Tenth Letter from the Presidency

This is my 10th and final letter to the international community as President Designate of the 30th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 

We are almost there. 

Almost there – as we prepare to open COP30 together in Belém. 

Almost there – as the Paris Agreement’s rulebook is complete and its policy cycle in motion, ready for accelerated implementation. 

Almost there – as global ambition finally bends the curve of emissions and the climate transition becomes an irreversible trend. 

But “almost” is not enough. We must go faster – to reach every country, every community, every member of our human family before more severe climate impacts do. 

Belém: A meeting point in space and time

During COP30, Brazil will temporarily move its capital from Brasília to Belém – anchoring global decision-making at the mouth of the Amazon and reminding the world that climate leadership must flow from its roots. In doing so, Brazil invites all nations to shift not only the place of negotiation, but the locus of hope – from the summit of power to the source of life. 

At COP30, member States will be coming back to Brazil where the Convention was first open to signature 33 years ago. Brazil is ready to welcome you. I am ready to serve you. 

It was in 1992 that the world first agreed, by consensus, to begin this common journey. In Belém, we honor that continuity: the capacity of our species to cooperate, to renew, and to act together in the face of uncertainty. This is the moment to honor our ancestry – in lineage and in international law. At COP30, our ambition must be to address gaps by implementing unity and cooperation.

As we come close to COP30 negotiations, I have one major priority for Belém: to ensure that our amazing membership of almost 200 countries and cultures becomes more than negotiating groups and Parties to evolve into one cohesive team. A cohesive team capable of channeling to our work humanity’s collective intelligence and the best we can individually offer towards our shared purpose to protect our societies, economies and ecosystems. 

This work is greater than ourselves. This work is greater than now. 

As we come close to the opening of COP30, I invite Party and non-Party stakeholders to take a moment to contemplate the significance of what awaits us in the coming days. Our process is evolving from a machinery to an ecosystem, from bureaucracy to transformation, from debate to mobilization: to the Global Mutirão. 

For over thirty years of climate negotiations, we have depended on consensus for climate action. We invite Parties to view the Mutirão as an experiment in which we cooperate first seeking solutions together as way to build trust and create spaces of consensus. I invite Parties to come to Belém with curiosity, aware of the privilege and opportunity of converting negotiationsfrom a forum of adversarial debate into a laboratory of solutions gathering brilliant minds from all peoples of the Earth.

10 letters towards 10 November

In my first letter, I invited the international community to join Brazil in a Global Mutirão against climate change, a global effort of cooperation among peoples for the progress of humanity, as we begin a new era of putting into practice what we have agreed. 

In my second letter, we moved from vision towards action, launching the Global Mutirão through four Circles of Leadership, Special Envoys, High-Level Champion and Youth Champion, together with a call on science and ancestral wisdom to help us upgrade cooperation towards exponentiality in solutions and versatility before the unpredictable. 

In my third letter, I called negotiators to join the Global Mutirão, by working together in a task-force mode towards significant progress on adaptation, just transitions, and the implementation of the first Global Stocktake, while rebuilding trust for accelerated and scaled outcomes. 

In my fourth letter, I unveiled the COP30 Action Agenda as a solutions-based agenda to accelerate climate implementation through thirty key objectives identified under six axes reflecting the breadth and depth of action required to implement the GST outcomes and deliver on the Paris Agreement fast, everywhere, and for all. 

In my fifth letter, I invited the international community to ensure climate action begins and ends with people, making of COP30 a ritual of passage to mark and soberly celebrate our transition towards a more promising and prosperous future, as we recognize the courage and leadership of those on the frontlines of climate change, especially the most vulnerable. 

In my sixth letter, I launched early “COP30 Presidency Consultations” and urged Parties to demonstrate commitment to multilateralism and to the climate regime with new NDCs as a national determination to contribute to the Paris Agreement.

In my seventh letter, I called on all business leaders to be part of the movement of the Global Mutirão, noting that those who anticipate the radical changes ahead will be the ones who prosper by building resilience and tapping into the opportunities the transition offers. 

In my eight letter, I invited Parties and non-Parties stakeholders to make of COP30 a turning point on adaptation, by enhancing ambition, action, and finance, elevating resilience at all levels, and leveraging international cooperation to drive the next step in human evolution. 

In my ninth letter, I called on all actors to use COP30 as a collection of responses to the world’s implementation and ambition gaps, all aimed at solidarity, international cooperation, and accelerated implementation as our new measure of ambition in response to climate urgency. 

With this tenth letter, I conclude a cycle of words so that the world may open a cycle of action. We are almost there. 

Where the river meets the ocean: Where humanity begins anew

Throughout nine letters, I invited Parties and non-Parties to use the negotiations, the Action Agenda, the Leaders’ Summit, and an unprecedented process of global mobilization towards three interconnected priorities: (1) reinforcing multilateralism and the climate change regime, (2) connecting the climate regime to people’s real lives and to the real economy, and (3) accelerating the implementation of the Paris Agreement beyond the UNFCCC. 

But more than what we do and how we do it, we must have clarity of purpose, on why we are doing it. COP30 will be the COP of Truth. Either we decide to change by choice, together, or we will be imposed change by tragedy. 

We have a choice. We can change. But we must do it together. 

COP30 can mark the moment humanity begins anew, by restoring our alliance with the planet and across generations. We are privileged to have been destined the opportunity to make history as those who chose courage over omission to turn our climate fight around. We must embrace this privilege as a responsibility for the people we love, for the generations that came before us, and for those yet to come. 

Changing by choice, together.

André Aranha Corrêa do Lago 
COP30 President Designate