Civil society groups expressed deep disappointment after the UN climate negotiations in Belém failed to confront the root drivers of global warming. 

Aksyon Klima Pilipinas (AKP) warned that vulnerable nations like the Philippines face growing risks as the world drifts further from its climate goals.

In a statement, the group said COP30 “was supposed to redefine the global climate agenda from words to meaningful, concrete, and significant actions,” a shift they stressed is “vital for the most vulnerable countries like the Philippines to avoid or reduce the climate change impacts it has been forced to endure for years.”

AKP noted “small steps forward” at the conference, particularly the decision to establish a Just Transition Mechanism, also referred to by civil society as the Belem Action Mechanism. 

The mechanism creates “a platform for international cooperation for initiatives on just transition, including the protection of workers and enabling energy transitions.” 

It also includes provisions that “center energy transitions in justice and equity, while recognizing numerous human rights and the right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent as part of attaining more ambitious climate action.”

But these gains, the group said, were overshadowed by the summit’s “biggest failure” in not taking aim at the world’s chief source of climate pollution.

“The biggest failure of this conference is the lack of a commitment to truly begin the end of the fossil fuel era,” the statement read. 

“Not even mentioning ‘fossil fuels’ in the so-called Mutirão decision is ignorance of the sources of greenhouse gases that causes more extreme impacts that the Philippines and other developing vulnerable nations are all too familiar with,” it added. 

The group underscored that the 1.5°C threshold under the Paris Agreement “has been breached, at least in the short term,” adding that with every COP where the fossil fuel crisis “is unaddressed or purposely ignored comes a shrinking window to still limit warming back to 1.5°C or lower and rising economic and non-economic losses and damages for the Philippines.”

The group also criticized the Philippine government for refusing to align with more than 80 nations backing a global transition away from fossil fuels. 

“This silence contradicts its overarching calls for climate justice to the global community and, as a country whose energy sector is highly privatized and still dominated by fossil fuel corporations, it sends the message that it prioritizes energy security and profit over the security and well-being of its most vulnerable communities,” the statement said.

AKP acknowledged that while “watered down from the needs of developing nations,” the commitment to triple adaptation finance by 2035 “is still a step forward” in supporting national programs, particularly the Philippines’ National Adaptation Plan and its ecosystem-based and nature-based approaches.

With the summit concluded, they said attention must now return to Manila. “With COP30 over, our eyes are now back on what the Philippine government does next. There is no climate justice without good governance. We need both now more than ever.”