By Evans Njewa, LDC Chair

Today marks ten years since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, when countries came together affirming to strengthen global cooperation to address the climate change emergency and to protect current and future generations across the world. A decade on, with COP30 freshly behind us and my term as LDC Chair coming to an end, this anniversary offers a moment to reflect – a chance to look at what has been achieved, what remains painfully insufficient, and what is needed for the countries on the frontlines bearing the brunt of climate impacts to survive the crisis. 

The Belém package was a difficult compromise, but also a genuine step forward in strengthening multilateralism, which remains our most powerful tool for delivering an adequate and fair global response to the climate crisis. Across the negotiations, our priorities and key asks remain clear. 

Adaptation Finance 

Even as we rushed between meetings up and down the long hallway in Belém (sometimes in the wrong direction), we knew that climate impacts were intensifying at home: houses lost to floods, crops scorched, coastlines eroding, people being displaced and facing migration. That’s why scaling up finance to support our efforts to adapt is essential – it’s the difference between communities rebuilding or slipping further into crisis. 

We were proud to secure a call to triple adaptation finance in the Mutirão decision, yet disappointed to see the timeline pushed from 2030 to 2035 – as if those on the front lines have a decade to spare. This decision must be understood as the successor to the Glasgow commitment to double adaptation finance by 2025, and it assumes that commitment is delivered in full: 

• 2019 baseline: USD 18.8 billion 
• Doubling by 2025: At least ~ USD 37.6 billion per year
• Tripling by 2035: At least ~ USD 120 billion per year

These figures fall short of our collective needs, but they provide some predictability for increasing public, grant-based finance. 

The Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) Indicators 

We arrived in Belém expecting to adopt a comprehensive, science-based set of indicators that would allow the world to measure real progress on adaptation. What we have now is a useful step forward, even if it is not yet the full foundation we had hoped for—particularly as the expert-prepared list was substantially adjusted in the final stages, affecting technical consistency and the way some indicators capture realities on the ground, including means of implementation.

Many indicators will benefit from further refinement to better reflect the challenges communities are actually facing and the means of implementation they receive. As a Group that has consistently championed an expert-led process, we would have welcomed stronger continuity with the technical work and more time for consultation to build shared understanding.

The focus now must be on implementation: making the GGA framework credible, usable, and genuinely reflective of lived realities. We remain committed to this work and will be active players in the Belém–Addis vision to ensure its success, including by drawing on the experiences of our members who will pilot the indicators over the next two years to help land clear guidance for operationalizing them by COP32.

Just Transition 

We welcome the establishment of the Just Transition Mechanism, particularly its emphasis on technical assistance and capacity building – a significant step towards supporting just, fair, and equitable transitions in our countries. We are pleased with the references to universal access to energy and to the special needs and circumstances of LDCs. While negotiations were difficult, the eventual convergence on establishing the mechanism – greeted by applause in the closing plenary – shows a shared recognition that just transitions require dedicated support, not rhetoric.

For LDCs, just transitions must expand access to energy, support the informal sector, drive job creation, strengthen livelihoods and address structural inequalities. We look forward to the mechanism supporting these efforts. Of course, mechanisms alone are not enough; international cooperation and means of implementation will be indispensable and must not be overlooked as we take this work forward. 

1.5°C Ambition and Mitigation 

On mitigation, the outcome remains well short of what is needed.  The Mutirão decision acknowledges that the remaining carbon budget for 1.5°C is perilously small, yet only offers voluntary initiatives with no clear mandate or resources.

The ICJ Advisory Opinion could not have been clearer, that NDCs, taken together, must be capable of keeping warming below 1.5°C. Right now, they are not. We hoped COP30 would deliver a credible global response to put us back on track, but the outcome fell short, including on the means of implementation that would allow developing countries to play their full part. Global cooperation, action and support are urgently needed if the 1.5°C limit is to stay within reach. This is the survival threshold for LDCs humankind.

Loss and Damage

For LDCs, loss and damage is not a future scenario, it’s a daily reality, so we very much welcome the launch of the first call for funding requests to the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, a long-awaited step toward getting finance flowing to countries on the frontlines. 

This is something the LDC Group has worked toward for decades, but progress will mean little if access is slow, complex or burdensome and if the funding available is not commensurate with impacts. Our communities cannot keep waiting while the impacts of climate change worsen. 

Chair handover

Over the past two years, I have been proud to serve as the Chair of the LDC Group on behalf of Malawi. It has been an honour and one of the greatest privileges of my career. Together, we have navigated complex negotiations to secure incremental but necessary progress toward climate justice. As I hand over the chairmanship to Ambassador Adão Soares Barbosa of Timor-Leste, I do so with confidence in the Group’s continued strength and solidarity.

Looking ahead

COP30 was not the clear turning point we had hoped for, but nor was it a step backwards. It was a reminder of how hard this process can be, and how necessary. Multilateralism is imperfect, but the UNFCCC remains one of the few spaces where every country, large or small, has a seat and a voice. And for those of us who bear the heaviest burdens of climate change, that voice matters. 

We return home from Brazil with renewed determination. Ten years from Paris, the scale of action still falls short. The next decade must not be defined by promises, but by tangible action that delivers for those on the frontlines.