WHAT HAPPENED ON LOSS AND AT COP 30?

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), thirtieth Conference of the Parties (COP 30) has concluded in Belém, Brazil. 

It has been an eventful COP, a fire reminded us that in a time of crisis, we must all work together, act quickly and follow the best available science to save lives, livelihoods and all that we hold dear. Recent extreme weather events, including Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti, back-to-back typhoons in the Philippines, and the powerful tornado that struck in Brazil, reminded us of the urgency of addressing the loss and damage that is being caused by the climate crisis. 

The self determination and right to free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples was a key theme in this Amazon COP. Actions, protests and a global march from civil society brought the very real needs of those least responsible, yet most affected by the climate crisis to the forefront. Addressing those needs and working towards a common objective as a global community is ultimately why the UNFCCC was established 33 years ago. Ten years ago Loss and Damage was inscribed as the third pillar of the Paris Agreement. Yet, at this COP it has been marginalised. 

Did COP 30 help us advance more towards the world we want? A world in which all humans, species and ecosystems are thriving on a healthy planet. Below we summarise the outcomes of COP 30 on Loss and Damage, assess where we are now and where we need to get to in order to create that world.

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The Components of the COP 30 Outcome

The outcome of COP 30 has two parts: 1). A Global Mutirão decision on Uniting humanity in a global mobilization against climate change, that brings together decision points on all the proposed agenda items that were consulted on at COP 30; and; 2). A package of decisions adopted under agenda items.

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Third Review of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage 

The most significant outcome of COP 30 on Loss and Damage is the completion of the third review of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage (WIM). The WIM is the oldest piece of the Loss and Damage support landscape. Its functions include enhancing knowledge, strengthening dialogue and coordination and enhancing action and support. It is guided by  an Executive Committee (ExCom) with five expert groups and also includes the Santiago Network, designed to provide technical assistance to countries and communities in developing countries. The WIM serves as a policy and knowledge hub for the Loss and Damage landscape under the UNFCCC and its Paris Agreement. 

The WIM was reviewed for the first time at COP 22 in 2016 and for the second time at COP 25 in 2019. The third review of the WIM was scheduled to take place at COP 29 in Baku, Azerbaijan in November, 2024, but agreement could not be reached. The review therefore continued through the 2025 June Climate Meetings to COP 30. 

Over the last two years, there were 80 hours of negotiations on the third review of the WIM in total, many of which happened behind closed doors. Key elements of the outcome include: 

1). Establishing a process to deliver a regular State of Loss and Damage Report (aka Loss and Damage Gap Report);

2). Mandating the development of knowledge products on: 

a). Existing methodologies and approaches for assessing economic and non-economic loss and damage; and;

b). integrating consideration of loss and damage into national response plans;

3). Strengthening the ExComs Expert Group on Action and Support (ASEG), including by updating its terms of reference to reflect key Loss and Damage developments and tasking the group to assist developing countries in accessing technical assistance and finance for responding to loss and damage.  

4). Expediting the development of voluntary guidelines for enhancing the collection and management of data and information on Loss and Damage to inform the preparation of Biennial Transparency Reports (BTRs); 

5). Enhancing accessibility and outreach to ensure that the ExCom’s knowledge products and activities enhance Loss and Damage implementation, that the membership of the Santiago Network is diverse and countries and communities understand how to request technical assistance from the network; and; 

6). Enhancing coordination and complementarity between the ExCom, Santiago Network and Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD), amongst other things.

The decision will enhance the three functions of the WIM —by enhancing knowledge and understanding of Loss and Damage, strengthening dialogue and coordination across Loss and Damage actors and enhancing action and support to address loss and damage. We therefore welcome the outcome of the third WIM review and we look forward to seeing the outcome of the review implemented so that the WIM can better serve countries and communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis who are facing escalating loss and damage.

On human rights, the inclusion of a footnote referring to the 11th preambular paragraph of the Paris Agreement (the one where Parties reaffirm their human rights obligations in relation to climate action) makes it crystal clear that the State of Loss and Damage Report must mainstream approaches to responding to Loss and Damage that uphold human rights, whilst reflecting full scope of human rights violations that loss and damage is causing on a daily basis.

However, the outcome is far from perfect and there are several elements that are disappointing. Whilst the decision will strengthen the three functions of the WIM, there is no commitment to urgently scale up Loss and Damage finance and support. This is deeply concerning especially when we consider that our calculations indicate that the Loss and Damage Finance needs are at least 724.43 billion USD a year. It is also extremely disappointing that an agreement could not be reached on aligning the work of the WIM with the decision on the first Global Stocktake. Despite the best attempts of the Independent Alliance of Latin America and the Caribbean (AILAC), who proposed language, and Vanuatu, who drove ambition, there is no language in the preambular paragraphs welcoming the findings of the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) historic Advisory Opinion on Climate Change (ICJAO). 

