COP30 in Belém: forests at the heart of climate finance

COP30 was held in Belém, in the heart of the Amazon, from 10 to 21 November 2025 — for the tenth anniversary of the Paris Agreement. While the summit disappointed on phasing out fossil fuels, it marked a turning point for forest finance and confirmed the centrality of carbon markets.

The Tropical Forest Forever Facility

Belém's flagship launch is the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), an unprecedented mechanism to reward countries that conserve their tropical forests on the basis of verified results. During negotiations, the fund mobilised over $6.6 billion, with the support of some fifty countries.

Described as "the largest forest-finance mechanism ever created", the TFFF ultimately aims to raise $125 billion from States, philanthropy and private investors, to support up to 74 tropical-forest countries — from the Amazon to the Congo Basin. The fund was, however, criticised by 150 civil-society and Indigenous organisations, who argued it does not address the structural causes of deforestation.

Article 6 moves to implementation

A year after COP29's historic agreement, the conversation shifted from negotiating the rules to implementing them. The growing number of bilateral agreements and NDCs prioritising Article 6 confirms that these markets are now central to global decarbonisation.

Trade enters the negotiations

For the first time, trade — including carbon border measures such as the EU's CBAM — was discussed within formal negotiations, a sign of the growing importance of the trade-climate link.

Belém did not settle the fossil-fuel question, but it enshrined one idea: it will be impossible to mobilise the expected climate finance without carbon markets.