THE LAST TROIKA BEFORE COP30: GOOD INTENTIONS, NO CONVERGENCE

The “trilateral” meeting on the road to Belém looks distantly at the 1.5°C target and ends early, with no concrete progress.

During the mid-year negotiations in Bonn, Tuesday saw what is expected to be the final meeting of the COP Presidencies Troika, which brings together the presidency of the upcoming COP30 with those of the two previous conferences, COP28 and COP29. The event aimed to steer collective and ambitious climate action. The delegations’ effort was evident—but unfortunately unproductive.

At the outset, there was consensus on the intention to converge around a few streamlined, cross-cutting, and realistically achievable priorities. However, the discussion soon stalled over yet another list of local interests and national or sectoral demands. In the room, representatives from various territories and economies took the floor, highlighting their specific needs and the barriers preventing them from committing more decisively to the fight against the climate crisis.

In the end, the meeting even wrapped up ahead of schedule, with a shared recognition of the urgent need for convergence—but without any truly meaningful progress.

“We strongly need to continue the dialogue and unite the community around areas of consensus, rather than waiting and merely reacting. We are heading towards COP30 with the huge responsibility of deciding in advance how to move forward,” said the presidency of the upcoming COP, their face tense. “This could be decisive not just for being realistic, but also for offering hope and a sense of future to those seriously working towards the agreed goals.”

Still, the speeches we witnessed in the room brought out some elements of broad consensus:

• Implementation processes must become more inclusive and participatory, in terms of gender, age, and levels of digital access;
• There is a need for education and awareness-raising initiatives targeting local communities—especially in developing countries—to make the connection between extreme weather events and the climate crisis more widely understood;
• National climate targets are fundamental to achieving shared goals, but remain too theoretical and insufficiently robust.

Particularly strong and clear was the intervention by the representative of Vanuatu, who addressed the finance issue like no one else in the room.
“What words, what projects can I use to engage communities if there is no certainty or progress in financing?” he asked. And as his question echoed in the silence, he went on to stress the need to work on the decolonisation of technologies linked to climate emergency management and mitigation strategies:
“Broad digital progress is key to reaching even the most basic goals.”

Another point shared by many came from the Singaporean representative, who suggested investing more energy in building broad, cross-border collaborations – particularly around shared challenges faced by diverse communities, even in countries that may not seem geographically or politically connected.

The European Union’s intervention was also well received, especially when its representative explicitly called for a more inclusive and gender-responsive approach.

Still, as mentioned, the meeting ended in under two hours and with no steps forward.

Article by Marta Abbà, delegate of Italian Climate Network at the June Climate Meetings

Cover photo: Isabela Castilho | COP30 Brasil Amazônia