Credit: UN Climate Change
Climate multilateralism is delivering real progress, even if still not yet quickly enough. Recent COPs have each delivered concrete outcomes – taking major global steps forward. Through UN-convened cooperation and national efforts, projected global temperature rise has been brought down from up to 5°C, which no economy or society could survive. We are now headed for around 3°C, which shows how far we've come, and also the work that still lies ahead.
Increasingly, the real economy is aligning with the goals of the Paris Agreement, even if still unevenly. Last year, global clean energy investment topped USD 2 trillion. Nearly 90% of new power capacity added was renewable, with momentum rising across almost all major economies, though much more work is needed to ensure the vast economic and human benefits of the clean energy transition are spread equitably across all nations.
Recent data shows renewable energy became the largest individual source of energy generation in the first half of 2025, surpassing coal after nearly 50 years. And a recent open letter by CEOs with over USD 4 trillion in annual revenue pointed out their businesses cut emissions by 12% while also growing revenues by 20% over the same period, showing that climate action is increasingly good for business bottom lines.
Adaptation solutions, too, are advancing, with their transformative potential becoming clearer, and efforts to scale and replicate are rising. Again, more and better climate finance is increasingly essential.
And just last month, the Climate Summit convened by UN Secretary-General António Guterres and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil during the UN General Assembly showed nations re-affirming their full commitment to climate multilateralism, and announcing new national climate plans, targets and other concrete steps to boost their climate actions and ambitions.
Yet climate disasters are still outpacing our efforts to contain climate change. Every economy is feeling the impacts more acutely each year and paying a much higher economic and human price each year. We must pick up the pace.
This month, we will release three reports on National Adaptation Plans, Nationally Determined Contributions and Biennial Transparency Reports, that will shed light on where progress is happening and where more acceleration is still needed. More information, including the release dates of each of these reports, is contained in this update below.
I encourage Parties that have not yet submitted their new NDCs to do so before COP 30, so that delegates have a more complete picture as they go about their crucial work in Belém.
The Baku to Belém Roadmap from the COP29 and COP 30 Presidencies will also be vital, including to show how scaling climate finance up to USD 1.3 trillion annually will happen.
Looking ahead, COP 30 needs to deliver on several fronts.
COP 30 must respond clearly and strongly to what the latest data and science is saying about progress made and where acceleration is most needed. It must show climate multilateralism continues to deliver, with strong outcomes across all negotiations.
It must spur faster and wider implementation, across all sectors and economies leaving no one behind. That means delivering for the most vulnerable in all regions, especially emerging and developing countries.
It must connect climate actions more directly to real lives everywhere, showing that bold climate action means better jobs, higher living standards, cleaner air, healthier lives, more secure food, affordable clean energy and transport. Together we must work to spread these vast benefits to far more people, in all parts of the world.
The secretariat will be with you every step of the way.
Simon Stiell
Executive Secretary, UN Climate Change
