Week two of COP30 opens with sharp divergences on finance, trade measures and equity principles.
Developing countries push for stronger recognition of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
Leaders warn that without urgent acceleration of climate action, the 1.5°C goal is slipping out of reach.
New text on the United Arab Emirates Just Transition Work Programme exposes widening rifts.
COP30 Presidency urges a mutirão push to finalise the Belém Package mid-week.
The 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Belem, Brazil, began November 10, 2025. Here’s a look at what happened on the fifth day of COP30. Also read the diary for November 10, November 11, November 12, November 13 and November 14.
Presidency consultations on Article 9.1 of the 2015 Paris Agreement, unilateral trade-restrictive measures (UTM), Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), and Biennial Transparency Reports (BTR) began this week, based on a summary note issued after week one. Many developing countries said the note downplayed common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities and urged stronger reflection of it.
On climate-linked trade-restrictive unilateral measures, the note offered five options: annual dialogues, continued discussions under response measures, roundtables, consultations with the UNFCCC before introducing such measures, or a platform to assess cross-border impacts. Most developing countries preferred annual dialogues, while the European Union opposed any process requiring reporting on domestic actions to address carbon leakage. As several Parties requested, the Presidency will prepare a revised text aiming for a mutirão decision.
The second week kicked off on November 17 with the COP30 High-Level Segment seeing world leaders and negotiating blocs delivering stark assessments of global climate progress, warning that without a decisive shift on finance, fossil fuel transition, and adaptation support, the 1.5°C limit will slip out of reach. Speaking amid record climate disasters and tightening carbon budgets, ministers urged unity and honesty as they called for urgent acceleration of action to match what the science and the global stocktake demand.
India will submit its revised NDCs through 2035 and its first BTR in line with Paris Agreement requirements, Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav announced at the COP30 High-Level Segment in Belém on November 17. The disclosure marks a significant step in India’s long-term climate planning. He called the region a “living symbol of our planet’s ecological wealth” and a fitting location for a COP that seeks to restore climate ambition, equity and multilateral trust.
The United Arab Emirates Just Transition Work Programme saw a new text shared by the co-facilitators. Parties doubled down on their positions instead of reaching common ground. Interestingly, new strands of divergence have widened. For example, Paraguay and Argentina stated that the word “gender” used in the draft text is not constitutionally accepted in their countries and that it has a different meaning according to the official Spanish dictionary. As a solution, they proposed replacing it with “equality between men and women”, however this was objected to by developed countries.
The COP30 Presidency called for a mutirão — a Brazilian tradition of collective mobilisation — urging countries to accelerate work towards sealing the long-awaited Belém Package within days. In a letter to negotiators on November 17, COP30 President André Aranha Corrêa do Lago appealed for unity, speed and political courage as talks move into a decisive phase.