Texas Impact Screenshot from the COP30 panel "Making Climate Data Accessible: Understanding the UNFCCC Transparency Framework and the BTR Synthesis Report."
Texas Impact | Nov. 21, 2025
At the time of writing, this is my ninth day of observing COP30 virtually from the comfort of my home. I have so many thoughts swirling around in my head, with snippets from different events and press conferences that I have watched. There have been so many eloquent and passionate speakers telling their stories both of positive actions and of the issues that must be addressed. Those stories include youth, women, Indigenous people and those from developing countries talking about the need for more financial assistance, whether for their own local projects or at the country level for mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, and just transitions. Some have mentioned problems of finding and accessing the funds that do exist, and others have spoken about the work that they have been able to do with the financing they have received.
I was intrigued by a story from an event I watched on transparency, but first, here is some background. Every five years, countries submit their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) saying what they are planning to do to reduce their national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change; the NDCs are due now. Every two years, countries submit a Biennial Transparency Report (BTR) assessing the actions they have taken to deliver on their climate commitments. The first round of BTRs were completed at the end of 2024 and 114 had been submitted by October 31, 2025. What happens to all that data? Those BTRs are compiled into a Synthesis Report, and all the data will shortly be available for anyone to analyze on a new Climate Data Hub. Among other uses, the hub will be a helpful tool for those looking to make investments. The Greenhouse Gas Data Interface has already been published.
Now, here is where it gets more interesting! An investigative journalist, Francisco Parra of Climate Tracker Latin America, told this story at an event about the BTRs. He looked at the BTR for Chile and discovered that in amongst the reported data about carbon captured by the forests, there were two years where the balance was off. The 2017 and 2023 data were different from the other years. Why? He realized that those two years were both years of extreme wildfires. The forest had stopped functioning and become a net source of emission. He wondered what the balance will look like in the future if this was to keep happening? This discovery led to the start of more conversations and resulted in some in-depth research about carbon risks in both Chile and Ecuador.
Parra went on to point out that the BTR data contains powerful stories and that the challenge is to find them. When told, these hidden stories can strengthen climate ambition and accountability.
Andres Sutt, the Minister of Energy and Environment of Estonia, spoke by video at an event on net zero finance. He talked about the green transition as the single biggest driver to prosperity, social security and justice, and how Estonia is treating it as an investment strategy. He concluded by saying that net zero is not a cliff to fall off but a ladder to climb up.
In a session about the Insurance Industry, Butch Bacani, from the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative, talked about climate and nature being two sides of the same coin. We need to reduce the use of fossil fuels and to reverse the damage we are doing to nature. He talked about doing no harm, and the role insurance companies can play by engaging with their corporate clients to ensure those clients’ businesses are nature positive.
So, I am left trying to connect the dots. What do we do with hidden stories and ladders and doing no harm? It sounds a lot like our faith journeys. We all know the importance of listening to stories, whether from the Bible, the saints of the past, or our neighbors and strangers—it is those personal testimonies that often move us and others to change and action. May we search them out and then truly listen, especially to the oceans, forests, land and animals; to youth and women; to Indigenous people and those in the global south; as well as to the voiceless hidden in the data. May we have the courage to climb the ladder or take the hard road towards a brighter net zero future. The first of John Wesley’s three general rules for a Christlike life is: “Do no harm.” May we learn from our Indigenous neighbors how to do no harm to God’s beautiful creation. And as we follow this roadmap, perhaps we and the world will one day discover that changed hearts can lead to ample finance.
The Rev. Joan Pell is a retired clergy member of the California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church. She serves, in a volunteer capacity, as their Conference Caretaker of God’s Creation Coordinator and as the Chair of the Conference Climate Justice Ministries Task Force. She also maintains the task force climate-cnumc.org website. This post is republished with permission from Texas Impact's COP30 Substack.