COP30 Belém was dubbed as the “implementation COP”, after years of negotiations on the Paris Agreement rules and amidst mounting climate change impacts worldwide. While it kept the global climate process alive at a time of strained multilateralism, it fell short of implementation expectations. Limited ambition from major emitters, geopolitical tensions, and disputes over trade slowed formal negotiations among countries. The lack of reference to a fossil fuels transition in the final decision – the Global Mutirão – was widely seen as anachronistic, at best and underscored the disconnect between growing political support and negotiated outcomes. It also marked a departure from the strong signals agreed by countries at the first Global Stocktake, and played a major role in preventing agreement on how to close the gap between pledges and what science demands.
Key transport-relevant advances, across negotiated outcomes and voluntary multi-actor agreements include:
- Global Implementation Accelerator and Belem Mission to 1.5 as voluntary initiatives to accelerate the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs)
- Pledge by 11 countries – Chile, Brazil, Honduras, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Slovenia, Costa Rica and Austria – for a global effort of reducing energy demand from transport and shifting to renewables by 2035
- Forthcoming Roadmap to Transition Away from Fossil Fuels, to be led by Brazil outside the UNFCCC process, and First International Conference on the Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels, to be hosted by Colombia and The Netherlands
- Agreement on a new Just Transition Mechanism to be established to move beyond dialogues towards implementation
- Call for, at least, tripling finance for adaptation in developing countries
- Announcement of a two-year work programme on climate finance to continue the dialogue path towards USD 1.3 trillion
- Announcement of several Plans to Accelerate Solutions in the transport sector, part of the new Action Agenda
- First-ever Transport Pavilion in a COP Blue Zone, which put down a transport marker in the COP space
