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Driving
the Day:
The COP 30 host city of
Belém sits near the confluence of the Amazon River
and the Atlantic Ocean – where the world's
mightiest river system pours into the planet's
second-largest ocean. It's a city between two
worlds: freshwater and salt water, forest and
sea.
Walk through the local
Ver-o-Peso market, and you'll find açaí berries
piled high – the "superfood" that has transformed
from a local staple into a billion-dollar global
industry. Most of those berries come from small
family farms on river islands around Belém, where
farmers scale palm trees in the Amazon heat to
harvest clusters that must be processed within 24
hours or lose their value. These açaí farmers,
along with millions of other small and
medium-sized enterprises across the Amazon and
beyond, represent the front lines of climate
action: businesses simultaneously vulnerable to
climate shocks and essential to climate
solutions.
This is where nearly 200
countries have gathered for COP 30, and the
symbolism runs deep. Just as Belém sits at the
meeting point of ecosystems, the Global
Climate Action Agenda recognizes that solving
the climate crisis requires coordinated action
across all fronts – forests and oceans, energy and
agriculture, adaptation and mitigation. No single
sector holds all the answers.
Today's announcements span
this breadth: ocean protection strategies deployed
across tropical and temperate coastlines
worldwide, and new initiatives supporting the
small and medium-sized businesses that make up 90%
of the global economy. Through the Action Agenda,
both domains are developing the tools that have
proven effective elsewhere: recognition that
overlooked ecosystems matter, frameworks for
restoration that go beyond stopping damage,
catalytic financing to demonstrate economic value,
and tools for accountability.
Here are today’s
announcements…
USD 4
billion target announced for mangrove restoration,
while USD 5 billion target aims to restore 500,000
hectares of saltmarshes
Two announcements from Axis 2 of
the Global Climate Action Agenda shine a
spotlight on the wetland ecosystems that line the
world's coasts, buffering thousands of communities
from storms, flooding and sea-level rise. One
focuses on tropical and subtropical mangroves from
Indonesia to Mexico; the other on temperate
saltmarshes from the northeastern United States to
China. Together, they show the breadth and
robustness of coastal protection strategies being
deployed worldwide.
At COP 30, the Mangrove
Catalytic Facility announced a USD 80 million initial
fund designed to support the Mangrove
Breakthrough
target of unlocking USD 4 billion in total
investment by 2030. Rather than just funding
individual restoration projects, it's designed to
reshape how local financial institutions price
coastal risk and value mangrove protection. It
provides technical assistance to banks, develops
investment frameworks, and creates mechanisms that
make mangrove protection financially sustainable
beyond a single grant cycle.
Since the Mangrove
Breakthrough launched at COP27, it has tracked
over USD 750
million across more than 40 large-scale
projects. Forty-six governments representing 40%
of global mangrove coverage have endorsed the
effort. Countries like Jamaica are writing
mangrove protection into their national climate
plans, with targets to safeguard two-thirds of
their mangroves by 2033 and restore 7,000 hectares
by 2027.
Meanwhile, the Saltmarsh
Breakthrough launched today on Oceans Day at COP
30, by the Blue Marine Foundation, UK Center for
Ecology & Hydrology, and WWF. It announced its
goal of USD 5 billion in financing by 2030 and
plans to restore 500,000 hectares. Saltmarshes are
vanishing three times faster than forests –
drained and developed for agriculture, ports, or
simply paved over as humans built along
coastlines.
Saltmarshes capture carbon
up to 40 times
faster than forests – sucking CO2 from the
atmosphere and storing it in waterlogged soil
where it can't easily escape. When saltmarshes
die, they don't just stop sequestering carbon –
they start releasing it. The 326
million tonnes of CO2 released from saltmarsh
loss between 2000 and 2019 equals the annual
emissions of roughly 70 million cars. Every
hectare that disappears is a climate solution
switching sides.
Why it
matters:
Together, the Mangrove and
Saltmarsh Breakthroughs recognize that coastal
wetlands – whether tropical or temperate – are
among the most powerful climate allies. Both
ecosystems deliver what climate action desperately
needs: solutions that work on mitigation and
adaptation simultaneously. They sequester carbon
faster than forests while protecting communities
from storms and sea-level rise. They support
fisheries while filtering pollution. Lose them,
and the planet loses critical infrastructure for
climate resilience. Protect them, and the gain is
natural systems that become more valuable as
climate impacts intensify.
New
dashboard shows who’s delivering on ocean
goals
A new Ocean Breakthroughs
Dashboard will make it much easier to track
whether ocean commitments are being followed
through. For years, ocean promises have been easy
to make and difficult to track. Ambitious goals
are announced. Pledges are made to go
"ocean-positive." Commitments are celebrated but
who checks whether shipping companies actually
reduce emissions? Whether offshore wind projects
protect marine life? Whether sustainable fishing
practices spread beyond pilot programs?
