Belém — 14 November 2025, On COP30 Day 4, the center of gravity shifted from negotiating rooms to people’s lives. Ministers of health, education and justice, youth leaders, judges, funders and standard-setters converged in Belém around a simple proposition: adaptation begins with protecting health, expanding knowledge and defending rights in a warming world.
The day opened with the adoption of the Belém Health Action Plan, a joint effort by Brazil and the World Health Organization that many delegates quickly described as a turning point at the health–climate nexus. Backed by new philanthropic finance and broad political support, it seeks to turn climate-resilient health systems from aspiration into statecraft.
Health at the front line of climate risk
The Belém Health Action Plan provides a roadmap for countries to adapt their health sectors to climate change, strengthening surveillance, capacity, innovation and evidence-based policymaking while centering equity and justice. It has already secured 80 endorsements, including 30 countries and 50 partners from civil society and international organizations, and an initial USD 300 million from the Climate and Health Funders Coalition, whose more than 35 philanthropies include The Rockefeller Foundation, Wellcome Trust and IKEA Foundation.
“Protecting health in a changing climate demands a whole of society approach,” said Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, calling the Belém Health Action Plan “a vital step forward” that integrates adaptation, equity and climate justice.
Brazil’s Minister of Health Alexandre Padilha described the plan as a necessary response to an “already altered climate,” arguing that there is no alternative for governments but to adapt and confront climate change through public policy.
Youth leadership gave the agenda a human face. In the Green Zone, COP30 Youth Climate Champion Marcele Oliveira joined Brazil’s vaccination mascot Zé Gotinha and COP30’s forest-guardian mascot Curupira to highlight how universal health systems and vaccines shield vulnerable communities from climate-related health risks. She pointed to Brazil’s Unified Health System as a guarantee of life and reduced inequality and urged that similar protections be extended elsewhere.
Education as an engine of resilient societies
The day’s focus on human well-being extended into classrooms. At the annual Greening Education Partnership meeting, ministers of education, partners and educators explored how schooling can drive climate action rather than simply describe climate risk. Hosted by Brazil’s Ministry of Education and co-organized by UNESCO, the session showcased innovations from curricula to assessments designed to embed climate literacy throughout education systems.
A key outcome was the launch of the draft PISA framework on climate literacy, defining the knowledge, skills and attitudes students need to support climate goals.
“We need education to prepare students, not only to understand the world, but to change it,” said Camilo Santana, Brazil’s Minister of Education, underscoring the role of schools in equipping the next generation to lead adaptation from the ground up.
Justice, rights and debt relief as adaptation tools
Justice systems moved into the climate spotlight with Justice Day, an initiative of Brazil’s entire judiciary. Judges and legal experts examined how courts can promote climate justice, enforce rights of nature and ensure fair responses to the environmental emergency.
“The Judiciary is capable of inducing behaviour and promoting climate justice, consolidating itself as an active agent in the transformation required by the environmental emergency,” said Justice Edson Fachin, President of the National Council of Justice and the Federal Supreme Court.
COP30 President Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago linked this to the broader ambition for Belém to be both a “COP of truth” and a “COP of implementation,” stressing that laws and decisions must now translate into action.
For Marina Silva, Brazil’s Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, ethics and justice are inseparable from climate policy. She argued that once the scientific impacts of current development models are known, they cannot be considered fair, adding that “every time you punish a climate offender, it is an act of love for humanity and for the offender themselves.”
Debt and risk management also featured as instruments of resilience. The Inter-American Development Bank, CAF and the Caribbean Development Bank launched a Multi-Guarantor Debt-for-Resilience Joint Initiative, offering a streamlined framework for debt-for-resilience swaps that align each transaction with national development and debt strategies.
At the same time, the Fostering Investible National Planning and Implementation initiative, or FINI, was unveiled to convert National Adaptation Plans into investable project pipelines. Led by the Atlantic Council’s Climate Resilience Center and NRDC, FINI aims to generate USD 1 trillion in adaptation project pipelines by 2028, with 20 percent from private investors and USD 500 million from multilateral and philanthropic partners for risk assessment and local capacity building.
Early warning, information integrity and the next frontier
A high-level event presented the 2025 Global Status report on Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems, showing that more than 60 percent of countries now have such systems in place. To expand and strengthen coverage, the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems initiative launched its Strategy 2030 with support from Luxembourg, Monaco, Norway and others, while Belgium, Ireland and Spain announced new contributions to the Systematic Observations Financing Facility to improve surface weather observations.
Recognizing that resilient societies also depend on accurate information, Brazil showcased its role as the first country to establish a national chapter of the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change. Co-led by the Environment, Foreign Affairs and Communications ministries, and supported by civil society through the RPIIC network, the effort is producing tools to counter misinformation and support evidence-based climate action.
“With governments, international organizations, civil society, and academia working together, we are increasingly well-positioned to ensure that people have access to reliable, high-quality information to act on the climate crisis,” said Nina Santos, Deputy Secretary of Digital Policies at SECOM.
The Sumaúma Pledging Tree for Human Rights-Based Climate Action added a symbolic and procedural anchor, launching a pledge drive from COP30 to COP31 that will mobilize commitments to ensure human rights are protected in climate policy, with pledges to be publicly showcased at the next summit.
By the close of COP30 Day 4, a pattern had emerged. Health systems, schools, courts, debt managers, meteorological services and digital regulators were no longer observers of climate negotiations. In Belém, they became co-architects of resilience, signalling that future adaptation will be judged by how well it protects people, not only how it balances emissions.
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