As geopolitical divisions strain climate diplomacy, global cooperation should shift to a two-speed system, where new coalitions lead fast, practical action alongside the slower, consensus-based decision-making of the UN process, the COP30 president said.
In a letter published on Tuesday, Brazilian diplomat André Aranha Corrêa do Lago wrote that the world should not abandon climate multilateralism but allow it to “mature”. “Our climate regime has evolved from a machine into a living system,” he said, “and living systems do not survive through harmony alone, but through adaptation shaped by tension and feedback”.
At last November’s climate summit in the Amazon city of Belém, deeply-divided countries only managed to agree to limited voluntary plans for transitioning away from fossil fuels, and to boost adaptation finance for developing nations.
Corrêa do Lago conceded in his letter that COP30 “shed light” on the limitations of existing climate diplomacy, which requires all countries to agree unanimously on decisions, to keep pace with the urgency of the climate crisis.
Consensus has been “the golden key in the construction of the climate regime over three decades”, but it “is deliberative and slow by design”, he said.
But, as the focus shifts away from rule-making, the COP30 president said that climate action on the ground cannot wait for unanimity on every step.
For that reason, he suggested that formal negotiations should now sit alongside an “implementation” tier that would unlock “open coalitions” and enable “capable actors” to move faster by coordinating the rapid rollout of resources that are currently fragmented.
As governments failed to agree in Belém on formal processes to improve weak emission-cutting plans and to create roadmaps to phase out fossil fuels and end deforestation, the COP30 presidency launched a series of voluntary initiatives.
One of them – the ‘Global Implementation Accelerator’ – is meant to support countries in turning their latest national climate plans, submitted last year, into concrete action. This tool can serve as a “prototype for adding a new institutional speed to climate multilateralism” and “its success will be a litmus test” for the climate regime’s ability to shift gears, Corrêa do Lago wrote in his letter.
The Brazilian presidency has also promised to develop roadmaps to transition away from fossil fuels and end deforestation this year. Those voluntary initiatives fall outside the formal UN climate regime, but are expected to inform discussions at this year’s COP31 in Turkiye.
“Far from climate morality, these roadmaps are first and foremost about planning and stability,” the COP30 President wrote. “They are instruments for navigating inevitable energy, land-use, and financial transitions in ways that are just, orderly, and equitable”.
He added that they are meant to be “political and technical platforms” that can help countries, markets, and institutions adjust to a world in transition without disruption.
“Managed well, such planning can reduce systemic risk, protect balance sheets, and strengthen trust,” Corrêa do Lago wrote. “Managed poorly, the same transitions risk disorder, social fracture, volatility, and abrupt collapse in asset values”.
