COP30 sets up task force to bring decisions forward
The presidency of the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) announced on Monday (Nov. 17) that it has set up a task force of negotiators from participating countries to accelerate discussions and define a set of measures known as the Belém Package.
The idea is for the package to be approved in two stages: the first to be finalized for approval at Wednesday’s plenary session (Nov. 19), two days before the official closing of the conference; and the second to be completed on Friday (Nov. 21), the final day of the event.
The working methodology was communicated in a letter sent to the parties by COP30 President Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago during this decisive week of the event, when ministers from various foreign governments are in Belém with the political power to close possible agreements.
“Let us work side by side, in task force mode, to implement the Belém Package - quickly, fairly, and with respect for all. Let us pick up the pace, overcome divisions, and focus not on what separates us but on what unites us in purpose and humanity,” says the ambassador’s letter.
Belém Package
The items in the package that may have their decisions brought forward include the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), the work program on just transition, national adaptation plans, climate finance, the work program on mitigation, matters related to the Standing Committee on Finance, the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environment Facility, as well as guidance to the Loss and Damage Response Fund.
Also included in this first package are matters related to the Adaptation Fund, the Technology Implementation Program, and Article 13 of the Paris Agreement, which deals with transparency reports on climate actions.
“What the presidency proposed, and the parties accepted, is to try to conclude this first package of decisions by Wednesday night. And with that, we will show that multilateralism can deliver results even before the deadline,” said the director of the Climate Department at the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Liliam Chagas.
In addition to these items already consolidated in the COP30 Action Agenda, there is a set of four themes: the call for expanding climate goals - Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs); public financing from developed countries to developing countries; unilateral trade measures (such as tariff imposition); and biannual transparency reports.
The second package will address additional technical issues. In total, the COP30 Action Agenda includes around 145 items.
To make the task force viable, the COP30 presidency will request authorization from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to extend the conference’s working hours indefinitely.
“Each group will decide how much time it needs to advance the work in progress,” said Liliam Chagas.
“This idea arose from the atmosphere created during the first week, and the parties [countries] proposed it to the president, who said it would be possible. So, I repeat: this idea emerged from these conversations with the parties; it was not something we defined,” reinforced Corrêa do Lago, the president of the conference.
