Essay by Eric Worrall
The new Virgin Amazon Rainforest highway appears to connect the upmarket end of town to the conference center, via the Red Light District.
03 November 2025 | Climate Change, News, Social
COP 30 – a turning point for climate, human rights and the finance sector?
This year’s COP30 takes place in the wake of the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) ruling in July 2025, positioning the discussions in Brazil this November to break new ground for human rights. This article explains how the ruling not only has far-reaching implications for States’ obligations but outlines the business opportunities it opens up for financial institutions, the risks of ignoring a consideration of human rights, and provides examples of innovation already taking place in the finance sector.
The conclusions of the ICJ confirmed the UN General Assembly’s 2022 resolution recognizing a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a foundational human right, acknowledging that it is necessary for the enjoyment of all other human rights. This means States that are party to international treaties, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, must now address climate change as part of their human rights obligations. COP30 therefore presents a unique opportunity to build on this momentum and place human rights at the heart of climate action.
The ruling has far-reaching implications for States’ obligations, but the increased actions taken by States to ensure compliance could create business opportunities for financial institutions (FIs) to support mitigation and adaptation measures. The ruling might also generate greater regulatory incentives or pressure on those States seeking to avoid liability for the omissions or inaction of non-state actors such as real-economy companies and financiers. Exactly what this will mean for commercial enterprises remains to be seen, however, it does make clear the direction of travel, and as such, provides new momentum to opportunities that centre human rights alongside climate change.
This development is part of a broader shift ushering the finance sector towards adopting practices that embed human rights considerations into its response to climate change. Impacts of climate change that may once have seemed irrelevant are steadily becoming material risks to banks and insurers, including the human impact of the changes that are occurring. Regulators and investors are increasingly seeking to drive positive action on this front, and that trend looks set to continue. Financial institutions now have a chance to be proactive, demonstrate leadership, and position themselves at the forefront of emerging opportunities in sustainable finance.
Banks and insurance companies already have in place many processes that can effectively support this agenda, and some are already forging ahead. Indeed, due diligence and know–your–client mechanisms, for instance, provide opportunities to integrate human rights into their processes. UNEP FI has developed tools for financial institutions, such as the Human Rights Toolkit, specifically designed to assist with the integration of human rights due diligence into standard practice. However, the Court’s ruling sets an even broader challenge: addressing the interdependence between environmental protection and restauration including climate action, and human rights protection and promotion will require stronger collaboration across teams within financial institutions and greater efforts to integrate environmental and social processes that too often operate in isolation.
Another powerful way forward for the integration of human rights into finance is through adopting Just Transition principles into strategy and operations. Key to the concept is the idea that the transition to a greener economy can, and must, be done in such a way that individuals and communities also benefit, from creating new jobs, improving existing livelihoods, or cleaner air quality. For banks, among other things, this means directing capital towards enabling the real economy to shift towards environmental sustainability while fostering societal resilience. For insurers, there is scope to contribute both as investors and in the provision of products and services that enhance resilience and bolster the economic viability of businesses that generate livelihoods.
There are many examples of banks grasping these opportunities and innovating in a socially positive way. For example, Triodos Bank, United Kingdom provided GBP 3 million of new senior debt alongside over GBP 500,000 from a community bond offer to bring a solar farm to full community ownership, generating enough renewable electricity to power 825 homes each year. BNP Paribas’s My Sustainable Home initiative supports the decarbonisation of residential real estate by assisting customers to find the subsidies and grants available to make their homes more energy efficient and identifying accessible and affordable lending solutions for younger customers.
Insurers too are responding in innovative ways to emerging challenges. In the Philippines, for example, Pioneer Life Insurance recognized that climate change—through rising temperatures and increased flooding—was driving the spread of mosquito-borne diseases like dengue. They launched MediCash — Dengue Insurance to help families manage the resulting financial shocks. Hollard Zambia, an insurer that is part of the Hollard Group from South Africa, developed a bundled solution for micro business owners, offering insurance for about 2 USD per month to help them strengthen their climate resilience.
These examples all illustrate the innovative and positive ways that financial institutions can engage with the human impact of climate change to protect the life, dignity and livelihoods of communities around the world. COP30 represents an opportunity to refocus our collective efforts on maintaining a liveable world for the flora and fauna, as well as the many and diverse people that inhabit it.
For further information and guidance, access the UNEP FI Human Rights Toolkit and the UNEP FI-ILO report Just Transition Finance – pathways for banking and insurance guidance.
