Faith leaders at COP30 call for fair climate finance for developing countries. (Photo Courtesy of Texas Impact)
Special to United Methodist Insight | Nov. 19, 2025
COP30 began last week in Belém, Brazil. The location, chosen by the host country, reflects the importance of the Amazon, its rainforests, and its Indigenous peoples to the government and the economy of Brazil. At this year’s COP30, convened by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), there have been both good things to report as well as bad things.
Among the good are that representation by Indigenous peoples globally has increased significantly from previous COPs. This is good because their voices have been underrepresented previously while the impacts of climate change affect them disproportionately. Through peaceful protests as well as participation on numerous panel discussions, they have brought attention to their grievances while making their voices heard.
Among the bad are the growing numbers of fossil fuel lobbyists who have been admitted to the conference. This number has grown significantly over the past five years, to the point that their presence is becoming counterproductive. The presence of these industry voices has become an unwelcome and negative influence on the real mission of the COP, i.e. to combat climate change. This is an issue that the United Nations must address going forward. Fossil fuel lobbyists have no reason to be in a position of influence at a climate conference. It’s akin to the fox guarding the henhouse.
An additional bad that must be addressed is the host country naming a city to host the COP that does not have the proper infrastructure. As numerous commentators have written, the temporary structures that the meetings are being held in do not have adequate lighting (windows), are leaking badly (see the post on water from Regina Banks), and don’t even have directional signs on the interior of the buildings. Future COPs must be held in cities with established convention facilities that can handle crowds of over 50,000 people.
As you have read in previous blog posts from Laura Baumgartner, Nate Wieland, and Joan Pell, issues of justice have been among those discussed widely. The voices speaking on behalf of gender justice, healthcare justice, and economic justice among others, help us understand that these justice issues are not stand-alone issues. Rather, they are part of the intersection between climate justice and all other forms of injustice to which we must add migration justice and racial justice. Having all these voices speak to the various forms that injustice affects climate justice is extremely important as we put climate justice in its proper context.
Much more is to be accomplished if COP30 is to live up to its goal of implementing the Paris Accords of 10 years ago. We are making progress, and temperature rise has been slowed, but it continues to rise. This is in no small part due to the tremendous growth of renewable energy resources that have provided over 90% of new grid capacity globally in the past year. We need a just transition to renewable energy, less not more fossil fuel consumption, and financial commitment from the global north to the global south for meaningful infrastructure changes.
And all of this has been accomplished without any national governmental presence on the part of the United States. We the only signatory to the Paris Accords not in attendance. Isolation from the rest of the world will not solve our own climate crisis. However, the silver lining to our absence is that the negotiators don’t have to deal with our denial and negativity this year. And there are over one hundred local, state, and congressional lawmakers present. This is where the action in the United States is going to be taking place—at the local and state levels.
Mel Caraway
The Rev. Mel Caraway serves on the coordinating team of UMC Creation Justice Movement. (Courtesy photo)
Rev. Mel Caraway is a retired clergy member of the former North Texas Conference (now Horizon Texas) of the United Methodist Church. In retirement he is active in climate justice advocacy.