Summit’s final letter calls for COP30 to start new cycle of action
The president-designate of the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago, released his tenth and final letter to the international community on Sunday (Nov. 9), calling on countries to make the conference in Belém “a cycle of action” in tackling the global climate crisis.
In the document, released on the eve of the Conference of the Parties, he summarizes his previous letters and concludes by emphasizing that change must happen jointly.
“COP30 can mark the moment humanity begins anew, by restoring our alliance with the planet and across generations. We are privileged to have been destined the opportunity to make history as those who chose courage over omission to turn our climate fight around. We must embrace this privilege as a responsibility for the people we love, for the generations that came before us, and for those yet to come,” he wrote.
In the letter, he recalls the history of discussions on the climate crisis, which began with ECO92 in Rio de Janeiro. “In Belém, we honor that continuity: the capacity of our species to cooperate, to renew, and to act together in the face of uncertainty,” the text reads.
In his view, this is the time to implement an agenda for change focused on unity and cooperation.
“As we come close to COP30 negotiations, I have one major priority for Belém: to ensure that our amazing membership of almost 200 countries and cultures becomes more than negotiating groups and Parties to evolve into one cohesive team. A cohesive team capable of channeling to our work humanity’s collective intelligence and the best we can individually offer towards our shared purpose to protect our societies, economies and ecosystems,” he states in the document.
Corrêa do Lago summarized the previous letters, which outlined the key priorities for COP30 – strengthening multilateralism and the climate regime, connecting the climate regime to people’s real lives and the real economy, and accelerating the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
“With this tenth letter, I conclude a cycle of words so that the world may open a cycle of action. We are almost there,” Ambassador Corrêa do Lago said.
In the letter, he calls on nations and various actors to be “aware of the privilege and opportunity of converting negotiations from a forum of adversarial debate into a laboratory of solutions,” he added.
“But more than what we do and how we do it, we must have clarity of purpose, on why we are doing it. COP30 will be the COP of Truth. Either we decide to change by choice, together, or we will be imposed change by tragedy. We have a choice. We can change. But we must do it together,” the document says.
