COP30 Unpacked: A GYBN Roundtable Reflection on Youth, Forests and Hope
- Inês Guimarães & Manon Quet
- May 12
- 6 min read
The first roundtable of the Climate Change and Biodiversity Cycle started with insightful reflections from COP30, presented by Global Youth Biodiversity Network. We had the chance to hear Harveet Singh Purewal, a youth advocate involved in GYBN Europe and YOUNGO who attended the COP30 and shared with us his first-hand experience.
But, first, what exactly is COP30?
To give a bit of context, COP30 is the 30th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It took place in Belém, Brazil, from 10th to 21st November 2025. Every year, 190 member states come together and negotiate on what needs to be done to tackle the climate crisis and reach net-zero emissions by 2050. In addition to government representatives, many youth associations, scientists, civil society organisations, businesses, and Indigenous Peoples come to the COP to defend their interests and share their knowledge with the decision-makers.
In 2015, 190 states signed the Paris agreement at COP21 and agreed to limit global warming to 2°C above pre-industrial levels and preferably to 1.5°C. To implement this target, countries had to submit national climate plans every 5 years. In 2025, the year of COP30, countries had to submit their last strategic plans to reduce carbon emissions up to 2035. However, most countries failed to meet the deadline.
The three main topics of this COP were financing climate actions, the transition away from fossil fuels and the important role of forests. Indeed, the President of Brazil, Lula da Silva, announced the wish to create a fund to incentivize countries to protect their own forests.
Climate-biodiversity synergies
Harveet reminded us of the strong interlinkages between nature and climate. The environmental and climate crises cannot be solved separately, because both have similar causes due to human activities. Thus, they should be solved together at a global level. Therefore, GBYN advocated for the creation of policies that conjointly take into account climate and biodiversity while respecting human rights, namely Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge systems. Implementing synergetic policies has multiple benefits. It has been proven that strategic plans that incorporate land adaptation, climate action, and biodiversity restoration have lower costs for governments. These joint policies will also be more robust and increase resilience.
For the moment, two different global conferences exist for climate change issues, the UNFCCC, and for biodiversity issues, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). When they were created, the link between nature and climate was not as clearly identified.
COP30 sent a good signal towards a more holistic approach. Brazil, the host country, set the agenda and focused on tropical forests and deforestation. The critical role of the Amazon forest particularly resonated in discussions. Indeed, deforestation has a huge effect on climate change as trees release carbon when cut, but also because it results in biodiversity loss through habitat degradation. This year, we observed a shift - for the first time, biodiversity was taken into account in the climate negotiations.
Results from COP30: What actually happened?
The Deforestation Roadmap
Brazil’s presidency launched a deforestation roadmap with strong political backing, aiming to reverse global deforestation by 2030. Over the week, it got a lot of discussion and attention. It was linked to a roadmap on transitioning away from fossil fuels but this one was more controversial. In the end, there was no mention of the deforestation roadmap or the transitioning from fossil fuels in the final decision text. Why did it fail? The proposals came too late in the negotiation process.
TFFF (Tropical Forest Forever Facility)
First presented by the Brazilian government at COP28 and launched at COP30, the TFFF is designed to make forests worth more standing than cut down and to mobilise forest finance. Created outside the UNFCCC, it uses a blended-finance model (public money to incentivize private investment), which aims to create profit under performance-based payments to tropical forest countries for protecting their forests. The payments are based on countries maintaining their forest cover, recieving roughly $4 per hectare annually for standing native forests. At least 20% of a country’s payments are allocated to Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (resolving some issues within existing finance mechanisms like REDD+). All the while, strong human rights safeguards are needed, ensuring Free, Prior and Informed Consent for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, and strong environmental safeguards to prevent greenwashing.
