Notable developments and learning opportunities at COP30 (November 19)

• By: AWMA
• On: 11/20/2025 16:50:05
• In: COP 30
• Comments: 0

I continue to learn new things at the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, on November 10-21, 2025. This week I kept hearing new terms like Blue Foods, Blue Economy, then Blue NDC Challenge, so I realized I needed to dig deeper to better understand. Here is what I found.

Blue Foods are foods that come from aquatic environments: this includes wild-caught or farmed fish, shellfish, algae (like seaweed), and freshwater species.  They are increasingly being discussed as a climate solution because many blue foods have lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to terrestrial animal foods; they can contribute to food security and nutrition — especially in coastal and vulnerable communities — by providing high-protein and micronutrient-rich diets. Aquatic food systems (like seaweed farming) can be nature-based climate solutions.  At COP30, there's a side event highlighting “seaweed and aquatic foods” as blue solutions for climate resilience.  Research-support groups (e.g., Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions) are advocating integrating blue foods into national climate policy. This panel dialogue at the Indonesia Pavilion was especially helpful in my understanding.



The Blue Economy broadly refers to the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of the marine ecosystem.  It's not just traditional ocean industries (like fishing or shipping) — it also includes newer, more sustainable or “blue” sectors, such as: Offshore clean energy (wind, tidal); Blue carbon ecosystems (like mangroves, seagrasses) that store CO2; Regenerative tourism, marine conservation, and more.  At COP30, there's a concrete push: for instance, the One Ocean Partnership is launching a global regenerative-seascape network to mobilize ~US$ 20 billion for what they call a Regenerative Blue Economy.

The Blue NDC Challenge is an initiative to integrate ocean-based climate solutions into countries' NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions), which are their pledged climate actions under the Paris Agreement.  It's co-led by France and Brazil, supported by many partners like Ocean Conservancy, WRI, and Ocean & Climate Platform. The focus is on five “ocean breakthrough” sectors: Marine conservation; Aquatic food (fish, seaweed, etc.); Offshore renewable energy; Shipping; and Coastal tourism. The concept is to help governments get technical, policy, and financial support to scale up climate-positive ocean actions by 2030. At COP30, there was a push to turn the Challenge into a more formal “Implementation Taskforce” (called the Blue NDC Implementation Taskforce) to operationalize these ocean solutions.  

This “Blue” background is useful for understanding the first of several notable developments this past 24 hours:

• A new “Blue NDC Challenge” saw 17 countries commit to embedding ocean-based climate solutions into their national plans, plus new tools and funding for forests, mangroves, and salt-marshes.  
• Over 80 countries have joined a call at COP30 for a clear roadmap to phase out fossil fuels — signaling a shift from just pledging to action.  
• A landmark “Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change” was sealed, committing countries to fight climate misinformation, support climate journalism and strengthen public trust in climate data.  
• Vulnerable nations and those hit by climate disasters used the summit to press for stronger action and more financing, with one example being the Caribbean island of Jamaica emphasizing the immediacy of impacts.  
• The usual consensus-driven model of UN climate talks is under strain: some delegates question whether current structures can deliver the needed pace of change.  
• Although many countries support a fossil fuel phase-out roadmap, some fossil-fuel-dependent states (such as those with large oil or gas sectors) are resisting stronger language.  
• Youth activists and Indigenous groups are making strong demands: for example, they delivered a global youth statement calling for a “full, fast, fair fossil phase-out”.  

We are watching these potential developments in the coming days:

• Whether the draft negotiating text incorporates strong, measurable commitments (for example, specific timelines and support mechanisms) on phasing out fossil fuels and scaling up renewables.
• How finance flows toward adaptation, nature-based solutions and the Global South are addressed — especially whether richer countries ramp up their commitments.
• How the focus on ecosystems and nature-based solutions (oceans, forests, mangroves) gets reflected in implementation commitments, not just statements.
• Whether the “information integrity” agenda leads to concrete mechanisms to combat climate disinformation and enhance transparency.
• How the tensions between ambition and the realities of fossil-fuel economies are mediated in the final agreement.

Here are a few other interesting observations:

• The summit has a strong focus this year on oceans, coastal ecosystems and biodiversity, not just energy and emissions.  
• There's a growing spotlight on artificial intelligence at COP30: AI is being discussed as both a tool for climate action (e.g., forecasting, grid optimization) and a challenge (due to its energy use and environmental footprint).  
• The host country, Brazil, has actively pushed new proposals and tried to frame COP30 as a “turn to implementation” rather than just more pledges.  

The learning opportunities continue!

Ram Ramanan and Merlyn Hough, as official A&WMA observers of COP30, will be communicating back to the A&WMA members in real time through a blog that will be available to all members through the Association website. Posts from COP30 and previous COPs can be found on the A&WMA blog page at: https://www.awma.org/blog_home.asp?Category=12