COP30: Challenges and Progress

The 2025 Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP) takes place against a generally dispiriting backdrop for climate action globally. Earlier in the year, President Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement for a second time (White House, 2025). The almost total absence of the US from the COP talks will deprive it of diplomatic energy, substantive expertise, and above all money — until this year, the United States was a major contributor to global climate finance and the largest single national contributor with 6 billion USD in pledges, though it might be of note that only 2 billion USD has been disbursed, while the other 4 billion USD has recently been cancelled by the Trump administration (Gabbatiss, 2025; Mathiesen, 2025). China, for its part, announced a commitment to reduce emissions 7–10% below peak levels — a target widely criticized as insufficient by analysts who note that China's emissions are still expected to grow in several industrial sectors and that the pledge falls short of a clear absolute emissions cap. Still, it marks the first time China has committed to specific, short-term emissions reductions of any magnitude (Hu, 2025; Poynting & McGrath, 2025; RELEASE, 2025; You, 2025). It is perhaps unsurprising that COP30 has struggled to reach agreement on a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels as hoped.

Even so, COP30 has made important strides in two linked areas. One is better linking the climate and biodiversity policy agendas. Though interrelated, the latter is the focus of a separate international environmental agreement, the Convention on Biological Diversity, which runs its own COP process. COP30 includes an effort made to link climate and biodiversity protection commitments. It also includes a high-level discussion on better linking the COPs for climate, biodiversity, and desertification — the subject of a third international environmental agreement, the Convention to Combat Desertification. All three were outcomes of the 1992 Earth Summit, so it makes great sense to integrate them. This may not be the brightest year for climate action, but if you squint, you can still see the outlines of progress on tackling the world's ecological crises.

References

Gabbatiss, J. (2025, November 14). Analysis: Seven charts showing how the $100bn climate-finance goal was met. Carbon Brief. 

Hu, M. (2025, November 13). China’s climate pledge breaks new ground. World Economic Forum. 

Mathiesen, K. (2025, February 5). Trump rescinds $4B in US pledges for UN climate fund. POLITICO. 

Poynting, M., & McGrath, M. (2025, September 24). China makes landmark pledge to cut its climate emissions. BBC.

RELEASE: China’s new target unlikely to drive down emissions. (2025, September 25). Climate Action Tracker. 

You, X. (2025). China pledges to cut emissions by 2035: What does that mean for the climate? Nature, 646(8084), 266–267.