Stocktake (COP28, 2023), countries for the first time jointly recognized the urgent need to end deforestation and forest degradation by 2030.

Taking place in the heart of the Amazon, COP30 has the opportunity to place tropical forests at the center of the global climate agenda. The COP Presidency has called for “investments to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation, and efforts to conserve, protect, and restore nature and ecosystems.” Negotiations will cover the proposed Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF), the role of carbon markets under Article 6, and strategies for safeguarding global biodiversity.

The SDSN supports this mission by promoting science-based policymaking, connecting innovation with Indigenous and Local Knowledge, and fostering collaboration across key forest regions through the Science Panels for the Amazon, Congo Basin, and Borneo. Together, these efforts can secure the future of tropical forests as a cornerstone of climate stability, biodiversity, and human well-being.

Climate Finance

At the close of COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan — dubbed “The Finance COP” — negotiators established a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), through which developed countries pledged $300 billion per year. This new target replaces the previous $100 billion goal but remains far below the $1.3 trillion annually by 2035 agreed to under the Paris Agreement.

At COP30, the Brazilian Presidency has placed climate finance at the center of its agenda. It has included finance as a core priority in the COP30 Action Agenda and launched the COP30 Circle of Finance Ministers to support the “Baku to Belém Roadmap to USD $1.3 Trillion.”

The SDSN is actively working to identify innovative financing mechanisms and funding sources to help meet the $1.3 trillion goal for climate mitigation and adaptation in developing countries. Meanwhile, negotiators and observers at COP30 and other global forums — including the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development — are focused on scaling financial instruments and mobilizing capital to meet the NCQG and bridge the climate finance gap.

National & Regional Climate Action

COP30 will be a landmark moment for climate action. Ten years after the Paris Agreement, countries must submit updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) with 2035 targets and revised 2030 goals. While the February deadline has passed, most — including major emitters such as China, the EU, and other G20 members — are expected to deliver these “NDC30.0” plans before September. These will be the first commitments since the 2023 Global Stocktake, which called for greater ambition, alignment with the 1.5°C limit, and whole-of-government strategies across critical sectors such as food systems, agriculture, and infrastructure.

At COP30, the Brazilian Presidency intends to complete the Paris “rulebook,” focus on implementing existing pledges, advance new finance goals, and build on COP29 progress in carbon markets. Key priorities include implementing the COP28 fossil-fuel phase-out, launching a Global Ethical Stocktake to embed accountability in climate action, and strengthening global climate governance.

In the lead-up, momentum will build through the UNFCCC Climate Week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; the AU-hosted African Climate Summit 2; Climate Weeks in London, New York, and Bangkok; pre-COP talks in Brasília; and a Local Leaders Forum in Rio. The next months are critical to mobilizing the national-level action needed to meet climate goals.

Just Energy Transition

In July 2025, UN Secretary‑General António Guterres declared that “the fossil fuel age is flailing and failing,” marking what he called “the dawn of a new energy era.” COP30 offers a crucial opportunity to turn this vision into a just and equitable reality.

Following the first Global Stocktake's call for transformative energy shifts, negotiations at COP30 will center on accelerating the global energy transition—tripling renewable energy capacity, doubling energy efficiency improvement rates by 2030, and transitioning from fossil fuels in a sustainable way.

Financing this transition remains vital, especially for emerging markets and developing economies working to modernize grids, expand storage, and adopt renewable technologies. Additionally, with countries submitting their second round of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), COP30 is a key moment to align national climate strategies with the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals, ensuring global progress toward a low-carbon, resilient future.

SDSN Events

Information forthcoming.

Related Resources

Throughout COP30, the SDSN will release a series of complementary publications on critical topics, from grid resilience in Brazil and biodiversity across three tropical forest biomes, to SDG financing and the vital role of youth in climate action.

Explore the SDSN’s expanding library of courses, publications, and news related to COP30 — and stay tuned for more resources to come.

Related SDSN Programs

SDSN Courses & Tools

Related SDSN Publications

SDG Monitoring, Accountability, and Data Innovation

Tropical Forests

Climate & Energy

Food & Land-Use

Related SDSN News

Press Inquiries

Contact our global Communications Team to request an interview with one of our program experts. Subscribe to the SDSN Global Newsletter and follow the SDSN on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, and Bluesky for additional updates on COP and other programmatic activities.

Tara Everton

Communications Manager

tara.everton@unsdsn.org

Daniel Bernstein

Special Assistant and Program Associate, Science Panel for the Amazon and Climate and Energy Program

daniel.bernstein@unsdsn.org