COP30 may have ended with a fizzle but brought new hope for Brazil, Latin America

Forest deal, regional wins help Latam salvage victories from global inaction

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Members of the COP30 Presidency and the UNFCCC Secretariat consult on the dais during the closing plenary Saturday. Photo: UN Climate Change/Kiara Worth.

(Michael Molinski is a senior economist at Trendline Economics. He’s worked for Fidelity, Charles Schwab and Wells Fargo, and previously as a foreign correspondent and editor for Bloomberg News and MarketWatch.)

BELEM, Brazil (Callaway Climate Insights) — COP30 ended with a fizzle rather than with the concrete, far-reaching agreement to save the Amazon rainforest and the world from climate change — which was Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s goal and that of many others.

In the end, COP30 ended with a watered-down, compromise climate deal that didn’t even mention fossil fuels, the biggest drivers of climate change.

Brazil’s flagship investment fund, the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), raised a paltry $7.7 billion, well below the $25 billion target.

And trade, which became a more hotly contested topic at Belém than it had been at other climate change conferences, was pushed out of the agenda and relegated to future discussions.

COP30 was billed as a significant opportunity for Latin America to lead in climate change negotiations. Did it do that?