Belem delivered big declarations, but Bangladesh returns home to rising seas and shrinking finance

As the heat of Belem fades and COP30 draws to a close, the world returns home with a raft of major announcements many had hoped would materialise in Brazil – and a host of disappointments for those who expected more from this COP.

COP30 delivered ambitious vows on a new global framework for forests and a just transition, fresh political momentum on methane, and a promise to scale up adaptation – key demands of the Global South, including Bangladesh.

Yet, many left Belem frustrated: there was no fossil fuel phase-out roadmap, loss and damage remains underfunded, and adaptation finance is still vague, with the pledge to "at least triple" lacking a fixed baseline, annual milestones, or a defined volume.

For two weeks in the Amazonian heat, climate negotiators from across the world gathered in the Blue Zone at the Hangar Convention and Fair Centre in Belem, while thousands of activists marched outside for climate justice, human rights, land rights, and an end to climate debt traps.

Activists rally inside the COP30 venue calling for a just transition. Photo: Masum Billah

By the final gavel, countries had agreed to pursue greater collaboration on cutting emissions on a voluntary basis, to accelerate efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C, and to triple – notwithstanding the vagueness – adaptation finance by 2035, defying calls from many countries to bring the target forward to 2030.

But for a country like Bangladesh, these declarations collide with a harsh climate finance reality at home.

Rising seas, intensifying floods and repeated cyclones are inflicting growing economic damage, while climate-driven debt – including climate per capita debt – continues to soar, as international climate finance remains unpredictable, fragmented and largely loan-based, pushing climate-exposed nations deeper into debt rather than protecting them from it.

"We know some of you had greater ambition for some of the issues at hand," COP30 President Correa do Lago told the closing plenary. "I will try not to disappoint you."

Belem, however, did not produce a roadmap to end fossil fuels globally – despite loud calls from more than 80 countries. Instead, its core political package took the shape of a voluntary "Mutirao" pact, urging countries to move collectively towards decarbonisation and reaffirming the COP28 call to transition away from fossil fuels.

A Palestinian survivor who lost nearly 80 family members speaks at people’s plenary event at the COP30 venue. Photo: Masum Billah

Yet despite its shortcomings, the launch of the Belem Action Mechanism will likely stand as its defining achievement.

The mechanism sets out the first dedicated global framework to support workers and communities as economies shift away from fossil fuels, and is intended to coordinate international cooperation on just transition initiatives, including worker protections and energy transitions.

Climate Action Network International (CAN) described the adoption of the Just Transition mechanism as "one of the strongest rights-based outcomes in the history of the UN climate negotiations."

Harjeet Singh, climate activist and Founding Director of the Satat Sampada Climate Foundation, said: "We leave Belem with a historic victory for people power... We celebrate the decision to develop the Just Transition mechanism and the announcement of a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels as a win for workers and communities."

However, he described the failure of political will from the Global North to deliver on climate ambition and finance as "devastating," warning that without concrete commitments to robust public funding, "the transition to a greener future remains a mirage."

CAN also cautioned that COP30 has produced weak outcomes "in the very areas that are critical to ensuring justice for vulnerable and frontline communities." It said a "dangerously weak" outcome on adaptation finance leaves little hope for impacted communities.

Adaptation was one of the headline issues for developing countries, and Belém didn't entirely disappoint. Yet the math is stark: even if the tripling target materialises, the current gap remains in the hundreds of billions per year, with delivery timelines still vague.

For Bangladesh – already absorbing climate losses estimated at several percentage points of GDP annually – adaptation costs are rising far faster than available grants.

"It remains insufficient. For delta countries like Bangladesh, direct, predictable and grant-based financing is still uncertain," said Mohammad Shahjahan, CAN South Asia's Bangladesh lead.

On loss and damage, the mood was celebratory but sober. The L&D Fund secured under a billion dollars in fresh pledges in Belem, and finally allocated $250 million for countries to access.

These steps are symbolically important, but the reality for Bangladesh and other climate-vulnerable nations remains stark.

Shahjahan welcomed the $250 million allocation, but stressed it is "merely symbolic" against the "estimated $400 billion need per year".

He noted that in Bangladesh's coastal, island, river-erosion and cyclone-prone areas alone, annual losses already run into several billions of dollars. If non-economic loss and damage is included, he said, the figure would multiply further — and urgently needs to be recognised.

"Unless developed countries commit additional contributions in the next two days of negotiations, this fund will not truly address losses; instead, it will remain a structure of temporary consolation," he added.

Most critically, vulnerable countries fear the funds are dominated by loans instead of grants — and for climate-exposed, debt-burdened economies like Bangladesh, that distinction is existential.

As the world moves from one COP to the next in search of a fund that truly matches the needs of a delta invaded by saltwater, rising seas, crop losses, intensified cyclones and flash floods, time is running out. Years of development gains are being wiped away.

As climate migrants along Bangladesh's coast line up to move inland, the country is forced to spend ever more each year on climate response, facing a cruel paradox: the more it spends, the more debt it accrues — while developed nations hesitate to provide public funding.

Jiwoh Abdulai, Minister of Environment and Climate Change in Sierra Leone, said: "We have made progress on just transition and on technology and capacity, but not yet at the scale that science and justice demand… this is a floor, not a ceiling. We will judge this outcome by how quickly these words turn into real projects that protect lives and livelihoods." 

This story was produced as part of the 2025 Climate Change Media Partnership, a journalism fellowship organized by Internews' Earth Journalism Network and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security