The 30th UN Climate Conference (COP30) concluded on Saturday, November 22, 2025, in the Amazon with an empty deal that does not halt deforestation, phase out fossil fuels, or deliver climate finance at scale, according to the Centre for International Environmental Law (CIEL).
As the first climate negotiations to take place after the historic climate ruling by the International Court of Justice, COP30 laid bare a growing accountability gap between governments’ commitments and their legal obligations.
The COP30 deal offers the clearest recognition yet by the UN climate talks that states must uphold human rights in their climate action, but that acknowledgment is not matched by the ambition the moment demands. The lack of decisive progress at COP30 does not change the reality that States have clear legal obligations and are held accountable by people and by the courts.
As several denunciations of the compromised package in the final plenary made clear: business-as-usual negotiations are no longer an option: urgent solutions are needed to break the deadlocks that are blocking this process from delivering and to drive collective action towards a fast, fair, and funded fossil fuel phaseout and a just transition.
As the talks deadlocked on finance and fossil fuels, progress came from outside the negotiating rooms: A block of 24 countries resolved to work outside the UNFCCC to phase out oil, gas, and coal. Colombia and the Netherlands will co-host the First International Conference on Fossil Fuel Phaseout in April 2026, an initiative also endorsed by the Brazilian Presidency at the closing plenary. Separately, 18 States have expressed support for a Fossil Fuel Treaty, a binding mechanism to accelerate a just transition and a managed phaseout of oil, gas, and coal, also outside the UNFCCC.
In Belém, at what was alternately dubbed the “People’s COP,” the “COP of truth” and the “Implementation COP,” thousands of Indigenous Peoples, forest communities, and civil society groups confronted governments with undeniable climate reality and irrefutable climate solutions, demanding concrete action in line with science and the law: a fast and just transition to a fossil-free future, an end to deforestation, finance at the scale needed to meet the crisis, and reparations for climate harm.
“This is an empty deal. COP30 provides a stark reminder that the answers to the climate crisis do not lie inside the climate talks – they lie with the people and movements leading the way toward a just, equitable, fossil-free future. The science is settled, and the law is clear: we must keep fossil fuels in the ground and make polluters pay. While the country’s most responsible for pushing the planet to the brink point fingers, dig in their heels, and tighten their purse strings, the world burns. However big polluters may try to insulate themselves from responsibility or edit out the science, it does not place them above the law.
“That’s why governments committed to tackling the crisis at its source are uniting to move forward outside the UNFCCC – under the leadership of Colombia and Pacific Island states – to phase out fossil fuels rapidly, equitably, and in line with 1.5°C. The international conference on fossil fuel phaseout in Colombia next April is the first stop on the path to a livable future. A Fossil Fuel Treaty is the roadmap the world needs and leaders failed to deliver in Belem,” said Nikki Reisch, CIEL’s Director of Climate & Energy Programme.
“The truth at COP30, dubbed the ‘COP of Truth,’ is that countries are failing their legal duties. The International Court of Justice confirmed that keeping the temperature rise to below 1.5 °C is a legal benchmark. It’s not a slogan or words on paper, but a necessity for billions, and failure is measured in lives.
“Without a commitment to a full and equitable fossil fuel phaseout and adequate public climate finance, this COP30 deal disregards the law. Petrostates and industry lobbyists use the consensus rule to block action and ambition. We now need to reform the UNFCCC so the global majority can act, starting with conflict-of-interest rules and allowing majority voting,” said Erika Lennon, CIEL Senior Attorney.
“Multilateralism remains our best hope for a livable future – but it must prove it can move: decisions that phase out fossil fuels, protect human rights, and finance a just transition – free of corporate capture. When consensus becomes veto, we need rules that let the global majority act. That’s how multilateralism demonstrates impact – and changes outcomes,” said Rebecca Brown, CIEL’s President and CEO.
“At COP30, people on the front lines of the climate crisis were once again overlooked. The talks failed to provide a real plan to close the ambition and accountability gaps and offered no meaningful response to the fact that the world is not meeting its legal duty to limit warming to 1.5°C – as devastating climate impacts continue mounting. While the International Court of Justice recently affirmed that the people and communities facing that harm have a right to reparations, no steps were taken in Belém to scale up public finance for loss and damage, let alone to respect this right.
“As the climate crisis is escalating, those responsible – big polluters – need to be held accountable, and should pay up. Eyes now turn to the UN General Assembly, where a resolution spearheaded by Vanuatu will address the implementation of the Court’s findings,” said Lien Vandamme, CIEL Senior Campaigner Human Rights and Climate Change.
“COP30 witnessed a record number of lobbyists from the fossil fuel industry and carbon capture sector. With 531 Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) lobbyists – surpassing the delegations of 62 nations – and over 1,600 fossil fuel lobbyists making up one in every 25 attendees, these industries deeply infiltrated the talks, pushing dangerous distractions like CCS and geoengineering. Yet, this unprecedented corporate capture has met fiercer resistance than ever with people and progressive governments – with science and law on their side – demanding a climate process that protects people and planet over profit,” said Lili Fuhr, CIEL’s Fossil Economy Director.
“The International Court of Justice (ICJ) set the legal benchmark; people set the moral one. What matters now is action that centers what frontline communities have called on for decades: phase out fossil fuels. The ICJ ruling outlined clearly that limiting fossil fuel production, consumption, licensing, and subsidisation is necessary to protect the climate system.
“The most important outcome of COP30 came outside the process, with Colombia and the Netherlands co-hosting the first diplomatic conference on fossil fuel phaseout next year – a complementary initiative also endorsed by the Brazilian Presidency at the closing plenary. The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty – now backed by 18 countries, led by Pacific states – remains the clearest path to a fast, fair, fully funded transition,” said Johanna Gusman, CIEL Senior Attorney.
“Despite States’ attempt to weaken gender equality, the long-overdue recognition of environmental human rights defenders within the UNFCCC process marks an essential step forward, which was finally achieved through the fights led by women, in all their diversity. Defenders are on the frontlines of climate action, even when fear, repression, or exclusion keep many of them from entering the negotiating rooms.
“This has been painfully evident at COP30, where Indigenous Peoples protesting for their rights faced the restrictions of a space that continues to shrink. The protection of environmental defenders is a legal obligation grounded in international law, stronger than any fragile political outcome and any restrictions of this COP and the one to come,” said Camilla Pollera, Human Rights and Climate Change Program Associate.