By Dr Hannah Schupfer

The world’s leaders are gathering in Brazil for COP30, almost a decade after the Paris Agreement united countries behind the shared threat of climate change

That moment showed what diplomacy can achieve when the task is to recognise a problem and commit to real action. But the hard part comes when the speeches stop. The challenge now is delivery, and that is where the COP model is struggling.

Success in Paris 2015 depended on the agreement to combat climate change itself. Countries could set their own climate plans, and there was enough political flexibility for almost everyone to claim a win.

It worked because the purpose was clear. We needed a global signal that climate action was non-negotiable. Momentum mattered more than mechanisms.

Since then, the purpose has shifted. The question is no longer whether to act, but how: how fast and ambitious the strategies are, and how financial responsibility is shared between high emitters, rapidly industrialising economies and states already hit hardest by climate impacts.

These are decisions with costs and consequences. That makes negotiating them slower,........

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