Third Letter from the Presidency

Against a background in which climate urgency interacts with compounding geopolitical and socioeconomic challenges, the incoming COP30 Presidency hopes all delegations are guided by three interconnected priorities for SB62 and COP30: (1) To reinforce multilateralism and the climate change regime under the UNFCCC, (2) To connect the climate regime to people’s real lives, and (3) To accelerate the implementation of the Paris Agreement by stimulating action and structural adjustments across all institutions that can contribute to it.

The incoming COP30 Presidency is working to ensure that negotiations, the global mobilization, the Action Agenda and the Leaders' Summit each contribute to inaugurating a new era of putting into practice what we have agreed. The first Global Stocktake (GST) stands as our guide to Mission 1.5 and to our collective project around the vision of the Convention and the purpose and long-term goals of the Paris Agreement, in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty. All public and private stakeholders should work together towards the full implementation of the Paris Agreement by taking into account the findings of the GST. This includes the global calls for efforts towards halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation by 2030, and for accelerating the global energy transition. We must support one another to advance collectively on tripling renewable energy capacity globally, doubling the global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements, and transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly, and equitable manner.

Delivering on these interconnected goals will require more than commitment. It will require a shift in how we think and work together. Systems thinking — on which I focused in my last letter — holds the key for exponentiality in cooperation, for justice in transitions, and for sustainability in success. Like our politics, economies, societies — and the planet they are all embedded in —, negotiations entail an "ecology of perspectives," which is similarly vulnerable to risks of "tipping-points" and of irreparable damage to our decision-making process. We hope that the Global Mutirão can also lead negotiators to engage in care and repair towards our shared ecosystem under the process we have built together. We have the agency and responsibility to evolve from competition to symbiosis.

Calling negotiators to the global Mutirão

With the completion of the Paris Agreement "Rulebook" at COP29 and the multilateral policy cycle fully in motion, it will be essential from SB62 to COP30 to consolidate and expand the institutional and regulatory aquis that were collectively achieved under the UNFCCC.

In the run-up to SB62, the incoming Presidency is working closely with the COP29 Presidency and the SBs Chairs, and with the support of the UNFCCC secretariat, to ensure that SB62 delivers concrete results to be forwarded to COP30 for formal adoption, always safeguarding inclusiveness and transparency. This is the time we focus negotiations on healing and upgrading our process, rebuilding a global infrastructure of trust for accelerated and scaled outcomes.

The credibility of our multilateral process is in the hands of negotiators in Bonn.

We invite all negotiators to engage as co-builders of this global infrastructure of trust. By working together in a task-force mode, negotiators can ensure significant progress at SB 62 in June. Making progress in Bonn on issues that would otherwise be left for the COP can help our process avoid the risks and stresses that have been damaging mutual trust year by year. The incoming Presidency urges negotiators to shift gears in Bonn from possible moments of zero-sum confrontational approach to one of empathy and solidarity that will allow us to complement each other. In place of conflict and stalemate, mutual listening will enable leveraging diversity of perspectives for sophistication in both collaboration and results.

At SB62, we will seek early and constant involvement from Heads of Delegation (HoDs), starting with a "day zero" of informal conversation on the day before the official opening of the sessions. We invite HoDs to engage in constructive and substantive exchanges to help catalyze progress on outstanding negotiating issues. Special focus will be given to: (i) the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) indicators under the UAE–Belém Work Programme, (ii) the UAE Dialogue on implementing the GST outcomes, and (iii) the UAE Just Transition Work Programme (JTWP). Related plans on the "day zero" will be further communicated to Parties by the secretariat.

The true measure of success at SB62 will not lie in tactical maneuvering, but in our collective ability to communicate meaningful progress to the people we serve. The abstraction of our work must begin to resonate in lived experience. Legitimacy will follow from real-world relevance and delivery.

It would be highly displaced if the first formal negotiation space of the year - the SBs in June - gave way to procrastination and postponement of decisions. Failure to progress on agreed upon mandates at SB62 will further erode trust in the continued ability of multilateral process to deliver the outcomes mankind needs.

Outcomes fit for purpose

In view of climate urgency, it is essential that all negotiation tracks deliver outcomes that are fit-for-purpose with outcomes that connect climate ambition with people’s everyday realities. As a cross-cutting axe, the crucial interlinkage between climate and sustainable development should be addressed in all areas. Climate policy will only succeed if it encompasses socioeconomic change. Poverty eradication and alleviation, reduction of the inequality gap, within and among countries, equity and justice for the most vulnerable should underpin all work streams and negotiation tracks of the UNFCCC governing and subsidiary bodies.  All agendas matter when the future is at stake.

