From rhetoric to reality: Why COP30 must become a bank of actions

With climate impacts mounting, the summit's final days must deliver a credible finance plan, realistic transition pathways and stronger action-focused alliances

After nearly 10 days of intense negotiations, the message rings clear from the rooms in Belém: We are in the hard part of this Conference of Parties (COP). The opening rhetoric has faded, and the task now is to structure a response commensurate with the climate crisis unfolding outside these halls. The grim drumbeat of climate impacts provides the only true scorecard: Landslides from relentless rain have killed dozens in Indonesia and Vietnam; a powerful tornado has struck Portugal; and a new study in Nature reveals that in Mumbai, rain causes over 8 per cent of the deaths