The Brazilian Presidency of COP30 has presented the 2025 conference as the “COP of implementation.” But what does it actually mean to implement the Paris Agreement and turn international commitments into concrete results? This is the central question of the new policy brief COP30: Addressing Implementation, launched in September by international experts.
Authored by Céline Kauffmann and Marta Torres Gunfaus from IDDRI, Maiara Folly, Executive Director of Plataforma CIPÓ, Simon Sharpe from S-Curve Economics, and independent expert Paul Watkinson, the document analyzes the multiple dimensions of implementing the international climate regime and offers practical recommendations to the COP30 Presidency and the global community.
According to the authors, it is time to shift the focus of negotiations: instead of multiplying new pledges, COP should concentrate on identifying and removing the barriers that prevent the realization of what has already been agreed. The policy brief stresses the need to strengthen existing mechanisms under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, including reforming the so-called Action Agenda, so that it ceases to be merely a space for registering commitments and instead effectively supports implementation.
It also highlights the role of international forums outside the climate regime—such as financial institutions and multilateral trade bodies—whose actions directly impact countries’ ability to advance the energy and productive transition.
Another key point emphasized is that implementation ultimately happens on the ground. This means that subnational governments, parliamentarians, and citizens need to have a voice in decision-making processes and receive support to transform international guidelines into concrete policies. The text argues that expanding transparency, fostering peer learning among countries, and creating mechanisms for independent advice are essential steps to accelerate climate action.
By proposing this shift in perspective, the policy brief argues that COP30 should inaugurate a new phase of the climate regime: one less centered on negotiating future pledges and more focused on orchestrating, enabling, and accelerating the delivery of existing commitments.
Photo: Amazon Summit, in Belém (PA), in 2023. — Ricardo Stuckert/Presidency of the Republic