Find out more about the WIM and what was at stake under the third review here. 

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Report of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage and Guidance to the Fund

The second most significant outcome of COP 30 on Loss and Damage is the adoption of the 2025 report of the FRLD, which includes guidance to the Fund. The FRLD,was established at COP 27 in Egypt in 2022 and operationalised at COP 28 in Dubai. It is a fund to deliver money to developing countries and the communities within them to address loss and damage.

Under the decision on the 2025 report, guidance has been given to the Fund at a time when the Board and Secretariat are implementing the start up phase of the FRLD and the Board is working to develop long term policies for the Fund. Guidance includes welcome elements such as making a clear link between the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG) and filling the FRLD and the need to expedite the resource mobilization strategy for the Fund. With this link made to the NCQG we expect the swift implementation paragraph 16 of the NCQG, an important paragraph that speaks to increasing public finance to the FRLD —and all other climate Funds— and the tripling of outward flows by 2030. Through the negotiations the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group and Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) pushed hard to ensure that the FRLD can respond rapidly and ensure direct and simplified access to the Fund. This resulted in language proposed by the LDC group to avoid disproportionate bureaucratic obstacles to the access of resources being included in the guidance. 

However, there is no guidance on scaling up the Fund to 400 billion USD it must disburse each year to start to meet the needs of developing countries. Nor is there any guidance reminding contributors to turn pledges into commitments to pay into the Fund. This is a serious concern, as to date, only 788.80 million USD pledged to the FRLD* of which just 583.14 million USD has been turned into contribution agreements. An amount which is less than 0.2 percent of the 400 billion USD needed each year. As a result the Fund only has 407.35 million USD in its bank account and if we take away the 250 million USD allocated to the BIM the Fund will be left with just 157.35 million USD in its bank account. Therefore there is a real risk that the FRLD could run out of money in 2027 if there are not a significant number of pledges at COP 30 and if a robust long term resource mobilisation strategy is not put in place. The key blocker on scaling up the Fund was the EU, who was adamant that no guidance would be provided to developed countries. And critically, there is no guidance expediting work, or further guaranteeing, the development of an access modality that ensures direct access to the FRLD for communities.  

* This figure does not include the pledge made by Spain during the World Leaders summit ahead of COP 30.  

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Joint Annual Report of the Executive Committee of the WIM and the Advisory Board of the Santiago Network for Loss and Damage

COP 30 also saw the adoption of the 2024 Joint Annual Report (JAR) and 2025 JAR of the ExCom of the WIM and the Advisory Board of the Santiago Network. The 2024 report was adopted in the opening plenary as a result of Parties itching agreement at the 2025 June Climate Meetings. With the WIM review ongoing, Parties decided to take a very simple procedural decision on the 2025 JAR to ensure that there was enough time to reach a substantial outcome on the WIM review. As a result no guidance is provided to the WIM ExCom or Santiago Network. However, the decision on the third WIM review contains many important elements that will enhance the functions of the WIM and the effectiveness of the Santiago Network, whilst strengthening collaboration, coherence and coordination between the ExCom and the Santiago Network and its Advisory Board.

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Launch of the Call for Proposal for the Start Up Phase of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage — the Barbados Implementation Modalities 

On the first day of COP 30, the FRLD launched the call for funding requests for its start up phase —the Barbados Implementation Modalities (BIM). A total of 250 million USD is allocated to the BIM and once the call for funding requests officially opens on the 15th of December developing countries will have six months to submit their funding request for projects and programs of between 5-20 million USD. The Board of the Fund will then start approving requests at its ninth Board meeting in July, 2026. For developing countries preparing funding requests technical assistance is available from the Santiago Network and will soon be available from the Fund itself.

The BIM provides a critical opportunity for the FRLD to learn through doing at the same time as the Fund’s Board works to develop its long term policies in parallel. The projects and programs delivered under the BIM will provide long overdue support to countries and communities who have until now picked up the bill for loss and damage wrought by a climate crisis they have done little or nothing to cause. It is also an important opportunity for developing countries to demonstrate how the Fund can deliver community access and rapidly release funds by putting in place national financial arrangements, despite the FRLD itself not being able to do this under the BIM.

