Three Decades of COP: The Road to Belém

Excerpt from Island Innovation:

International mobilisation and new governance models: these are two of the key actionable developments the COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago has outlined in his latest letter detailing his vision for the upcoming climate summit in Belém. Three decades of UNFCCC Climate COPs have yielded various landmark moments, including the Paris Agreement and the Loss & Damage Fund. Still, the underlying narrative at each of these conferences has been one of disappointment, as COP outcomes fail to meet the demands of vulnerable countries, as well as the actions called for by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

More often than not, negotiations end with developing countries dealing with the impacts of the climate crisis pitted against a lack of ambition displayed by major emitters and developed countries to tackle that same crisis. “Climate change restricts our development progress. Much of our national debt is a climate debt, that is, debt undertaken to rebuild bridges and roads that are washed away by extreme weather events,” Deputy Prime Minister of Fiji Biman Prasad expressed in an open letter, illustrating the gap between developed and developing economies. “The insidious nature of loss and damage in the Pacific is evident across the different island contexts and cultures.”

Read full article here