COP30 must “hit the accelerator,” urges UN’s Simon Stiell

There must be no delay in getting to the “hardest issues quickly” at this year’s climate change conference COP30, which kicked off in a hot and humid Belem on Monday, said Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change.

“We need to get straight to the hardest issues quickly. No delay. None of us can afford it. 

We’ve built the engine. Paris is working to take us forward. Now it’s time to hit the accelerator for people, prosperity, and the planet,” he said at an opening press conference.

Stiell said that we are now “bending the curve of planet heating emissions downwards – for the very first time,” adding that the new NDCs, including many received in recent days, will “reduce emissions by 12% in 2035. That’s a big deal.”

“Every fraction of a degree of heating avoided will save millions of lives and billions of dollars in climate damage,” he noted.

But he also cautioned that there’s “hard work ahead” at this COP and that the “stakes are high.”

UN Climate Change sent a letter to all COP30 parties and observers on Monday, updating the 2025 NDC Synthesis Report.    

The update shows projected emissions in 2035 now expected to decline 12%, based on 86 new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted by 113 parties this year.  A total of 22 of these 86 NDCs were submitted since the initial Synthesis report was published late last month.

Stiell confirmed that here is now an agenda agreed for this year’s COP, against a growing body of observers questioning the lack of agenda in the run-up to the conference starting.

“I’m encouraged that after a long night and the hard work of all of those involved, especially the Presidency, we have an agenda,” he said.

COP30 will run until at least November 21st this year, but often negotiations spill over by a few days.

(Writing by Sophie Davies)