In 2015, at the 21st U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP21), 195 countries around the world launched the Paris Agreement, an historic effort to save the planet, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and respond to the climate crisis. IATP reported at the time on the promise of the Paris Agreement, but also the challenges for agriculture, including the lack of emission reduction goals for industrial farming, the reliance on loophole-ridden carbon markets, and the enormous pushback coming from global agribusiness to taking substantive climate action.
Ten years later, countries are meeting in Belém, Brazil for COP30, a milestone meeting where nations must update and strengthen their climate targets set as part of the Paris Agreement. The Trump administration’s decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement casts a dark shadow over COP30. The absence of the world’s largest historical climate polluter, and still the largest polluter per capita, could lower the pressure for other countries to set stronger climate targets, or open the door for new global leadership.
This is also the first climate COP since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in an advisory opinion in July that countries have a legal obligation to address the “urgent and existential threat” of climate change. While Paris Agreement commitments are voluntary, with no enforcement mechanism, the ICJ decision affirmed that countries that fail to take effective action on climate — including countries like the U.S. that have withdrawn from the agreement — can be held legally liable for climate-related harm.
IATP will be tracking countries’ updated climate plans, including how they directly respond to the greenhouse gas emissions tied to the factory farm system of animal production and the overuse of synthetic fertilizers. And we’ve contributed to an updated Land Gap report to be released at COP30 analyzing countries’ deforestation targets and the role of agriculture commodity trade in undermining deforestation goals. In September, IATP joined over 100 groups in calling for countries to set binding emission targets for industrial agriculture and invest in a just transition toward less emitting, more resilient agroecological systems of farming.
We will also be analyzing COP30 decisions that will create new rules for a global carbon market, known as Article 6.2 (rules for countries) and Article 6.4 (rules for private actors). IATP has written extensively about the problems of carbon markets, particularly when using agriculture as an offset, and is tracking these negotiations closely.
COP30 also represents the halfway point for the Global Methane Pledge, a commitment to reduce methane emissions by 30% (from 2020 levels) by 2030. Agriculture — particularly from ruminants like cattle — is the largest source of human-caused methane globally, yet governments have been slow to address agricultural emissions. IATP and partners released a report last month finding that the greenhouse gas emissions, including methane, from 45 of the largest meat and dairy companies were equivalent to many countries and even fossil fuel companies like Exxon, Shell and BP. We will be tracking what countries and companies are saying about agriculture methane.
The costs of the climate crisis continue to grow. Despite the Trump administration’s climate denial, the cost of extreme weather events in the U.S. is on a record pace in 2025. The financial risk to some of the world’s largest economies is expected to triple by 2050. Climate-related events have been closely tied to recent food price shocks around the world. COP30 is yet another urgent opportunity to shape the world’s future and hold countries to account to slow the acceleration of climate change.
