As COP30 in Belém, Brazil drew to a close, Remco Fischer, Head of Climate for UNEP FI, and members of UNEP FI’s Latin America and Caribbean-based team reflected on key outcomes from the climate negotiations, Brazil’s leadership, and private sector engagement on climate change these past two weeks—and have set out some of the implications for the global finance sector.

“COP30 showed that climate cooperation is alive and kicking, keeping humanity in the fight for a liveable planet, with a firm resolve to keep 1.5°C within reach”, said Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in his closing remarks.

Dozens of UNEP FI members gathered in São Paulo and Belém demonstrating strong public-private sector collaboration—banks, investors, and insurance leaders continue to make progress on institutional changes to help deliver net zero and build climate resilience. UNEP FI’s work is part of a groundswell of actors proving that addressing climate change is a core economic and financial proposition—actions made even more urgent with the negotiations acknowledging the likelihood of “overshoot” of 1.5°C for the first time.

Private finance in the negotiations: UNEP FI is supporting the mobilization of private climate finance

The Global Mutirão—one key text within the Belém Package agreed to by all 195 participating countries—widely acknowledged that “the Paris Agreement is working,” but it needs to do more, and fast. According to the 2025 NDC Synthesis Report, Paris has bent the emissions curve, with a 12% reduction by 2035 compared to 2019 levels that is attributable to NDCs, but the risk of “overshoot” was formally acknowledged for the first time. Countries agreed “to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C, to limit both the magnitude and duration of overshooting, and to close the adaptation gaps.”

The countries also acknowledged the Baku-to-Belém Roadmap to USD 1.3T, a framework developed with the COP29 Presidency to increase climate finance flows to at least USD 1.3 trillion per year by 2035, emphasizing public-private mobilization and enhanced access for developing countries. Specifically, ministers articulated five action areas for both public and private sector roles in scaling financing to developing countries (“5Rs”): replenishment, rebalancing, rechanneling, revamping, reshaping. In support of the Roadmap, UNEP FI and partners in the Transformational Finance for Climate Group shared a new position paper presenting key action and encouraging public and private actors to work together to reorient and mobilize financial flows, scaling high-quality, just, inclusive, and long-term finance using a systems-level approach.

Countries also agreed to a new sub-target within the already-established New Collective Quantified Goal for the amount of climate finance to be provided to developing countries for adaptation: a tripling of adaptation finance by 2035, with an implied baseline of the now-expired USD 40 billion by 2025 goal agreed to in Glasgow in 2021. As Ethiopia is designated as the COP32 Presidency for 2027—the first Least Developed Country to serve as COP host—the finance sector can expect continued calls for refinement of their roles in building climate resilience.

When it comes to adaptation, UNEP FI is supporting financial institutions through a suite of initiatives: Principles for Responsible Banking, Adaptation and Resilience Investors Collaborative (ARIC), and Risk Centre tools and resources for banks and other financial institutions, its Communities of Practice across Latin and South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia. UNEP FI also unveiled the Investors’ Resilience Challenge, which aims to create an industry standard for investments in adaptation and resilience to help scale finance and leverage partnerships between public and private financial institutions.

The COP30 Global Sustainable Insurance Summit demonstrated how insurers are integrating sustainability across underwriting and investment portfolios to manage risks, seize opportunities and strengthen resilience. Principles for Responsible Banking members emphasized progress on decarbonization in real estate and agriculture, transition planning, and resilience while welcoming two new members. 

Setting the pace: private sector calls for public leadership on climate

UNEP FI led the Plan to Accelerate Action on Transition Planning under Brazil’s Action Agenda and launched the Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) Transition Plan Guidance for Banks. UNEP FI members gathered in Belém emphasized that the public sector must uphold their end of the Paris Agreement bargain through strong NDCs, continued decarbonization, and the policy regulatory frameworks that can accelerate private investment opportunities.

The Global Mutirão highlights that many countries are doing just that; 122 countries submitted their updated NDCs and many strengthened theirs by including financial plans—one of UNEP FI’s core recommendations ahead of COP30. The decision “invites countries to develop implementation and investment plans for their nationally determined contributions and to align their nationally determined contributions with their broader economic development strategies and plans.” While critics point to the fact that the decision positioned NDC implementation outside of the formal UN negotiation process, the private sector can watch both the Global Implementation Accelerator and the Belém Mission to 1.5 as follow-on processes to accelerate their implementation.

We also saw a strong emphasis on harmonization and interoperability of sustainable finance taxonomies to enable cross-border climate finance flows—as encompassed by the Brazilian government’s “Super Taxonomy” agenda at COP30, and the country’s own newly established, highly interoperable sustainable finance taxonomy, developed with technical support from UNEP FI and partners. UNEP FI and partners in the Taxonomy Roadmap Initiative also released the Principles for Taxonomy Interoperability and the Sustainable Finance Taxonomy Mapper.

UNEP FI is also supporting the policy environment through the Taskforce on Net Zero Policy, which issued a landmark report on net-zero policy progress, gaps and suggested best practice for governments, companies, and financial institutions. Insurance leaders were also well represented at COP30 and one of the main discussion points was how to link underwriting and investment portfolios, showing that insurers, reinsurers, and brokers can develop and disclose credible, enterprise-wide transitions, as outlined in a report released by the Forum for Insurance Transition (FIT).

Key enablers to reach climate goals

Nature, trade, and just transition also featured significantly within this year’s negotiations. With some calling COP30 the people’s COP, many of the discussions did reflect that climate crisis is also a social crisis, and its solution must necessarily place people at the centre. UNEP FI issued its Financing Just Transition in Latin America and Caribbean Report, providing guidance to banks and insurers in LAC on their role in promoting a just transition, focused on key elements of just transition integration, emerging practices, and examples from the region.

On nature, the Global Mutirão acknowledges biodiversity loss as central to addressing climate change. The Brazil-led Tropical Forest Forever Facility was among the largest non-negotiated deliverables, which attracted USD 5.5 billion from Norway, Denmark, Brazil, Indonesia, Germany, France, and Portugal. Outside of negotiations, key outcomes included the development of the nature equivalent of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, and the announcement that the ISSB will undertake standard-setting to introduce incremental disclosure requirements on nature-related risks and opportunities through the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). UNEP FI is also advancing ways for the circular economy to support climate goals.

COP30 supported the focus on trade and its role in the economic transition started by the COP29 Presidency by establishing the Baku Initiative for Climate Finance, Investment, and Trade (BICFIT) together with UNCTAD, UNDP, WTO, and ITC. For the first time, the negotiated text included a three-year work programme on unilateral climate-related trade measures.

Since its establishment at COP28 in Dubai, the Net-Zero Export Credit Agencies Alliance (NZECA) has been working on supporting export credit agencies and export-impact banks globally in making practical steps to align official trade support with climate goals. On the Trade and Finance Day at COP30, NZECA published its first Progress Report and kicked off its series of technical papers on GHG accounting for the export credit sector.

Looking ahead

Amidst audible calls for reform of the COP process, including from within the UN itself, the outcome text celebrated the legacy and successes of Paris, Kyoto, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, while firmly planting the Paris Agreement in its nascent “implementation phase.” The Brazil Presidency has set the stage for what an “Implementation COP” can be, with big expectations for how Turkey and Australia can take the agenda forward next year at COP31. One thing is certain; there is plenty of action and opportunity for the finance sector to mobilize private finance towards investments that accelerate the transition to support greener and more resilient communities and economies.

Read more on UNEP FI engagement at and outcomes from COP30: