The United Nations climate summit, COP30, currently underway in Belém, Brazil, has become a vivid theater for both the urgency and the frustration that define today’s fight against climate change. As negotiators and activists from across the globe converge under the equatorial sun, the tension between slow-moving diplomacy and the pressing demands for real action has reached a boiling point, spilling out into both the negotiating halls and the streets.
On November 11, 2025, the simmering discontent at COP30 erupted when scores of protesters surged past security and briefly occupied parts of the summit’s negotiating area. Their rallying cry? An immediate end to mining and logging in the Amazon, a region central to both global biodiversity and climate regulation. According to Inside Climate News, the demonstration, which left two people with minor injuries and prompted a temporary closure of parts of the venue for cleanup and security checks, was organized in part by Juventude Kokama OJIK. The group posted a video on Instagram, declaring, “They created an ‘exclusive’ space within a territory that has ALWAYS been Indigenous, and this violates our dignity. The demonstration is to say that we will not accept being separated, limited, or prevented from circulating in our own land. The territory is ancestral, and the right to occupy this space is non-negotiable.”
While the talks resumed the following morning after investigations by the U.N. and local police, the incident laid bare a deeper, longstanding tension at the heart of the U.N. climate process. The people most affected by climate change—and those most urgently demanding change—often find themselves outside the gates, while those with the power to make decisions are bound by procedures that seem to move at a glacial pace.
This year’s negotiations have been especially fraught, with procedural deadlocks and sharp divides between developed and developing nations over public climate finance. According to a media advisory released on November 13, 2025, the COP30 Presidency managed to bypass some early procedural hurdles, launching consultations on flashpoints such as public finance (Article 9.1), unilateral trade measures, and the review of countries’ climate plans (known as NDCs). However, with consultations extended until Saturday, November 15, and deep divisions persisting, pressure is mounting for the summit’s leadership to chart a credible path forward—particularly on the issue of public finance, where developing countries are demanding that wealthy nations live up to their obligations.
The imbalance of power and resources between wealthy and poorer nations has become a recurring theme at COP gatherings. Danielle Falzon, a sociologist at Rutgers University who has studied the climate talks extensively, told Inside Climate News that the negotiations are dominated by well-staffed teams from rich countries, while smaller delegations from less-developed nations struggle to keep up. “Everyone is exhausted but people from smaller delegations are just trying to keep up,” she observed. “You can’t just pretend that all countries are equal in the negotiating space.” Falzon argued that the U.N. climate process, by design, values consensus and procedure over outcomes, leading to a cycle where new texts and work programs are produced year after year, but real climate action remains elusive.
“Much of what’s called success at COP now is the creation of new texts, new work programs, rather than real climate action,” Falzon said. After three decades of such meetings, she added, the pattern delivers new agendas, acronyms, and promises—yet rarely moves the needle on global emissions.
The language and rituals of the negotiations themselves have come under fire from experts who say they stifle urgency and creativity. Max Boykoff, a climate communications researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder, explained to Inside Climate News: “The problems associated with climate change were first framed as scientific issues all the way back in the 1980s, and that has become the dominant way we understand a changing climate. But that has crowded out other ways of knowing; emotional, experiential, aesthetic, or even just visceral ways of understanding that something’s not right.” Boykoff argued that the technocratic language of the UNFCCC meetings, with their focus on measurable outputs and deliverables, has become ritualized to the detriment of progress. “What we really need is to shake it up, to create spaces that let people reflect, feel, and engage in new ways. Because if we keep doing the same thing year after year, we shouldn’t expect different results.”
Despite the slow pace and underlying tensions, there are signs of momentum building at COP30 for more ambitious action—particularly on phasing out fossil fuels. A growing coalition of countries, including Colombia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the UK, Denmark, Germany, France, and Kenya, has rallied behind calls from Brazilian President Lula and Minister Marina Silva for a clear roadmap to phase out fossil fuels. The idea was spotlighted at the "Transition Away from Fossil Fuels" side event and is quickly gaining political weight, with expectations rising that it could become a central outcome of this year’s summit.
Romain Ioualalen, Global Policy Campaign Manager at Oil Change International, captured the mood of cautious optimism: “Despite slow progress and underlying tensions, we’re seeing a real opportunity emerge in the UN climate talks. Momentum is building for a fossil fuel phaseout roadmap that would show how countries can cooperate to deliver the equitable transition away from fossil fuels they promised in Dubai. For this roadmap to work and gain widespread support, it must tackle the systemic barriers preventing Global South countries from transitioning to renewable energy, especially finance. We need governments to rally behind this, and prove they’re serious about moving from commitment to implementation and deliver a roadmap for a fast, fair, and publicly funded fossil fuel phaseout, backed by clear and differentiated timelines, just transition policies, and debt-free finance for the Global South.”
Meanwhile, outside the negotiating rooms, civil society and Indigenous leaders continue to press for action. On November 13, peaceful protests denounced oil and gas expansion in the Amazon, while 79 NGOs sent a letter to Korean President Lee Jae Myung urging South Korea to join the Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETP), which has already reduced international public finance for fossil fuels by 78% among its 41 signatories. Inside the summit, workshops focused on advancing financial and fiscal incentives for a just and equitable transition away from fossil fuels, and the satirical "Fossil of the Day" award was handed out by Climate Action Network International to countries seen as obstructing progress.
Adding to the sense of urgency, Oil Change International released a report on November 13, tracking over 21 million tonnes of crude oil and refined fuels delivered to Israel from countries including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and the US. The report, titled "Behind the Barrel: An Update on the Origins of Israel’s Fuel Supply," was unveiled at a press conference at COP30, highlighting how global energy systems can fuel conflict and injustice as well as climate change.
As COP30 heads into its second week, the world watches to see whether negotiators can break free from the rituals of the past and deliver the bold action that the climate crisis demands. The stakes could hardly be higher, and the calls for justice, urgency, and real progress are echoing louder than ever through the halls of Belém.
