The call from the Amazon: Action and capital in Belem COP30
Belém do Pará was not just another city on the United Nations Conference of the Parties calendar. It was, as a Climate Change COP is often nicknamed, a crossroads of worlds: that of those who dream of saving forests, soils, mangroves, and cultures, with those who hold capital, markets, and decisions. It was a space where, for a moment, it was worth observing not only what was signed but also what remains to be done.
The layers of a COP that tries to reinvent itself
To expect a final COP text of agreements that meet everyone's expectations is a difficult task. However, there was progress on some fronts in Brazil.
The COP has, as two of our co founders have articulated, at least three layers:
The first: diplomatic negotiation. Drafts, meetings, and more drafts. A text that attempts to reach a consensus among 195 countries and not always achieves common ground.
The second: the Action Agenda, where cities, communities, businesses, farmers, Indigenous Peoples and other non-state actors present roadmaps, sectoral commitments, and practical alliances.
The third: mechanisms that do not require unanimity, only critical mass: funds, coalitions, direct investments, and financing levers.
If we only look at the first layer, disappointment usually appears. But if we observe all three, the story changes. And in Belém, that story showed movement, some timid, some bold, across all these layers.
What went well, and with sense
Let's review specifically what happened at the COP30 Climate Change Conference in Brazil. Through the paths of soil restoration, regenerative agriculture, bioeconomy, mangroves, capital mobilization, and new clean industries, we saw sprouts of what a real transition can look like.
Agricultural and Food Systems, once sidelined at COPs, is now recognised as a central element of the Action Agenda, alongside its wider linkages to nature, nutrition and livelihoods. A holistic and comprehensive set of Plans to Accelerate Solutions were showcased, building on existing initiatives across soil health, fertilisers, regenerative agriculture, aquatic foods, nutrition, food loss and waste, and more. Three new countries - Colombia, Italy, and Vietnam – joined the Alliance of Champions for Food Systems Transformation, signalling growing political leadership on these issues. The Action Agenda on Regenerative Landscapes – launched at COP28 – demonstrated its progress in mobilising more than $9 billion of private sector investment to reach 12 million farmers in over 110 countries. A new effort - the Resilient Agriculture Investment for net-Zero land degradation (RAIZ) – was launched to support restoration of degraded farmland, helping governments identify viable projects and build financing tools to attract private capital. The Belém Declaration on Fertilisers was also launched, increasing focus on this important topic. Frontline actors were visible and vocal and are increasingly recognised as critical to driving progress on climate and nature. The energy in Belém - the sense of urgency, peril and opportunity – in large part came from the demonstrations and interventions from these groups.
The emergence of the Bioeconomy showed that a bridge between nature conservation and development is possible. The creation of the Bioeconomy Challenge under the Action Agenda aims to consolidate a global model where forest, biotechnology, sustainable production, and community can coexist and be profitable.
Decarbonization experienced unprecedented progress. The launch of Build Clean Now, a global campaign to accelerate the clean industrial revolution, was celebrated. Its short-term ambition: to support 50 clean industrial projects to reach the Final Investment Decision (FID) between 2025 and 2026.
Mangroves and coastal zones, traditionally invisible, with The Mangrove Breakthrough among other partners, gained real space. With the launch of the Mangrove Catalytic Facility (MCF), 46 governments backing the commitment, and hundreds of millions mobilized, an architecture was built capable of transforming the way we invest in blue ecosystems. If capital flow toward mangroves continues to accelerate, protecting the coast ceases to be just environmentalism: it becomes investment logic.
Capital is no longer a distant promise, but a concrete commitment to restoration, regenerative production, and nature. This step from promise to investment is key for the decisions of this COP to transcend paper.
One example is The Earth Investment Engine, a public good and an integrated initiative designed to forge strong links between private capital and the pipeline of high impact nature opportunities. The goal is clear: to transform the estimated US $5.7 trillion in potential societal returns into reality by accelerating the deployment of private finance into the Bioeconomy.
The Riyadh Action Agenda (RAA), adopted at the UNCCD COP16 in December 2024, was strongly present in each of the events, alliances, discussions and negotiations that have the ultimate goal of restoring 1.5 billion hectares of degraded land by 2030. During COP30, the RAA announced that now it includes more than 100 supportive initiatives (with 18% from the private sector), with a bold call for 1,000 companies to adopt regenerative and land restoration practices by 2030.
What was left pending… and why it’s not surprising
But, as with any large-scale collective endeavor, there is still progress to be made. And precisely because of the complexity of the process, focus becomes crucial.
The final text of the COP once again skirted key issues: fossil fuels remain without an explicit plan to phase out; an absolute commitment to stop deforestation, despite being at the heart of the Amazon, was diluted. Not due to naivety, but due to political calculation: asking those who depend on those models to sign their own economic condemnation remains an uphill battle.
That demonstrates the limits of diplomatic consensus. Behind the final photo, many governments feel they are playing with their economic model, and good intentions are not enough: structural interests are at stake.
Concrete ambitions, such as restoring soils, scaling the bioeconomy, and investing in mangroves, require time, capacity, implementation, territorial governance, and monitoring. Converting promises into reality does not depend on the COP alone: it depends on what happens between one COP and the next.
There is a risk that, after the headlines and the applause in the hallways, inertia will return. That capital remains halted, that the urgency fades under fiscal balances, local disputes, or lack of technical resources. The COP provides the framework, but everything now rests on the real will of governments, companies, and investors.
And now what? The path that opens
To avoid losing momentum, so that the achievements of Belém do not remain mere promises, it will be fundamental to activate what has already been set in motion:
Leverage the MCF, RAIZ, AARL, Bioeconomy Challenge: All are structural mechanisms that seek to transform capital, market, and governance. If they function, they could literally change how we invest in nature, production, and resilience.
Strengthen collaboration among actors: Connecting banks, governments, communities, the private sector, frontliners and indigenous peoples. That spirit of “mutirão”, a collective, roll-up-your-sleeves push for implementation, that was felt in Belém must be convened again and again. Because the scale of the crisis demands collective and persistent mobilization.
Focus on territorial implementation: Restoring mangroves, regenerating soils, transforming agricultural chains, strengthening local bioeconomies, all of that requires technical support, social justice, monitoring, and transparency. Sustainability will not arrive alone.
Keep the ambition alive, beyond the headlines: Understand that the COP, with its limits and ambitions, is a common floor. The ceiling is built by those who act before, after, and between each conference. That means grounding delivery in local communities and, looking ahead to COP31, ensuring Pacific island realities are part of the center of gravity.
And always, remember that for the first time the Presidencies of the 3 ongoing COPs came together in the same place: Biodiversity from Colombia, Land and Soil from Saudi Arabia, and Climate, in Brazil; together sending a strong message of unity.
As this COP30 closed, no one expected miracles. But it is fair to acknowledge what has moved: new instruments, new frameworks, greater visibility for ecosystems, communities, and solutions. What was decided in Belém makes sense if it turns into capital, into policy, into ecology, into life. The difference between promise and real change depends on what we all do now. May the spirit of mutirão, that collective, diverse, committed energy, not be lost with the closing of the doors. May it be carried to every forest, every mangrove, every farm, every city. And may this cycle, this COP, be only the first page of a book that commits us to act with urgency, with coherence, with hope. And with them, capital, with real, balanced, structured and sustained financing over time. Great opportunities require significant capital for their implementation. Ideas must evolve and transform into viable and sustainable solutions. Because the time for waiting is over.
Now it is time to implement.