A Collaborative Web: The Key to Climate Action

Attending COP30, the United Nation’s annual global climate negotiation and conference in Belém, Brazil, last year made many things clear to me. It made clear that multilateral, cross-sectoral engagement is tremendously important for global knowledge sharing. It made clear that simply creating a space for climate dialogue can sow genuine seeds of hope for participants like myself. It made clear that hosting the conference was fruitful for the host country, boosting GDP and accelerating infrastructure development. And finally, what became indisputable was that despite COP30 being regarded as the COP of Implementation, implementation itself seldom occurs in the negotiation rooms.

Emory University COP30 delegation from left to right: Hannah Kezia Jose, Carter Douglas-Brown, Rodrigo Puentes Muñoz, Eri Saikawa, PhD, Lainey Render and Belle Pobsuk.

Parties debate semantics into the late hours of the night, and the politics of the event muddy the real progress to be made. These dynamics are not abstract; they manifest in tangible outcomes that expose gaps in the global climate governance system. Outcomes from COP30 include:

Climate Finance: At COP30, nations set goals to contribute $1.3 trillion towards climate finance for developing countries by 2035. However, countries have always under-pledged and underdelivered, providing only a fraction of what is actually needed to support the urgent needs of climate-vulnerable regions and developing countries.
Global Goal on Adaptation: In a wild display of the dangerous balance between efficiency and efficacy, 100+ carefully decided indicators backed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN scientific body that synthesizes climate research for policy making, were boiled down to 59 indicators.
Mitigation Work Program:The long-awaited Mutirão decision, the outcome adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to guide near-term global mitigation efforts, uses soft language that fails to properly acknowledge or mandate a transition away from fossil fuels, backtracking on the progress made at COP28.
Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Progress: Parties’ self-determined plans and ambitions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions fall flat in their delivery. By the end of COP30, 119 countries representing 74% of global emissions submitted new NDCs. Even so, they deliver less than 15% of the reductions required to remain under 1.5℃.

COP30 President, André Corrêa do Lago, discusses the agenda items for the closing plenary.

The failures and successes of COP30 raise hard questions: What does it actually take to successfully drive collective action toward climate action? Can international environmental law and billion-dollar conferences that seemingly underperform in delivering tangible impact really combat climate change? If so, what role do governing bodies play in the fight against climate change beyond the negotiating rooms? And where, then, do big, powerful institutions like businesses, universities, and NGOs fit into the broader climate governance ecosystem?

Rather than placing disproportionate faith in international environmental law, we must confront our overreliance on governing bodies, especially when major polluters like the United States fail to engage, and engaged parties remain deadlocked. If governmental action proves unreliable, how can we ever keep warming below 1.5℃?

I propose we reassess the way responsibility is distributed. Right now, at least in formal and legal terms, we primarily operate hierarchically: governments at the top, followed by the private sector and NGOs at the next level together, and individuals positioned at the bottom. This system assumes a predominantly linear chain, in which each level mostly relies on the link before it. When upper links fail, as they increasingly do in international negotiations, the entire system falters, creating stagnant progress.

Rather than perceiving our system of responsibility as a linear chain, we must reimagine it as a web: a web of reciprocity and accountability, with each entity responsible for its own tasks and contributing to the complex system of work needed to fight against climate change. If one section is ineffective, the others still have the opportunity to persist and grow.

In this web, each actor both shapes and is shaped by others. Governments function to coordinate across borders, align domestic action, respond to constituent needs, and set regulations that shape progress to climate needs. Businesses should respond to the influence of these conditions through innovation, investment, and operational choice. When missions are driven by sustainability and positive social impact, rather than profit alone, the private sector can mutually accelerate economic growth and climate solutions. NGOs exist as observers and watchdogs, spearheading the will of the people and planet by applying pressure to the other actors. Individuals, in turn, anchor the system by voting with their ballots, dollars, and time to reinforce or challenge the behavior of the other actors. Climate action has a better chance of success when these roles, and others, operate in constant interaction.

Panel hosted by Breathe Mongolia Clean Air Coalition discussing grassroots action for climate solutions.

This is not a call to absolve the governments of their obligations nor a claim that any system of collective action will be perfect, as every sector contains actors who undermine progress through corruption, greenwashing, or indifference. But rather, I urge us against positioning governmental bodies as our primary means of climate action and instead advocate for other stakeholders to meaningfully exercise their distinct roles while supporting and holding one another accountable. To be truly successful, we cannot rely on the few to decide the fate of the many; we need to collaborate across sectors to cultivate a strong foundation for success. With this, we can breathe new life into the fight against climate change, one of true collective work and implementation.