News & Media

Press Release: COP30 delivers a long-sought victory for a Just Transition; falls short on adaptation and fossil fuel phaseout.

Press Contact: 

Sriram Madhusoodanan, smadhusoodanan@usclimatenetwork.org, +1 857 413 6428

Dr. Ife Kilimanjaro, ikilimanjaro@usclimatenetwork.org, +1 202 240 8410 
 

USCAN Closing Analysis:

Belém, Brazil – November 19, 2025 – Despite the notable and historic absence of the United States from COP30, a host of Global North countries attempted to block justice across the board at COP30. In the face of these obstacles, a growing global movement secured critical outcomes on the Just Transition Work Programme, including a coordination mechanism that puts human rights and people's lives at the center of a global transition off fossil fuels. This outcome also includes ambitious language that will protect those on the frontlines of the transition and strong language on finance.

Sadly on a number of other critical negotiating tracks, COP30 fell short of the full justice package the world so desperately needs:

• On the Global Goal on Adaptation - A weak final text which fails to meet the needs of Global South countries struggling to adapt to a climate crisis they did little to create. Instead of Global North countries committing to triple adaptation finance, there is merely a “call for efforts to triple” it by 2035 (pushing back 5 years from the Glasgow Goal).

• Fossil Fuels - Countries began COP30 knowing there was a massive gap in climate commitments (NDCs) to meet the 1.5C goal of the Paris Agreement. Yet there is no mention of fossil fuels in the final text, and no mention of a roadmap despite 80+ countries echoing this demand. While it is encouraging that the Brazilian Presidency will undertake development of roadmaps on ending fossil fuel dependence and deforestation, this moment demands concrete action to implement a fair and just phaseout for all. 

We further note, our disappointment that amidst global threats and falling trust in multilateral spaces that the COP30 processes failed to meaningfully include some of the communities most impacted by these policies. It is in response to these failures that local indigenous activists escalated actions at the venue and a growing movement is urging the UNFCCC to recognize Afro-descendants as a unique constituency. These exclusions took place as more 1600 fossil fuel lobbyists flooded the talks – peddling policies that put profits over people's lives.

Despite COP30 having only delivered partially on what the world needs: we will continue the fight at home to enact a just transition for our communities and demand our elected officials from all levels of government, bend the arc of climate leadership towards equity and justice. 

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Reactions from USCAN and its members:

Dr. Ife Kilimanjaro, Executive Director, U.S. Climate Action Network said:

While we welcome strengthened provisions on the Just Transition Work Program, these wins at COP30 are decisively tempered by the disappointing omission of any reference to fossil fuels in the final text. Failing to name and address the climate crisis’ root cause undermines the credibility of the entire process, when communities worldwide are demanding a rapid phase-down of oil, gas, and coal. 

The implications of this omission are even more jarring by actions unfolding in the United States this very week, where the Trump administration continued dismantling environmental protections and expanding fossil fuel extraction. Together, these domestic and global setbacks send a dangerous signal that powerful institutions prioritize short-term political and economic interests over human survival.  The world needs leaders willing to directly confront fossil fuels and invest urgently in a just and transformative transition to protect global communities and ecosystems–not just for today, but for generations to come. 

Sriram Madhusoodanan, Director of Climate Advocacy & Policy, U.S. Climate Action Network said:

“At COP30 fossil fuel lobbyists flooded the talks and critical voices for guiding a just transition were disappointingly excluded. In the face of these obstacles powerful global movements succeeded in winning language for a just transition mechanism that will support, guide and hold accountable countries in ensuring a fossil fuel phaseout that centers people, not corporate profits. While COP30 did not fully deliver on the justice package that the world so urgently needs, it made critical progress that we will continue to build on with our members in the U.S. and sister networks globally.”

Analyah Schlaeger dos Santos, Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light , Youth N’ Power, and Shift US said:

“Year after year, COP attempts to hold countries accountable to repair the harms they’ve caused. And time and again, countries are either not at the table, blocking progress when they are, or refusing to take responsibility for their legal obligations. We thought, hoped, and prayed that COP30 would underscore the urgency for those in the Global North who have fueled this crisis to acknowledge and repair the harm they have caused. Yet, we see no actual shift towards the degree of accountability needed. We’re not even close. We have pushed the planet and people to a point where the methods in which we enact that change, must be re-written. Whether it be doors being kicked in, non-coincidental attempts at structure going up in flames, or communities refusing to be forced to accept that we simply can’t do what we have to to protect them, this isn’t working anymore. What will we build next? What are people prepared to do to get us to the world we need to see?”

Alexander Easdale, Executive Director, Southeast Climate and Energy Network said:

In many regards, similar to Global South countries, the U.S. South is an under-resourced region that yearly faces some of the worst climate impacts. In the United States there are deep changes to FEMA that puts more of the climate disaster burden on individual states while the current Administration continues to shirk on its responsibilities while actively doubling down on fossil fuels - severely worsening the climate crisis.

Globally, the Adaptation Fund is underfunded, however, we are excited to see the commitment to triple adaptation finance on a global scale, and would like more clarity on what baseline we are tripling from and why the date is now pushed back to 2035.

On Just Transition, we are thrilled to see the Belém Action Mechanism was agreed upon, and it is a strong start to moving our collective economy forward in a clean and just way.

A strong defining role by global civil society needs to be acknowledged, especially in the context of record breaking fossil fuel lobby representation at the COP.