Indigenous Peoples and local communities are essential allies in the global response to climate change, drawing from generations of knowledge and stewardship of nature. As we approach COP30, the Brazilian Presidency underscores the importance of further strengthening their meaningful participation within the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform. We highlight the relevance of continuing efforts to broaden inclusive engagement of local communities across the Platform’s activities and related processes, in a manner that builds on past decisions and fosters inclusive climate governance to new heights.

A key area for our meeting in June, adaptation is the visible face of the global response to climate change and a central pillar for aligning climate action with sustainable development. In the spirit of taskforce and political will, we will focus on delivering tangible benefits for societies, ecosystems, and economies by advancing and concluding the key mandates in this agenda — particularly the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). There is a window of opportunity to define a robust framework to track collective progress on adaptation. This milestone will also lay the groundwork for the future of the adaptation agenda. At the same time, NAPs are evolving beyond the planning scope to become powerful tools for implementation and resource mobilization, embedding risk management, vulnerability reduction and adaptive capacities into global and local actions. We hope all countries will submit their NAPs before COP30 and use them as strategic roadmaps to build resilience in the years ahead.

Given that the adverse impacts of climate change are increasing in frequency and intensity worldwide, we must strengthen the institutionalization and interconnectedness among the three dimensions of loss and damage under the UNFCCC — the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism, the Santiago Network and the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage — whilst successfully concluding the review of the Warsaw International Mechanism.

The outcome of the first Global Stocktake gave the world a blueprint to course correct on the climate trajectory towards a 1.5 C aligned future, to a resilient scenario that will keep future generations safe. The UAE Dialogue on Implementing the GST Outcomes can provide a platform to foster cooperation and ambition. As we build upon the debate held in Baku, let us engage with a common purpose to launch the Dialogue and support global progress on all of the GST’s urgent calls, in particular those due in this critical decade.

Another outstanding issue in our multilateral conversations that must be progressed this year is the Just Transition Work Programme, a dynamic concept of paramount relevance to people´s real lives.  Let´s build on the discussions from COP29 and demonstrate ambition to agree on the scope and focus for this powerful concept.

The growing calls from political leaders around the world to strengthen multilateralism will soon be put to the test at SB 62. The incoming Presidency urges all delegates, constituencies, observers, civil society, academics and scientists, to join forces and prepare the groundwork for bold and meaningful decisions on all tracks.  Although only some of them are mentioned in this letter, let me be clear that all mandates are relevant and all substantive items under discussion are important for COP30: Climate Finance; Sharm el-Sheik Mitigation Ambition and Implementation Work Programme; Transparency; Gender Action Plan; Response Measures; Technology Implementation Programme, Capacity Building; Action for Climate Empowerment; and Arrangements for Intergovernmental Meetings. Enhancing the capacities of the UNFCCC secretariat by providing the means to operate at an optimal level is also a common responsibility of all Parties.

The COPs we want

Acknowledging ongoing calls for COPs reform, the incoming Presidency invites all Parties to consider the future of the process itself. As we move from a negotiation-centered to an implementation-centered era, Parties can intensify at SB62 the consideration of approaches and initiatives to "increase the efficiency of the process towards enhancing ambition and implementation". Under the guidance of the SBI Chair, this ongoing work can address longstanding challenges, including the excessive number of provisional agenda items for COPs and SBs, overlapping themes, scheduling constraints, and barriers that prevent the effective participation of smaller delegations, all of which also place strain on the Secretariat’s capacity.

While these issues remain under consideration, it is advisable to avoid introducing potentially contentious new agenda items that could further burden the process or detract from agreed priorities.

Looking ahead, future COPs can represent a new generation of climate conferences: not as isolated diplomatic events, but as systemic platforms to accelerate delivery, measure progress, and engage a broader ecosystem of actors. They must be designed as convergence points - where ambition meets alignment, and global decisions ignite local transformations.

Responding to climate urgency, COP30 can be that pivot point - the moment we move beyond the boundaries of the status quo and step boldly into a future defined by delivery, solidarity and shared purpose. Together.

André Aranha Correa do Lago
COP30 President Designate