2. Invest in renewable energy and resilient infrastructure
Increase renewable energy share, sign Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs)—long-term contracts to procure renewable energy from producers—improve energy efficiency, and make logistics less dependent on fossil fuels.
Ten years after the signing of the Paris Agreement, COP30 Brazil opens in Belém, in the heart of the Amazon, amid a climate of growing disillusionment. The Conference of the Parties (COP), once a symbol of global cooperation to address the climate crisis, takes place today in a context of geopolitical instability and a public increasingly tired of hearing about climate without seeing concrete solutions.
Greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, conflicts and economic crises multiply, anti-green political movements slow down the implementation of the European Union’s Green Deal, and public attention to climate issues declines, compressed by political polarisation.
In this context, COPs are no longer perceived as the “turning point moments” they once represented. This is why the 2025 Climate Conference is being described as the Conference of Truth: a meeting that requires clarity and responsibility, because the time for postponing decisions has run out.
A decade after the Paris Agreement: where do we really stand?
In 2015, with the Paris Agreement, 195 countries agreed on a historic objective:
to keep global temperature rise “well below 2°C” and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
To achieve this, the agreement defined four central pillars:
-
Progressive reduction of emissions through updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) every five years.
-
Global decarbonisation in the second half of the century, reaching a balance between emissions and removals.
-
Transparency and reporting to monitor national progress.
-
Climate finance, committing developed countries to mobilise at least USD 100 billion per year to support vulnerable nations during their transition.
Ten years later, however, the gap between objectives and reality is undeniable.
According to the UNEP Emissions Gap Report 2025, even if all current NDCs were fully implemented, global warming would still reach 2.3–2.5°C by the end of the century.
Under current policies, the expected increase is around 2.8°C.
Compared to 2015, progress has been made, mainly thanks to the energy transition, the growth of renewable energy, and technological innovation, but the world remains off track. Scientists estimate that to stay aligned with the Paris objectives, global CO₂e emissions would need to be reduced by:
-
35% by 2035 to stay below 2°C
-
55% by 2035 to stay below 1.5°C
No major economy is currently on such a trajectory, particularly after the announcement of the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, a step that weakens global climate governance and the credibility of international commitments.
“A temporary overshoot of 1.5°C is now inevitable,” said António Guterres, UN Secretary-General. “But this is not a reason to give up, it is a reason to accelerate.”
Why COP30 is different from previous editions
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva opened COP30 Brazil with a clear message:
“It is time to face reality.”
He defined this edition as “the COP of Truth”, urging countries to adopt a global roadmap to end dependence on fossil fuels and triple renewable energy capacity by 2030.
Belém, however, represents more than a symbol: it is the first COP ever organised in the Amazon, a region where climate change, weak governance, and illegal economies intersect daily.
The Amazon: a global biodiversity hotspot and a centre of illegal economies
Choosing Belém as the host city of COP30 Brazil is not a symbolic gesture alone. The Amazon is one of the world’s most crucial and most threatened ecosystems. It is a vast biodiversity reservoir, a key regulator of the water cycle, and a stabilising pillar for the global climate.
Yet in recent years, it has also become an area under intense pressure from illegal economies that threaten natural capital and local and Indigenous communities.
The region has seen significant growth in:
- Illegal mining of gold, coltan, and rare earths, often linked to massive deforestation, mercury contamination, and territorial conflicts (CEDIB et al., 2024; UNODC, 2023; Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, 2024).
- Drug trafficking and transnational criminal networks, using remote areas as illegal production zones and logistical corridors (UNODC, 2023; World Resources Institute, 2025)
- Illegal land grabbing, stripping land from local communities and fuelling unregulated activities (WRI, 2025; Mongbay, 2025)
- Pressure from poorly regulated agribusiness supply chains, contributing to primary forest loss (Mongbay, 2025)
Protecting the Amazon also means protecting market conditions and the security of global supply chains, especially in the agrifood, energy, mining, and logistics sectors.
This makes COP30 Brazil inevitably intertwined with issues of legality, governance, and long-term sustainable economic development, not only environmental concerns.
What COP30 Brazil means for corporate sustainability
Once the COP ends, what will matter most will not be the negotiated documents.
What will truly shape the next decade are the choices, or non-choices, made by governments and companies, which must translate climate objectives into concrete action.
If we had to summarise the most realistic priorities for the coming years, they are five:
1. Decarbonise industrial strategy: Reduce consumption, electrify processes, redesign supply chains. A climate objective, but also a competitive and economic advantage.
2. Invest in renewable energy and resilient infrastructure: Increase renewable energy share, sign Power Purchase Agreement (PPAs) or long-term contracts to procure renewable energy from producers, improve energy efficiency, and make logistics less dependent on fossil fuels.
3. Integrate nature into corporate risk management: Adopt a dual approach: understand how climate events and ecosystems affect the company (outside-in) and how business activities impact land, water, and biodiversity (inside-out); and invest in nature restoration projects.
4. Strengthen governance and transparency: Align with CSRD, SBTi targets, ESRS, VSME, and improve reporting for investors and stakeholders.
5. Build culture and internal competencies: Continuous training, staff engagement, and supply chain collaboration to enable a shared transition.
After COP30: the time for choices
COP30 will not deliver immediate solutions. But it can offer clarity: where we truly stand, what responsibilities we share, and how many opportunities are already within reach for those ready to move.
In a fragmented world, the climate can no longer be treated as a topic to postpone year after year. We need long-term vision, continuity, and the ability to build stable pathways beyond political cycles.
This is where companies come in.
Regardless of negotiation outcomes, COP30 sends one clear message: the transition will not wait for politics. Reducing emissions, investing in renewable energy, strengthening governance and transparency, building resilience, and protecting supply chains is no longer just sustainability, it is strategy, competitiveness, and credibility.
COP30 Belém reminds us that every tenth of a degree avoided matters. Every decision can generate risk or value. And this is where companies have space to act: transforming a complex context into an opportunity to rethink business models, develop more responsible products, and build deeper relationships with the territories they operate in.
The time for postponing is over, but the time to build, together, is still ahead of us.