COP30 Presidency Issues Ninth Letter: a Call for Acceleration, Cooperation, and Courage as the World Heads to Belém

Framed by the urgency of science and the legacy of the Paris Agreement, the letter invites all actors to help turn global climate gaps into levers for transformation

With the opening of COP30 just days away, Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago, COP30 President-Designate, today, 8/11, released his ninth open letter to the international community, urging governments, institutions, and global stakeholders to respond to the climate crisis with determined action and shared purpose. The letter is a call to embrace this moment in history as the beginning of a global breakthrough.

Framed by the urgency of science and the legacy of the Paris Agreement, the letter invites all actors to help turn global climate gaps into levers for transformation. Drawing from the latest reports - including the Global Tipping Points Report, UNEP’s Emissions Gap and Adaptation Gap Reports, and the UNFCCC NDC Synthesis - the letter acknowledges the scale of challenges ahead and the tools to respond as the global community gathers in Belém.

“The challenge ahead is not only to identify what is missing but to mobilize what can move - to turn deficits in ambition, finance and technology into forces of acceleration,” writes Ambassador Corrêa do Lago.

The letter reaffirms that the Paris Agreement is working. Following the completion of its Rulebook at COP29, COP30 will be the first COP where the full policy cycle of the Paris Agreement is in motion. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), Biennial Transparency Reports (BTRs), and the Enhanced Transparency Framework are now active instruments of global climate governance.

The letter also reiterates the three interconnected priorities that guide the Brazilian Presidency’s vision for COP30: (1) Reinforcing multilateralism and the climate regime under the UNFCCC; (2) Connecting the climate regime to people’s real lives and the real economy, and (3) Accelerating the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

At the heart of this vision is a shift in how ambition is defined. The Presidency makes a clear appeal: accelerated implementation must become the new measure of ambition. From clean energy to forest restoration, from methane mitigation to digital infrastructure, the world must scale action with speed and equity.

These solutions are being advanced across the negotiation agenda, the Action Agenda, the Leaders’ Summit, and the Global Mutirão. The Action Agenda, structured around six thematic axes, will operate as a living ecosystem of implementation, linking initiatives and actors across geographies and sectors to help trigger positive tipping points. From finance to forests, from energy to entrepreneurship, Belém will offer a platform not for competition but for convergence—where local and global efforts reinforce one another.

The Presidency also emphasizes the Amazon as both context and catalyst. With deforestation declining for the third consecutive year in Brazil, and new financial mechanisms like the Tropical Forests Forever Fund being launched, the letter highlights that protecting ecosystems and people must go hand-in-hand.

“In Belém, truth must meet transformation, and science must become solidarity,” writes Ambassador Corrêa do Lago. “We can turn our climate fight from breakdown to breakthrough. COP30 can be the COP we turn around our climate fight.”