At the Bonn Climate Conference, countries clashed over a new COP30 roadmap to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030.
Rainforest nations demanded predictable payments for conserving forests.
Developed countries pushed regulation, market integrity and transparency.
Key questions on finance, definitions and accountability unresolved.
During the closing plenary of COP30 in Belem, Brazil, the COP30 Presidency unveiled a roadmap to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030. It is not a binding treaty, and it is not a negotiated outcome under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Rather, it is a structured process that countries are expected to use to align their national strategies, financing plans, and monitoring systems in the lead-up to 2030.
The roadmap got its first moment in an official multilateral platform at the 64th session of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Bodies (SB64) in Bonn, Germany, where the COP30 Presidency convened a dedicated event on June 9. The session drew interventions from rainforest nations, developed countries, and civil society; however, their positions differed considerably. Notably, the representation of developing countries at the event seemed inadequate.
Countries like Guyana and Suriname, which hold vast tropical forests compared to the total geographical area and have historically low rates of deforestation, essentially argued that the global economy currently rewards deforestation and hinders forest conservation. Countries that have expanded agriculture at the expense of forests continue to attract capital, while those that have kept their forests standing receive comparatively little.
Guyana's intervention demanded that the roadmap include dedicated financial mechanisms, specifically predictable, sovereign-level payments for countries that have already done the work of conservation. The Coalition for Rainforest Nations echoed this, calling for scaled-up results-based finance and better use of existing tools such as REDD+ and Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
The European Union took a different position. Its intervention centred on supply chains and the EU Deforestation Regulation, which restricts the import of six commodities linked to deforestation. The EU also called for redirecting agricultural subsidies away from high-deforestation practices and pushed for binding land-use targets backed by strong governance and reporting.
Switzerland also focused on increased accountability and documentation, which its delegation argued must be built on the bedrock of the Paris Agreement's Enhanced Transparency Framework. It raised specific concerns about carbon credit integrity, the risk of double counting emission reductions, and the need for universally accepted definitions of what constitutes forest degradation. The point about harmonising definitions on degradation is often the most polarising due to the local context in which ecosystems are utilised and sustained.
France grounded its strategy on market-based mechanisms and highlighted the role of biodiversity credits as emerging financial instruments that value forests as ecosystems rather than purely as carbon stocks, and called for blended finance structures to mobilise private capital at scale.
Civil society groups pressed countries and the COP30 presidency on how the roadmap plans to ensure that payments reach indigenous peoples and local communities, who are the active stewards of most of the world's tropical forests. Historically, less than one per cent of climate-related official development assistance has reached these communities directly.
The roadmap, as per the panelists, aims to support the design of national fund architectures that can channel payments directly to communities, with legal land tenure rights embedded in the mechanism. Whether this translates into practice, rather than being absorbed by national bureaucracies, was left as an open question.
The discussions in Bonn demonstrated that the core tensions remain familiar. The question of finance, definitions of forest degradation, and accountability remain unresolved. The COP30 Presidency has indicated that the roadmap process will continue through the coming months, with the expectation that country positions will sharpen before COP31. Whether that results in convergence or deeper disagreement will become clearer as the year progresses.