The dashboard tracks five
critical ocean sectors – marine conservation,
shipping, coastal tourism, ocean renewable energy,
and seafood systems – and makes the data public.
These five sectors together could deliver up to
35% of the emissions cuts needed by 2050 to keep
warming under 1.5°C.
Why it
matters:
The dashboard's
significance isn't just that it tracks progress –
it's that it identifies gaps so they can be
solved. When it’s clear to see which targets are
being met and which ones are falling behind,
accountability is improved. When investors can
verify which companies are truly ocean-positive,
greenwashing becomes riskier.
One
Ocean Partnership announces USD 20 billion in
investment and 20 million square kilometres under
regenerative management
Also at COP 30, the One
Ocean Partnership announced a global network of
"Regenerative Seascapes" – large ocean areas where
the goal isn't just to stop degradation, but to
actively restore ocean health while creating
economic opportunity for the people who depend on
it. The targets are ambitious: USD 20 billion in
investment, 20 million square kilometres under
regenerative management (roughly 5% of the entire
ocean), 20 million hectares of critical ecosystems
conserved, and 20 million jobs created – all by
2030.
The word "regenerative" is
key. For decades, ocean conservation has operated
on a defensive model: marine protected areas where
human activity is restricted, fishing quotas that
aim to prevent collapse, pollution regulations
that limit damage. These approaches are necessary,
but they're essentially about doing less harm.
Regenerative approaches
flip the model. Instead of cordoning off areas and
hoping ecosystems recover on their own,
regenerative seascapes actively restore damaged
areas while designing human activities – fishing,
tourism, renewable energy, shipping – to support
rather than undermine ocean health.
A sustainable ocean economy
could create 51 million
new jobs by 2050, according to recent
estimates. But currently, ocean-based solutions
receive less than 2% of
global climate finance, despite the ocean
covering 71% of the planet and doing most of the
heavy lifting in regulating climate. The One Ocean
Partnership aims to fix that imbalance.
Why this
matters:
Imagine a coastal region
where sustainable fishing practices rebuild fish
stocks while creating jobs, where seagrass
restoration improves water quality while
sequestering carbon, where coastal tourism brings
income but tourism businesses invest in coral reef
protection, where offshore wind provides clean
energy but turbines are sited to avoid whale
migration routes. All of this coordinated, locally
led, and financially sustainable. The One Ocean
Partnership builds on proven models like the Great
Blue Wall Initiative in Africa, where regenerative
seascapes are already operating.
250+
global companies help small suppliers cut
emissions
One of the biggest pushes
on climate action landing in Belém this week came
from the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
that make up 90% of the world’s businesses. The Climate-Proofing SMEs Campaign,
now spanning 49 collaborators and reaching nearly
90 million SMEs, used COP 30 to deliver a slate of
announcements that show how the climate transition
is gaining momentum in the real economy.
More than 250 global
companies – including IKEA, Schneider Electric,
Tech Mahindra, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Natura –
are helping smaller suppliers cut emissions
and build resilience through supply chain
programmes. With Scope 3 emissions often reaching
70% of corporate footprints, this is where climate
ambition becomes operational.
Speaking from Belém, Nigar
Arpadarai, COP 29 Climate High-Level Champion, who
originally launched the Climate-Proofing SMEs
Campaign, said: “ Despite their
crucial role, many SMEs have not been given the
tools, the support, or the financial incentives
they need to take bold climate action. Two-thirds
of SMEs are already feeling the impacts of climate
change, and 63% of those committed to net zero say
they’ve never been asked to reduce emissions, with
84% not offered financial incentives to do so”.
Campaign collaborators also
highlighted how multilateral development banks,
development finance institutions, and commercial
banks are redesigning instruments so that climate
finance reaches small businesses in the developing
countries where climate impacts hit hardest and
solutions scale fastest.
Two announcements stood
out:
- Sebrae’s new Empreender Clima Platform,
with Organização de Estados Ibero-americanos
(OEI), Ministério do Empreendedorismo, da
Microempresa e da Empresa de Pequeno Porte
(MEMP) and Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento
Econômico e Social (BNDES), will open access to
climate finance – including subsidized credit
lines – alongside sustainability training,
environmental tools, mentorship and links to new
green markets.
- The launch of the South-South Collective for Climate
(S2C2), backed by climate-tech leaders in
Brazil and India, aims to support 5,000+ climate
start-ups by 2030, generating solutions that
could cut or avoid 1 gigaton of emissions across
Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and beyond.
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