'We shouldn't wait for the COP to start implementing commitments', says COP30 executive director

Ana Toni joined a debate organized by the Chatham House think tank during a trip to London last week. The conference’s CEO emphasized the urgency of accelerating action to tackle climate change

COPs are not silver bullets, and implementation cannot wait for the UN climate conference, said COP30 CEO Ana Toni this week in London, UK, during a debate organized by the Chatham House think tank. She called for the issue to be addressed comprehensively across different levels and forums to accelerate climate action. 

“We shouldn't wait for a COP to start implementation. We need to start doing many things now so that COPs become moments of exchange and accountability for what everyone is doing in their country,” she said. “The idea of going from COP to COP, year to year, hoping that the conferences will be silver bullets for the transition is no longer valid.”

Climate Leaders Summit should be important moments for deliberation and accountability, Ana Toni noted, but accelerating climate action is key to limiting the global temperature increase to 1.5° C above pre-industrial levels—the threshold to avoid catastrophe. To achieve this, she added, it is essential to increase momentum and ensure the involvement of all relevant actors, including sub-national governments, the private sector, and civil society.

Beyond environment and climate ministers leading COPs, she argued that finance, agriculture, transport, and energy ministers, among others, should also be central to the debate. The discussion, she said, must take place across multiple forums:

“The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the COPs are the pillars that keep us moving forward, but we need to go beyond the Paris Agreement to have this conversation. Instead of bringing debates to the COPs, climate discussions should reach them,” she stated.

The Director joined UK Special Envoy for Climate Change Rachel Kyte on the opening panel of the Chatham House meeting on climate and energy issues. She stressed the need for cross-cutting action:

"Climate is everything, and everything is climate. It’s about how we transform our health systems, our education systems, how we protect people, and how we anticipate migration flows,” Kyte said.

Representatives also highlighted the successes of the Paris Agreement, which will mark its 10th anniversary in 2025 and whose rulebook was finalized at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Before the historic 2015 agreement, the world was on track for nearly 5 °C of warming by the century’s end.

"Imagine if we hadn't had Paris. We were heading towards almost 5 ºC when we signed the agreement. Now we are heading towards 2.7 ºC, 2.8 ºC. It's not enough, of course, but Paris makes a big difference in what we're doing now," said Ana Toni.

Negotiations ahead of COP30

During her London visit, COP30 Executive Director and Brasil's Ambassador to the UK, Antonio Patriota, met with the UK Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Miliband. They discussed key issues for the Leaders’ Summit, including adaptation financing, nature conservation, and the roadmap to mobilize USD 1.3 trillion in climate finance by 2035.

Ana Toni also met with representatives of the financial sector and civil society and held bilateral meetings with Kyte and Ruth Davis, the UK government's Special Envoy for Nature, among others.

English version: Trad. Bárbara Menezes