Day 2: The Frontline of Climate Action

While Day 1 of COP30 saw numerous speeches on the climate urgency, Day 2 needed no words to underscore the climate crisis. That message was delivered instead by Typhoon Fung-wong. As the conference continues, the Philippines is dealing with the impacts of not one, but two typhoons. Just after being hit by one of its deadliest typhoons on record – typhoon Kalmaegi, which killed 232 people – the nation has now been forced to evacuate 1.4 million people into emergency shelters to escape this storm. Ten lives have been lost to flash floods, landslides, and storm damage.

This is a reminder of the objective of COP, which was set up to stop future warming while managing the escalating impacts already devastating vulnerable communities.

Yearbook of Global Climate Action 2025

The UN Climate Change chose Day 2 to publish the Yearbook of Global Climate Action 2025 which describes progress made since 2015 and the necessary implementation for the decade ahead.  The report focuses on Non-Party Stakeholders (NPS) – actors outside of formal governments – such as cities, regions, businesses, and investors. It aims to track the progress made in line with the outcome from the first Global Stocktake – an outlook of the impacts of global progress -  conducted in 2023 at COP28 in Dubai. The report also proposes a new set of socio-economic indicators to track progress, facilitate implementation, increase transparency and comparability over the years.   

The findings of the Yearbook are structured around six thematic axes:

1. Energy, Industry, and Transport

2. Stewarding Forests, Oceans, and Biodiversity

3. Transforming Agriculture and Food Systems

4. Building Resilience for Cities, Infrastructure and Water

5. Fostering Human and Social Development

6. Unleashing Enablers and Accelerators, including on Finance, Technology, and Capacity Building.

This report highlights the crucial role NPS are playing in transforming the systems that cause global warming. The proof lies in the numbers (and in the map below): on the UN’s official registry for climate action (NAZCA), participating companies, investors, and organisations have more than doubled from 18.000 in 2020 to over 43.000 in 2025. Similarly, Cooperative Climate Initiatives (CCI) – voluntary efforts to achieve a climate-related goal – have increased from 149 to 243. This growing momentum is a powerful force, and the focus for the following two weeks must be on how COP30 can harness it.

Although momentum across all axes is showcased, the results of the progress made are varied:

1. Clean-to-fossil investment in electricity generation reached a ratio of 10:1 in 2024, however grid investment remains critically low (note: total clean-to-fossil investment ratio is closer to 2:1).

2. Forest finance nearly quadrupled, yet deforestation worsened.

3. GHG emissions intensity has declined across agricultural practices, however food loss and waste increased.

4. Disaster mortality numbers have halved, however 1.1 billion still live in slums or informal settlements.

5. Renewable energy jobs grew; however, the green talent gap is widening as demand grows faster than supply.

6. Lastly, total climate finance flows tripled, and yet fossil subsidies have also increased.

This report makes one thing undeniably clear: momentum is growing but huge gaps remain in climate action. Therefore, the world needs the contribution of non-state actors in supporting the UNFCCC process and national mitigation and adaptation goals. This is where subnational and local leadership becomes indispensable. The day’s discussions focused on this very topic – turning ambition into concrete results in cities, and in how we manage our infrastructure, water, and waste.

Multilevel Governance for Climate Action

One of the first High-Level Ministerial talks of the day on Multilevel Governance, reinforced that successfully fighting climate change requires collaboration across all levels of government – national, regional, and local – alongside private sectors and communities.

The key to making this happen is a coalition launched at last year’s COP28, called CHAMP (the Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships). Its objective is to streamline collaboration between national governments and the cities and local communities delivering the results.

Brazil stepped up as the first endorser of CHAMP by launching the “Plan to Acceleration on Multilevel Governance” – aimed at uniting countries, subnational networks, and finance partners to align national commitments with local priorities. The plan is designed to be a practical model that other countries can replicate.

Therefore, Brazil tends to promote a new way of governing climate action, one where local leaders have a direct role in turning global commitments into local reality.

Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, was set on representing how cooperation between local leaderships can be more powerful than national governments. California is set to be the state leader of low-carbon green growth despite the Trump administrations’ views. Currently, California is the fourth largest economy in the world that runs on two thirds of renewable energy with some portions of the day powered by 100% renewables – a result of a strong state targeted policies. Newsom recognises the importance of climate action by pledging to extent their CAPEX investment support for renewables to 2045 as well by condemning Trump’s decisions within the climate change landscape. He reinforces the message that empowering local communities and governments to implement initiatives is crucial within the future we envision.