Whilst we welcome the launch of the call for funding request by the FRLD, 250 million USD is just a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed — scientists project that  developing countries need 395 billion USD in 2025 alone. There is also much work to be done to make the Fund fit for purpose including ensuring that the Fund is filled with at least 400 billion USD a year, that it can respond within days of a climate intensified disaster and that it guarantees direct access to small grants for communities. 

Read our full reaction to the launch of the call for funding request for the BIM here.

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Loss and Damage in the Global Mutirão

On the Global Mutirão, the decision recognises the urgent need to scale up action and support to avert (through mitigation), minimise (through adaptation) and address #LossAndDamage and the inclusion of Loss and Damage in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). However, like the WIM review and the guidance to the FRLD, there is no commitment calling on developed countries to actually scale up Loss and Damage finance and support.

Despite strong calls by more than 80 countries for a roadmap to fossil fuel phase-out, the Global Mutirão has not delivered a concrete plan to limit global warming to the 1.5°C survival limit of the Paris Agreement. Nor is there any mention of "fossil fuels" in the text despite Parties committing to transition away from fossil fuels at COP 28 under the decision on the first Global Stocktake. 

On adaptation, the Global Mutirão calls for efforts to at least triple adaptation finance, however this call is made in the context of the NCQG thus by 2035. A decision that will neither deliver adaptation finance at the speed and scale needed, nor guarantee high quality finance that will not increase debt in developing countries. This is a disappointing outcome, without mitigation and adaptation, #Loss and Damage will continue to escalate  in a warming world.

However, the launch of the “Belém Declaration” by Colombia at COP 30 is a significant milestone. The declaration launches a parallel process to the Paris Agreement calling for a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels that is intended to strengthen UNFCCC outcomes. In doing so, Colombia and the 23 other countries supporting the declaration are sending an important signal that there is growing consensus on ending fossil fuel dependency. 

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Loss and Damage Support is Available Right Now!

One of the strongest messages that we heard  on Loss and Damage at COP 30 was that support is already available from the FRLD, WIM ExCom and the Santiago Network right now, and developing countries are strongly encouraged to request it. This message came across loud and clear in three important side events, one convened by the Santiago Network, one by the ExCom of the WIM and the other a joint side event convened by all three Loss and Damage institutions. During these events information was provided on how to make funding requests to the FRLD under the BIM, how to request technical assistance from the Santiago Network and join its membership and how to use the WIM ExCom’s knowledge products. 

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However, a critical challenge for developing countries and communities is having the capacity and resources to develop proposals. Most climate policy decision makers within developing countries have overwhelming workloads. They are often tasked with following international discussions under the UNFCCC and its Paris Agreement while also developing and implementing national policies and plans. In addition, resources are scarce. It is therefore important that developing countries and the communities within them have support and guidance to develop requests for technical assistance to the Santiago Network and funding proposals to the FRLD. We therefore call on civil society actors and funders to provide support that can enable access to technical assistance and funding.

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Loss and Damage Pledges at COP 30

One thing that certainly was not as encouraging was the abysmal amount of Loss and Damage finance pledges made at COP 3) where only two pledges have been made. One from Spain, who has pledged 20 million Euros to the FRLD and one from Switzerland, who has pledged 1 million Swiss Francs to the Santiago Network. Whilst these pledges are very welcome, they are a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed —scientists project that  developing countries need 395 billion USD in 2025 alone. Therefore, we call on developed countries to step up and meet their Loss and Damage finance obligations under the UNFCCC and its Paris Agreement, and international law. 

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The ICJAO at COP 30

With the delivery of the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) historic Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States in regards to Climate Change in June it has been clarified that climate action is not optional — it's the law. This includes urgently scaling up support and action on avoiding (through emission reductions), minimising (through adaptation) and addressing loss and damage. That is because the ICJAO reaffirmed that states need to: 

1. Prevent climate harm; 
2. Co-operate to address loss and damage suffered by people and ecosystems; and; 
3. Uphold human rights in their responses to the climate crisis.

COP 30 is the first COP since the delivery of the ICJAO and in the negotiations we have seen commendable leadership from a developing country Parties and groups including Vanuatu, the State that lead the campaign that delivered the AO, AILAC, the LDC Group and AOSIS, who have either reminded Parties of the obligations clarified by the ICJ or pushed to include reference to the ICJAO in negotiating texts. Whilst there is no mention of the ICJAO any COP 30 decision —the obligations of States remain unchanged. The next step for the ICJ AO is seeing Vanuatu pursuing an UN resolution to turn the ICJAO into political action.

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