COP30 Update – November 19

COP30 Continues  

With 48 hours to go, Wednesday brought one of the biggest procedural breakthroughs of the summit: Türkiye and Australia agreed on a joint deal for COP31, with Türkiye set to host the 2026 Conference in Antalya, and Australia taking on the lead negotiating Presidency - a compromise that was welcomed on the ground as a stabilizing move for the UNFCCC process. Brazil President Lula and UN Secretary General Guterres returned to Belém, holding a series of high-level meetings with key delegations as talks continued toward a draft deal, the text of which is expected to be introduced on Thursday. Elsewhere in the negotiation space, the European Union tabled a transition-away-from-fossil-fuels roadmap under both the current and next presidencies, signaling that a just, orderly and equitable shift in energy systems must sit at the heart of the outcome package.  

Super Pollutants at COP30  

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Photo credit: CCAC Secretariat

At the Food and Agriculture for Sustainable Transformation (FAST) Ministerial on Wednesday, countries and partners gathered to launch the Farmers FIRST Flagship, a new CCAC-led effort designed to scale farmer-to-farmer solutions that cut methane and nitrous oxide while boosting yields, soil health, and rural resilience. Also at the Ministerial, the United Kingdom and Brazil unveiled the Belém Declaration on Fertilisers, committing to accelerate nutrient-use efficiency and cut emissions across the fertiliser value chain. The declaration sets out a cooperative pathway to strengthen soil health, reduce nitrous oxide, and support farmers through more sustainable, climate-aligned fertiliser systems. These new initiatives underscored a growing COP-to-COP coalition focused on making climate finance more accessible to farmers and accelerating practical mitigation across agrifood systems. The session highlighted how FIRST, the Belém Declaration on Fertilisers, and the wider Plan to Accelerate Solutions form a coherent package to support producers, strengthen food security, and deliver rapid super-pollutant reductions this decade.

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Photo credit: Zé Américo and Eusouhands

Earlier in the day, the COP30 Super Pollutant Pavilion hosted the High-Level Announcement on Sectoral Action on Black Carbon, co-organized by the Clean Air Fund and SLYCAN Trust, in consultation with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition Secretariat. Countries including Chile, Madagascar, Costa Rica, Canada, Uganda, Nigeria, the Dominican Republic, Sri Lanka, and Colombia outlined national steps they are taking or exploring to reduce black carbon from transport, household and commercial energy, and waste and agricultural burning. The event highlighted black carbon’s dual role as both a major driver of near-term warming and a deadly air pollutant, and underscored the value of more coordinated, sector-focused approaches that can link climate mitigation, cleaner air, and health benefits. The session also opened a discussion with development banks and financial institutions on how existing funding channels could be better aligned with practical black-carbon mitigation efforts across these major emitting sectors.

At the Senegal Pavilion, SONAGED, the Government of Senegal, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, and the West African Development Bank (Banque Ouest Africaine de Développement, BOAD) co-hosted a session on Acting on Methane: Innovations, Financing and Partnerships for Climate Action, where you delivered opening remarks drawing on the newly released Global Methane Status Report. The event highlighted methane’s role in driving nearly one third of today’s warming and showcased practical pathways for cutting emissions across energy, waste and agriculture, including national action in Senegal, updates from SONAGED’s MERP programme, and BOAD’s emerging pipeline of methane-related investments. The discussion also underscored the need to scale finance, improve measurement and monitoring, and link national planning to implementation support provided by the CCAC Super Pollutant Country Action Accelerator, which was launched earlier in the week at COP30. 

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Photo credit: Zé Américo and Eusouhands

In Case You Missed It  

COP30 has become a consequential COP for methane and other super pollutants, with a cascade of announcements that together form a coherent near-term climate action package. The Methane & Non-CO₂ Summit, co-hosted by Brazil, China, and the United Kingdom on the margins of the COP World Leaders Summit, set the political signal early by stressing faster, deeper cuts this decade. The launch of the new CCAC Super Pollutant Country Action Accelerator then gave countries a practical delivery engine to turn that ambition into policy, capacity, and investment. The UK-led statement on Drastically Reducing Methane in the Global Fossil Fuel Sector aligned countries toward near-zero methane intensity, while cities and waste partners advanced the new NOW! (No Organic Waste) Initiative, the first global effort to tackle organic-waste methane at scale. The Global Methane Status Report underscored the urgency, and the feasibility, of rapid reductions, while progress was made in the agricultural sector through the Farmers’ Initiative for Resilient and Sustainable Transformations (FIRST) and the Belém Declaration on Fertilisers, accelerating nutrient-efficiency and cleaner fertiliser production. Taken together, these outcomes form a unified super-pollutant narrative: rapid, practical measures that deliver immediate cooling, cleaner air, and tangible development gains, the clearest pathway emerging from COP30 to “pull the climate emergency brake” this decade. And with negotiations entering their final stretch, countries and partners are pushing to ensure methane and other super pollutants feature meaningfully in the Mutirão outcome.