Waste Management and Circular Economy

Meanwhile, in another room, ministers came together to tackle the topic of waste management and circular economy. The central focus of this event was to launch a new initiative called No Organic Waste (NOW) Plan which commits $30 million to cut 30% of methane emissions from organic waste by 2030.

The objectives of this talk were to highlight the potential outcomes from improving waste management to achieve a circular economy:

• Reduction of 1 million tonnes of methane emissions

• 50% of food waste prevented by 2030

• 1 million waste pickers and informal works integrated into formal systems

• and the mobilisation of over $10 billion in international support for circular economy infrastructure and solutions.

  
  

These goals prove that better waste management can deliver significant environmental, economic, and social benefits globally. Waste management is an integral part of fighting against climate change and cannot be ignored.

Youth and Indigenous Peoples

Throughout the day, speakers from Africa, Eastern Europe, the Americas, the Pacific, Asia-Pacific, The Arctic, and the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform (LCIPP) spoke about the critical role of indigenous knowledge in the fight against climate change and the shaping of the green transition.

A clear unity emerged from their messages. In all parts of the world, indigenous peoples have been marginalised and their voices ignored in development planning. It is imperative, in the spirit of Mutirão, that their knowledge is finally integrated into climate solutions.

This is especially relevant to the growth of renewable energy, which relies on natural sources like rivers, wind, and land. Speakers pointed out that some green energy projects are repeating the patterns of the past by ignoring the right to self-determination, imposing wind farms and hydro plants on their land without consent – a sign of what some call “climate colonialism”. Furthermore, as reinforced on the opening day of COP30, protecting and regenerating natural land is crucial – a principle that echoes the Indigenous worldview that nature is not just a resource, but holds intrinsic value.

Discussions also raised concerns about Artificial Intelligence. The energy-intensive processes powering AI require billions of dollars invested in data centres, which speakers argued perpetuates our resource and greenhouse gas problems rather than solving them. AI demands vast amounts of power, water, and land – resources that continue to be taken from indigenous peoples. Additionally, indigenous traditional knowledge is being collected to feed AI systems without consent. Therefore, Indigenous Peoples are urging nations to prioritise their wisdom over AI, stating that while AI offers information, it cannot replace generations of lived wisdom.

Their message was further reinforced when protesters broke into COP30 in the evening while carrying signs reading “our forests are not for sale”. The Amazon as the chosen location for hosting delegates from around the world was a controversial decision, especially amongst its residents. Concerned about the environmental damage caused by deforestation and climate change, leaders of communities expressed that “we want our lands free from agribusiness, oil exploration, illegal miners and illegal loggers”.

The second day of COP30 also gave space to the youth, recognising that younger generations and children will face the worst impacts of climate change. The main takeaway was that it is essential to put them at the heart of the conference’s decisions.

The stakes for them are already clear. It is estimated that 1 in 7 children globally have had their education disrupted by extreme weather events. A stark and recent example is Typhoon Fung-wong, which has displaced an estimated 470.000 children from their homes and schools.

Concluding Remarks

The second day of COP30 built on the momentum of the opening day with talks around implementation on different matters including:

• Progress indicators to enhance accountability and transparency

• Improved governance framework to translate national climate strategies into local action plans

• Improved waste management and circular economy to transform waste into valuable resources.

The key takeaways from today’s talks are that effective global climate action requires contributions from every level of society – from national to municipal leaders. National plans are not effective without the people to execute them. Fortunately, global progress has gained momentum over the last 10 years, however, that momentum needs to accelerate at a much faster pace if we are to align with the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

Therefore, industry associations and professional bodies must engage with their members and lead their sectors and industries through the green transition by providing low-carbon solutions and strategies.

Climate Action for Associations (CAFA) are attending COP30 as official NGO Observer. This year we are attending in a virtual capacity, providing our members with direct reporting from the heart of the negotiations. We are committed to delivering daily insights and a comprehensive end-of-COP report to ensure you stay fully informed on the outcomes that matter to membership organisations and their members.

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