COP30 concluded in Belém, Brazil, with Parties adopting a negotiated set of decisions presented by the UNFCCC as the Belém Political Package. In his closing remarks, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell stressed that countries maintained cooperation and a shared resolve to keep the 1.5°C goal within reach.
The Belém Political Package is not one single “grand bargain.” It is a structured bundle of decisions adopted across the COP, the Paris Agreement’s CMA, and related bodies, published together with draft texts that evolved during the second week. Considered as a whole, the package strengthens the practical infrastructure of climate action: how progress is tracked, how finance institutions are guided, and how work programmes are organized to support delivery.
Adaptation: finance direction and shared indicators
Adaptation was one of the clearest areas of progress. The COP30 Presidency communicated that the Belém package includes a commitment to triple adaptation finance by 2035, emphasizing scaled support for developing countries. Conference reporting often discussed this alongside a level of roughly USD 120 billion per year for adaptation finance, signaling the intent to expand resources for resilience across systems such as water, health, food, and infrastructure.
Parties also approved 59 voluntary global indicators for the Global Goal on Adaptation—commonly referred to as the Belém Adaptation Indicators. The practical value is a more consistent language for describing resilience progress across different contexts. Over time, this can help connect national plans and priorities to finance and implementation and support clearer monitoring of whether adaptation efforts are reaching the communities and systems most exposed to climate risk. It also provides a base for more comparable assessments in future stocktake dialogues.
Transparency and reporting: reinforcing the information backbone
COP30 advanced decisions connected to the Paris Agreement’s transparency framework. The UNFCCC outcomes list includes items on reporting and reviewing pursuant to Article 13, including work related to synthesis of biennial transparency reports and decisions on financial and technical support for developing country Parties for reporting and capacity-building. Stronger reporting systems help track whether policies deliver results, enable better targeting of assistance, and improve confidence that resources are being used effectively across regions and sectors.
Work programmes and the Paris implementation cycle
Several elements of the Belém package reinforce the Paris “policy cycle,” where national planning, reporting, and collective assessment are meant to iterate over time. The adopted texts include items relating to the global stocktake process—covering procedural and logistical elements, annual dialogues, and finance-related dialogues on implementing global stocktake outcomes. COP30 also continued structured work on mitigation through the Sharm el-Sheikh mitigation ambition and implementation work programme.
Finance governance: guidance to funds and institutional continuity
A substantial share of COP outcomes concerns the governance of climate finance. The Belém package includes decisions on matters relating to the Standing Committee on Finance, as well as guidance to the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environment Facility. It also includes guidance to the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage and decisions related to the Adaptation Fund. These decisions shape priorities, procedures, and expectations across the finance ecosystem: what information is requested, what programming directions are emphasized, and how oversight and reporting are organized. Over time, such guidance influences which investments are prepared and financed, and how balance is struck across mitigation, adaptation, and response to impacts.
Just transition: a more operational work programme
The package includes decisions related to the United Arab Emirates just transition work programme. The core value is operational: transition involves workforce, communities, and institutional capacity, not only technology substitution. A structured work programme supports technical assistance, capacity building, and knowledge exchange so that countries can draw on shared experience when designing policies in sectors such as energy, industry, and land use.
Trade and climate: a formal space for a growing interface
The Belém Political Package reflects work on international cooperation and on concerns related to climate-change-related trade-restrictive unilateral measures. In practice, this acknowledges that climate action increasingly interacts with trade through standards, disclosures, and supply-chain expectations. A formal track for discussion can support clearer coordination and reduce uncertainty for economies and firms operating across jurisdictions.
Forests and nature: scaling longer-term finance through TFFF
Belém also highlighted initiatives aimed at more durable forest finance. A flagship example is the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF), launched during the COP30 period and described as a mechanism to provide long-term, predictable financing for countries that protect and sustainably manage tropical forests. The COP30 Presidency reported that 53 countries endorsed the launch declaration and that over USD 5.5 billion was announced around the launch.
The significance of this initiative lies in its time horizon. Forest stewardship requires stable incentives and governance that can persist beyond short cycles. TFFF’s concept materials describe it as a permanent facility intended to support long-term conservation. If implemented with robust monitoring and clear benefit-sharing arrangements, longer-duration structures can improve planning horizons and complement other approaches to reducing forest loss.
Cross-cutting enablers: technology and gender
The UNFCCC outcomes list also includes decisions on technology development and transfer through a technology implementation programme, and decisions on gender and climate change, including a Belém gender action plan. These elements support implementation by strengthening capacity and participation, and by helping move solutions from commitments to deployment.
What COP30 leaves behind
Taken together, COP30’s outcomes emphasize implementation: stronger direction on adaptation finance; an agreed set of adaptation indicators; continued strengthening of transparency support; guidance and continuity for major climate finance institutions; and momentum for longer-term approaches to forest finance. The year ahead will be shaped by follow-through—turning these decisions into programmes, investments, and measurable outcomes.
