By Dean Dettloff, Advocacy and Research Officer
From November 10 to 21, people’s movements around the world will gather in Belém, Brazil, for the COP30 summit, where governments will discuss the climate crisis. Building on the agendas of COP28 and COP29, the meeting in Brazil aims to increase ambitions for climate finance; a just transition away from fossil fuels; and keeping the global temperature below 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures, as agreed a decade ago in the legally binding Paris Agreement. While the aims are high, expectations are low as multilateralism, climate commitments and economic stability follow disturbing backward trends around the world.
Nevertheless, in this Jubilee year, we plan to continue our journey as pilgrims of hope. A delegation including Development and Peace ― Caritas Canda (DPCC) staff and members and bishops from Canada will travel to Brazil to meet with partners and press for real change, responding to what Pope Francis in Laudato Si’ called “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.” Alongside the official negotiating spaces hosted by the United Nations, grassroots organizations are hosting a “People’s Summit,” where movements like ours and our partners will share analysis, put pressure on decision-makers to find courage for the common good and build community together.
Although only a few of us will be physically present in Brazil, events like COP30 are an opportunity for all of us to become protagonists of peace, justice and hope, and we invite Canadians to follow along. DPCC will provide resources for members to stay in the know and prepare for advocacy when the conference is over. High-level conferences can be difficult to observe, since they rely on technical discussions, acronyms and insider knowledge. To help you follow along, here are some of the big topics at COP30.
COP30: Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)
At COP30, countries are required to submit their targets for greenhouse gas emissions by 2035, as well as what they will do to achieve those targets. These targets and commitments are outlined in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which are climate action plans submitted by governments. Currently, global NDCs are not expected to be enough to keep warming below 1.5 degrees.
Canada already submitted its NDC commitment to the United Nations in February 2025, but analysis shows it falls far below our fair share. Given that Canada relies on the significant and often violent extraction of resources from the Global South, our contributions to climate change also add to the already substantial ecological debt we owe to our sisters and brothers there. For Canada to take responsibility and show leadership at COP30, it would need to find the courage to increase the ambitions of its NDC commitments across the board.
COP30: Climate finance
COP27 in Egypt announced the creation of a global fund to compensate countries for economic loss and damage due to climate change. At COP28, countries announced contributions to the fund. While Canada made an initial contribution of $16 million to set up the fund, it has not been proactive or sufficient in helping to fill it.
Exactly how to fund the world’s response to climate change is a constant sticking point in COP negotiations. At COP30, governments will discuss how to meet a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) agreed on at COP29 to mobilize funding for developing countries related to climate adaptation and mitigation. In its NDC, Canada committed $5.3 billion to its International Climate Finance envelope. Canadian civil society actors, including DPCC, have urged the government to triple this commitment to $15.9 billion between 2026-2031. That might seem like a hefty bill, but it is only just over one-tenth of the amount projected by Prime Minister Mark Carney to go to new military spending in Canada per year. To invest in peace, Canada must invest in global efforts to address the climate crisis, not in more armaments. Canada can afford it.
In light of the Jubilee year, civil society movements around the world have also pointed out that the sovereign debt of countries in the Global South is holding back their ability to respond to the climate crisis. In order to create fiscal space to deal with climate change, unjust and unsustainable debts must be canceled, international finance rules must be transformed, and there must be a mechanism housed at the United Nations for working out debt.
There can be no climate justice without debt justice.
COP30: Just transition
COP28 achieved an agreement to move away from fossil fuels, but details and commitments on what this means globally are lacking. Transitioning to renewable energy will also require the increased extraction of “critical minerals,” which is often responsible or environmental destruction and introducing violence and division into communities in the Global South. As a global leader in the extractive industry, Canada is uniquely positioned to support a just transition, but it is also uniquely tempted and on track to continue allowing the extractive industry to act with impunity, greenwashing human rights and environmental abuses. A truly just transition cannot require the further destruction and exploitation of the Global South.
A historic North-South coalition
On June 12, 2025, the bishops conferences of Latin America, Africa and Asia joined together to issue a special communique ahead of COP30. In the document, the bishops call for a “historic coalition between actors from the Global North and South to face the crises in solidarity.” In Brazil and in Canada, DPCC will explore how we can respond to this important call from the church in the Global South, doing our part from the Global North. With the bishops, we will observe COP30 with the intention of deepening our solidarity, rejecting what the bishops call “false solutions” to climate change, pushing instead for lasting, durable care for our common home.
Canada, too, could become part of this historic coalition, but it will only be moved to do so if citizens have the courage and energy to make it clear that we expect nothing less from our government. Please join us on our pilgrimage of hope by observing COP30 through our social media channels and email newsletter. We look forward to fully reporting our findings and exploring how Canadians can continue to encourage the government to pursue bolder climate action in light of COP30 when we return.