A Call for a Climate Leadership Pledge to Strengthen the COP Process

November 10, 2025

It is clear based on the level of participation and announcements made during the 2025 UN General Assembly High-Level Week that the vast majority of countries are committed to the multilateral system as the platform that brings them together to push for climate progress and action. Yet, it is also clear based on outcomes from the last several Conferences of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – and commentary from a growing chorus of civil society organizations and experts around the world – that the COP process is not delivering at the pace or scale needed to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement as we approach the 10-year anniversary of its adoption.

It is against this backdrop that we are calling on current and future COP leaders to commit to a fundamental set of principles, a Climate Leadership Pledge, that will safeguard and strengthen the COP to equip it to effectively confront the climate challenge and deliver ambitious climate action and accountability, today and in the future.

The COP Presidency has over time become an influential and coveted role, shown by the strong and persistent campaigns by two countries to host COP 31 and Brazil’s efforts to evolve the process, including positioning the Action Agenda to serve an increased implementation role. It is therefore critical to meeting the objectives of the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement that COP Presidencies set a positive example and shepherd parties through a process that urgently raises collective ambition on climate change.

Specifically, we are asking COP Presidencies – including those vying to host COP 31 – to pledge to:

1) Maintain a national climate action plan that reflects the COP host country’s highest possible ambition, is progressively more demanding over time, aligns with the goals of the Paris Agreement, including keeping temperature rise limited to 1.5C, and upholds the State’s climate obligations under international law, as confirmed by the International Court of Justice in its advisory opinion on climate change.

2) Lead the implementation of the agreed-upon decision to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner.

3) Take proactive measures to prevent the fossil fuel industry and other actors whose interests lie contrary to the goals of the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement from lowering ambition and blocking outcomes that will set the world on a path to transition away from fossil fuels. This can be done by ensuring Presidency staff and host country delegations do not include industry representation, using diplomatic engagement only to progress the objectives of the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement, supporting the establishment of a stringent Accountability Framework to protect against undue influence of polluting interests, and blocking sponsorships and contracts that could present such a conflict of interest. These steps will set examples that all Parties should follow over time.

4) Ensure the protection of human rights and civic space, including by putting measures in place to uphold the rights of freedom of expression and assembly in the context of COPs, and by advancing a stronger and more meaningful voice and participation of those most affected by the climate crisis, through direct engagement in the negotiations themselves to provide constructive inputs and offer the localized solutions needed for implementation.

5) Support reform of decision-making procedures at COP, to allow for majority-voting when consensus is blocked, including by holding consultations on the matter in accordance with standing agenda items mandating the Presidency to do so.

6) Build on COP 30 inroads and continue to strengthen the role of science, including by giving science and scientists more prominent roles in the Heads of State Summit and throughout the COP.

7) Build a strong and clearly understood implementation ecosystem, which clarifies the purpose of implementation frameworks and governance systems and ensures accountability measures and guardrails across the entire eco system and its individual parts.

8) Use the Belém experience to analyze what needs to happen at the COP meetings themselves and what can be done elsewhere – to ensure the attention of world leaders and climate negotiators stays focused on the most critical climate issues and areas for impact.

We recognize this approach focuses largely on emissions reduction and much work remains to ensure that developed countries fulfil their legal obligations to provide financing to Global South nations for mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage, supporting States to build resilient, thriving economies and societies ready for a warming world. The COP Presidency also holds a responsibility to lead towards these ends.

Climate leadership demands a demonstrated commitment to making the climate COP a forum for effective multilateral cooperation, capable of acting on the unequivocal science showing the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels and delivering the climate justice that communities around the world deserve.

This is the decisive decade, and COP 30 is the moment where climate leadership is most needed and cannot be squandered. Ten years after the Paris Agreement the world needs a leadership commitment that is comparable to current and future challenges and is fit for purpose.  Adopting a Climate Leadership Pledge anchored in the above core principles would ensure future COPs are fit for the purpose to address the climate crisis and secure a livable future for all.