Rio Conventions Synergies
Efforts to create a joint policy to fight the biodiversity-climate crisis were made. After holding technical negotiations on the topic in June 2025, consultations were held. There, countries submitted their views on the topic of 'cooperation with other international organisations', focusing on a binding decision on addressing climate change, biodiversity change and land degradation together. This was summarised in a draft text showing areas of interest, and before COP30 more countries and observers (including YOUNGO) submitted their positions. In the end, unfortunately , the negotiations were very tough and the parties all agreed to carry on these negotiations next year.
As Harveet reflected:
“So it was a bit of a mixed bag to me as a young [...] delegate there. It was quite disheartening, perhaps, because a lot of work and sort of lobbying and policy work had gone behind this item.”
What’s Next? Opportunities to Get Involved
The biodiversity COP17 will take place in Armenia this year. Across both the climate and biodiversity spaces, there are many ways to participate.
Ongoing and Upcoming Actions
YOUNGO collected views on the deforestation roadmap, asking what practical, ambitious, rights-respecting action should look like. A submission on real-world nature-climate synergies is due on 30 April.
Then, technical negotiations (where COP agendas are set) are ongoing. In May, CBD SBSTTA-26 will be a major moment: it’s the “year of implementation,” with a global review of countries’ progress toward international biodiversity goals. In June, the UNFCCC’s climate equivalent in Bonn (Germany) will help set the agenda for COP31 (which this year is in Turkey, Italy and Australia).
Some ways you can get involved
You can join GYBN and YOUNGO Youth Webinars or even attend a LCOY’s (Local Conference of Youth).
You can also contribute to the Global Youth statement on nature-based solutions or get involved in the YOUNGO Global Youth Statement.
You can also help with GYBN Europe’s COP17 task force to create a survey report showing decision makers how European youth are implementing UN global and biodiversity goals on the ground.
“We're trying to collect examples of that to highlight and show that youth have agency.”
Also you can organise with your own communities! In GYBN there is always the opportunity to create new chapters. If you're based in a country or you know people who want to mobilise over biodiversity or climate you can get in touch with GYBN and they are happy to put people in touch together.
You can also explore opportunities with CYMG (Child and Youth Major Group to UNEP).
“I’ve only been in this space for two years,” Harveet shared. “Everything I’ve learned has been from youth webinars and capacity-building events like this one. If you’re passionate, don’t doubt yourself.”
Reflections on Youth in Decision Making Spaces
Harveet described his first COP as overwhelming. A lot of people, a lot of negotiations happening at the same time, a lot of events and it was just very hectic. However, he advises us that the most important thing is to be confident and to believe in yourself.
He advises young people to find advocates who may already have experience in these spaces and talk to them. Share knowledge and learn from others. If you are in the room, recognize that as a privilege and use it to hold decision makers accountable, advocate for stronger policies, and ensure that we keep humans at the centre of all these discussions.
“It's very easy to get stuck in the weeds and talk a lot about carbon dioxide and CO2 numbers [...] but forgetting that there are actual people on the ground who have to live and try to get through their day-to-day lives.”
What Skills Do You Need to Enter These Spaces?
When asked what skills matter the most, Harveet answered: resilience is essential.There will be many rooms where you are the only young person, the only person of color, surrounded by high-level officials. The UN policy world was not built for young people, so the language, the processes, and the exclusivity can feel overwhelming.
As for practical skills, Harveet said that everyone has a role to play depending on one’s passions. We need policy people to ensure ambitious action; communicators and creatives to spread the message and community organizers to mobilize people.
Want to stay involved? Keep an eye on GYBN and YOUNGO’s upcoming webinars or reach out to start a local chapter. As Harveet reminded us, resilience and passion go a long way and there’s a role for everyone in this fight!
To join GYBN (the official youth engagement platform for the UN CBD biodiversity convention) head here: https://www.gybn.org/get-involved
If you would like to reach out to GYBN Europe specifically please email us at: gybn.europe@gmail.com.
To join YOUNGO (the official youth constituency for the UNFCCC climate convention) find more info here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18eatDBTHPKJLCzBS9lsE17tzi8mPys5MiXmsGPTNdlA/edit?tab=t.0
This Blog Post is written as a part of the Green Academy Project.
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