Virtual pre-COP30 summit calls for more ambitious climate action

The meeting brought together 17 heads of state and government from the world's largest economies, including China, as well as leaders from the African Union, the European Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

The two-hour closed-door session sought to build momentum for stronger national climate action plans, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), ahead of the UN climate change conference, COP30. This will be hosted in Brazil in November 2025.

So far, only about 10% of the 196 signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have submitted their revised NDCs. 

The original deadline was February, but was extended to September. 

NDCs are the targets set by each country to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming to 1.5ºC, as set out in the Paris Agreement.

"We want to make COP30 a major collective effort to deliver on climate commitments. The planet is tired of unfulfilled promises. This year, all countries must present their new NDCs with targets to reduce carbon emissions by 2035," said President Lula during the meeting. He also stressed that multilateralism and internationalism are "the cornerstones of the global response to climate change.”

COP30 Presidency

Guterres appealed to leaders to submit the “strongest possible” climate action plans which align with the 1.5 °C  target of the Paris Agreement, to accelerate the transition to clean energy and to honour commitments on climate financing for adaptation.

“Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, the projected global warming-curve has been bent down — from over four degrees of temperature rise within this century, to 2.6 degrees if current national climate action plans are fully implemented,” said Mr Guterres.

“But that is catastrophic so we must go further and faster,” he told a press conference after the meeting.

Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed his commitment to multilateralism, international cooperation, the just transition and results-oriented action.  

“Instead of talking the talk, we must walk the walk. We must turn our goals into tangible results through systematic policies and concrete measures. All parties should do their utmost to formulate and implement their program of action for nationally determined contributions (NDCs) while coordinating economic development and energy transition,” said the Chinese President. China will announce its NDCs before COP30 in Belem, he said.

State of Climate

The urgency of climate action was underlined by WMO’s State of the Global Climate report, which confirmed that 2024 was likely the first calendar year to be more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial era, with a global mean near-surface temperature of 1.55 ± 0.13 °C above the 1850-1900 average. This is the warmest year in the 175-year observational record.

Long-term global warming is currently estimated to be between 1.34 and 1.41 °C compared to the 1850-1900 baseline based on a range of methods. A WMO team of international experts is examining this further in order to ensure consistent, reliable tracking of long-term global temperature changes to be aligned with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Regardless of the methodology used, every fraction of a degree of warming matters and increases risks and costs to society.

All leading climate indicators give cause for alarm.

• Atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide are at the highest levels in the last 800,000 years.
• Globally each of the past ten years were individually the ten warmest years on record.
• Each of the past eight years has set a new record for ocean heat content.
• The 18 lowest Arctic sea-ice extents on record were all in the past 18 years.
• The three lowest Antarctic ice extents were in the past three years.
• The largest three-year loss of glacier mass on record occurred in the past three years.
• The rate of sea level rise has doubled since satellite measurements began.

The trend of exceptionally high temperatures and ice retreat has continued into 2025.

Arctic sea ice reached its annual post-winter maximum in March and was the lowest maximum in the 47-year satellite record, according to the US National Snow and Ice Data Center. The Antarctic post-summer minimum sea ice extent was the second lowest on record. 

Globally, it was the second warmest March on record, after 2024, according to both the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the EU Copernicus Climate Change Service. 

WMO will present a State of the Global Climate 2025 Update to inform decision-makers at COP30.