Knellee Bisram, CEO and Representative to the UN at AHAM Education said:

“We applaud the whole-of-society, whole-systems approach to a just transition in the final text at COP30. However, if we are to truly meet the needs and recover the climate-induced losses and harms faced in vulnerable, coastal cities in the Southeastern United States and small island communities in our neighboring Caribbean nations, we must ensure that financing mechanisms and implementation pathways explicitly compensate for the loss of cultural heritage and community belonging as well as the compounding  mental and psychological trauma that weaken socio-economic safety nets needed to thrive in the long term.”

Ean Thomas Tafoya, Vice President, GreenLatinos said: 

“And just like that, BAM,  a victory for Just Transition. Communities arrived at COP30 demanding equity, protection, and inclusion, and we delivered the most ambitious just transition framework yet. The Belém Action Mechanism marks a historic step forward and proves that when communities speak and governments listen, victories follow.”

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Jean Su, Center for Biological Diversity’s Energy Justice Director, said:

“It’s a big win to have the Belem Action Mechanism established with the strongest-ever COP language around Indigenous and worker rights and biodiversity protections. The BAM agreement is in stark contrast to this COP’s total flameout on implementing a funded and fair fossil fuel phaseout. Even without the Trump administration there to bully and cajole, petrostates again shut down meaningful progress on a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels with necessary funding for poorer countries. It’s critical that countries lock down some meaningful, funded game plan for a fossil fuel phaseout. In just a few years, we expect the U.S. to be back in these talks. We should have an agreement that binds the U.S. to provide funding and technology to poor countries in line with its role as the largest historical emitter.”

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Rachel Cleetus, Senior Policy Director for Climate and Energy, Union of Concerned Scientists said:

“The barely adequate outcome salvaged in the final hours of COP30 keeps the Paris Agreement alive but exposes the monumental failures of rich countries—including the United States and European Union nations—to live up to their commitments. Despite many wealthy countries claiming to uphold the 1.5 C climate goal, their hypocrisy was on full display as they refused to follow through on necessary actions and funding to transform those words into reality. Adaptation finance was also lowballed and a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels did not make it into the text. People deserve much more from their leaders to confront the climate crisis and build a thriving clean energy economy.”

Dr. Katie Huffling, Executive Director, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments said:

“For far too long climate negotiations have failed to deliver what the scale of the climate crisis requires - an end to our dependence on fossil fuels. Nurses came into this COP with a strong call to move from discussions to agreement on a roadmap for implementation and adequate finance to support a phase out of fossil fuels – centering health and grounded in equity and justice. While nurses applaud the launch of the Belém Health Action Plan, without adequate means of implementation and climate finance, it will remain solely a commitment. Nurses will continue to push global leaders to deliver action that provides the health protections our communities and future generations deserve.” 

Brandon Wu, Director of Policy and Campaigns, ActionAid USA said:

“The adoption of a strong text on just transition at COP30 is a big win for civil society, as we've long pushed for climate action that protects communities, workers, and ordinary people. But it's tempered by the fact that rich developed countries have continued fighting against any meaningful pledges to do their fair share. Most egregiously, they watered down a commitment to triple adaptation finance - absolutely crucial for frontline communities in the Global South. For people's survival, not to mention for the just transition mechanism to live up to its potential as a real game-changer, rich countries have to step up.”

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Colette Pichon Battle, Esq., Vision and Initiatives Partner at Taproot Earth said:

COP30 delivered language on rights through the Belém Action Mechanism, but we know there's work to do and frontline communities continue to have the solutions. Our communities in the Gulf South and Appalachia bear the burden of the excessive fossil fuel industries, and 20 years after Hurricane Katrina, we know the cost of delay. True progress demands bold climate finance solutions that move us toward Global Climate Reparations for the frontlines. We will continue to stand with Black, Indigenous and all frontline communities who protect the land and still face the greatest exclusion. While the US government did not show, the people did, and the people will continue to implement and show the way forward.

Denise Abdul-Rahman, CEO & Founder Black Sun Light Sustainability, an Indiana project fiscally sponsored by Movement Strategy Center said: 

“Our state of Indiana is blanketed with fossil fuel refineries, power polluting plants, and now we are an AI data center ally, which is operating as a means to prop up false solutions. Indiana is the home of false solutions from geotechnology, like carbon capture sequestration, small modular reactors and hydrogen hubs. 

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We are here as a microcosm of Black Lives impacted by climate emergency, rising heat and rising electric energy costs. Our lives are most vulnerable with the lack of resilience infrastructure and high energy burden due to old housing stock. This is true of our Black Lives in Indiana and systemically across the Global Black Diaspora.

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This COP is most disappointing because my developed nation of the USA was not a committed and dedicated member of the COP 30 negotiations, People of African Descent are not acknowledged, and this COP 30 has a high number of fossil fuel lobbyists."

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Romain Ioualalen, Global Policy lead at Oil Change International said: 

“The rich polluting countries that caused this crisis have blocked the breakthrough that we need. Amidst this flawed outcome, there are glimmers of real progress. The Belém Action Mechanism is a major win made possible by movements and Global South countries that puts people’s needs and rights at the center of climate action. The EU, UK, Australia and other wealthy nations are to blame for COP’s failure to adopt a roadmap on fossil fuels by refusing to commit to phase out first or put any public money on the table for the crisis they have caused. We didn’t win the full justice outcome we need in Belém, but we have new arenas to keep fighting. We look forward to Colombia’s first international conference on fossil fuel phase out to rally more countries behind this push that science, equity, and international law demand.”

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