COP30: When Promises Become Betrayals: Why the Time for Political Will Is Overdue

From the Amazon to every climate-frontline—our collective inaction today will echo as unforgivable tomorrow.

I write from a place of deep conviction, urgency, and yes—rising frustration. The words of Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, delivered at the opening of COP30 in Belém, Brazil, cut straight to the heart of this crisis:

“While climate disasters decimate the lives of millions, when we already have the solutions, this will never, ever be forgiven.” Common Dreams+2UNFCCC+2

That sentence underlines what many of us have known for years: this isn’t simply about ambition or hope. It is about moral obligation, plain and simple.

A Personal Note of Frustration

I have devoted my energy to forging the concept of Adaptive Resiliency—in our personal lives, our communities, and at the system level of climate and ecological policy. I believe deeply that we can and must build capacity to bend the trajectory of this emergency. And yet, what I feel today is anger. Not blind rage, but a steely frustration toward the absence of genuine political will.

– I’m angry that decades of summits—from the Paris Agreement onward—have generated more words than results.
– I’m frustrated that governments continue to negotiate while the world burns, floods, and starves.
– Most of all, I am exasperated that we have the tools—solar, wind, energy-efficiency, regenerative agriculture—yet still dither when these technologies and practices could be scaled now. Simon Stiell reminded us that “Solar and wind are now the lowest-cost power in 90 % of the world.” UNFCCC+1 If it makes economic sense, what excuse remains for inaction?

Why the Stakes Are So High

Let’s frame the urgency:

The emissions curve was meant to bend downward a decade ago. In Belém, Stiell said “we have so much more work to do.” UNFCCC+1
Through the imperfect lens of current national plans (NDCs), the world is headed for a temperature rise of 2.3-2.5 °C. Common Dreams
Meanwhile, climate events are no longer exotic headlines—they are everyday reality. Droughts, floods, storms, food-system collapse.
The message: this is about people, lives, justice. And the price of failing is falling hardest on those who least caused it.

Yes, this is personal to me: as curator of the Climate Tribe, as someone grounded in Buddhist-inspired ethics and collaborative learning, I feel accountable. When the global system fails to act, each of us bears part of that failure. And I refuse to accept that we simply observed this collapse. We must prevent it.

The Core: Where Political Will Is Missing

Here are realer reflections on where political will is lacking—and what it means for Adaptive Resiliency:

Ambition without implementation
Nations sign deals. They publish plans. But the trajectory remains too weak, too slow. Stiell urged that we must “move much, much faster on both reductions of emissions and strengthening resilience.” UNFCCC+1 Slow incrementalism is no longer acceptable.
Finance left behind
We heard the pledge of US $300 billion in climate finance; now the target is US $1.3 trillion. UNFCCC Yet developed countries and major emitters continue to lag in delivering. Without financing adaptation and transition for vulnerable nations, Ecological Resiliency is faltering.
Fossil-fuel inertia
It’s unconscionable. Lobbying from big extractors still dominates the halls of policy-making. Meanwhile, the damage keeps mounting. Stiell invoked the Amazon tributaries metaphor: the global effort must be powered by many streams of cooperation, not one slow-moving channel. Common Dreams+1 The leadership exists, but the cooperation often does not.
Equity and justice failures
Transitions cannot be just after the fact—they must be just from the start. The poorest and marginalised are already experiencing the fallout—yet they rarely shape the response. For Adaptive Resiliency to mean anything, it must embed inclusion, respect for Indigenous knowledge, and community-based solutions.
Short-term politics vs long-term survival
Some politicians worry about the next election or the next cycle. But climate change doesn’t care about political calendars. If we keep postponing action because it’s messy or politically inconvenient, what we build will be too little, too late.

What We Must Demand—and Build—Right Now

To shift from frustration to forward motion, here’s what the learners in our Climate Tribe — and I — must emphasise:

Demand accountability from governments and markets: It’s time to ask not only “What are you committing to?” but “How and when will you deliver?”
Scale solutions with urgency: The clean-energy transition, ecosystem restoration, resilience infrastructure—these must not sit in pilot mode. They must leap into mainstream.
**Strengthen the language of Adaptive Resiliency: This means preparing for what is happening, not just what could happen. It means empowering communities and systems to bounce back—and bounce forward—amid climate shock.
Elevate the voices of those on the frontlines: Indigenous communities, coastal towns, low-income nations—they aren’t footnotes. They are leading indicators of system failure and models of resilience.
Reveal and challenge power structures: If fossil-fuel interests keep influencing tables that decide energy futures, we must spotlight that. This is not about finger-pointing for its own sake; it’s about illuminating where the blockage lies.
Rise beyond blame to action: Yes, I am angry. Yes, I am frustrated. But frustration by itself accomplishes nothing. The energy of righteous anger can be channelled into building frameworks, nudging narratives, and forging coalitions that outpace procrastination.

A Call to My Fellow Learners

As your curator I urge you: let us not allow this moment at COP30 to become another missed chapter. Let us treat it as a turning point. In our learning sessions, our blogs, our private dialogues—we must ask the uncomfortable questions and insist on real outcomes.

I commit to bringing more of my reflections, my doubts, and my hopes into this space. I commit to building from the ground-up: places where Adaptive Resiliency becomes less an academic phrase and more a lived capacity. In doing so, we honour both people and planet—not because it’s easy, but because it is indispensable.

And yes—I will keep guard over my anger and frustration. Because they stem from care, from urgency, from the sacred belief that another world is possible. And I will convert them into purpose.

Final Word
When leaders like Simon Stiell declare that failure will “never, ever be forgiven,” those words echo across every forest burned, every harvest lost, every community displaced. We are in the age when promises without action become betrayals. The only way to redeem them is through boldness, speed, justice, and collaboration.

Let us rise to that challenge—not because the world may recover—it may not—but because our integrity demands it. The climate and ecological frontlines are our frontlines too. And we answer today.

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