To learn more, please join the UNEP FI Human Rights Day webinar in December 2025.
Source: https://www.unepfi.org/themes/climate-change/cop-30-a-turning-point-for-climate-human-rights-and-the-finance-sector/
The new highway also appears to pass close to some luxurious sounding rainforest retreat style accomodation.
What can I say? Clearly Brazil have gone the extra mile to accomodate delegates. But with the USA a no-show, I doubt there will be much actual cash on the table.
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“Human rights”? I am sure George Orwell would be able to do an essay on that.
Just outside the airport in Sao Palo, one can view children rummaging through a big landfill.
”a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a foundational human right, acknowledging that it is necessary for the enjoyment of all other human rights”
Just take a look at Google Street View and see how 90% of Belém residents live. You can’t see the remaining 10% because they live in gated communities with a three-meter-high wall or fence with private security and no Street View.
CoP30
Figueres and many of more than three dozen experts interviewed by The Associated Press said negotiators have already pinned down the goal. What’s needed now is more money “ – AP News
Everybody needs more money. Especially me.
C3PO is cool.
It’s just a bit too much fuzz for a single character star wars convention..
Total hypocrisy associated with the lack of any truth or science.
Long gone the times when a red carpet was enough to welcome the more equal animals.
Now it has to be a highway.
Professional humanists are so humble.
Hope they built a new airport for the next meeting.
So failing to convince the world that a climate apocalypse is nigh the alarmists are going full bore to convince financial institutions that there’s a pot of gold waiting to be tapped if they would get on board. This is after several large funds announced they were no longer in the Climate Change business. Desperation is setting in.
There’s a curious ingredient in the word salad: restauration. It’s not in today’s Cambridge Dictionary. Grok: “It frequently appears in academic writing about 17th–19th century European history, especially when discussing the English Restoration (1660) or the French Bourbon Restauration (1814–1830). For example, it’s used in titles or texts to evoke period authenticity or align with older sources. [] In general speech or modern media, it’s effectively obsolete.”.
So it’s about right for COP30 – obsolete.
I suppose having a nice place to eat is a basic human right. Maybe? 🙂
Kind of like “yclept”, that a certain someone likes to use in every post.
Well, we used to think that time was relative to an observer’s movement in space, and space was relative to an observer’s movement in time. We now understand that both time and space are dependent on an observer’s movement in restaurants. This has led to researchers spending an inordinate amount of time having long lunches, on expenses, naturally.
H/T Douglas Adams and the Theory of Bistromathics
+42.
Starmer flies to Brazil for one day, mainly to enjoy a slap up meal. Must be what they mean by food miles.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15264159/Keir-Starmer-Ed-Miliband-Sadiq-Khan-Rio-PM-climate-Trump.html
Well, if Harrison Ford can fly up the coast for a cheeseburger, why not?
The difference is, Ford pays for his own flight.
What the heck are they doing there squandering council taxpayers money?
Irony and shame are unknown concepts to these amoral grifters.
No they’re not.
When compared to you, perhaps.
So you agree that they are amoral grifters. A step in the right direction.
So you’re saying that irony and shame ARE known concepts to the amoral grifters?
That being so, they do actually know that their behaviors are amoral and shameful.
I agree wholeheartedly with your observations.
It is part of being a leftist climate conman…
… they know they are being amoral, but feel no shame in being that way.
If so, why do they keep repeating the same hypocrisies?
You don’t even have an ontological basis for an argument what morals are and where they came from.
you stepped on your own …
A real “clanger” 😉
Assuming the map is correct…
I do not understand why the rain forest highway given the international airport is on the other side of the side from it.
Curious.
Nor do I it is nowhere near the CoP This looks very sus to me
The dockside area is probably not somewhere you would want to stay if you had enough money to afford somewhere better. I heard a rumour much of the accomodation in the south west corner of town is hastily converted rent by the hour hotels.
“hastily converted rent by the hour hotels.”
Perfect for Cop30 attendees, then. !
A road to nowhere for all those talking heads.
That highway is there, purportedly, for the convenience of the attendants. No, it is not. It is for the convenience of the taxi drivers ferrying to and fro the ladies of the night.
USA helped found the ICJ but withdrew from compulsory jurisdiction in 1986.
More money… for leisure pursuits….
With apologies to those who fought in Operation Market Garden, maybe they should call the new Virgin Amazon Rainforest highway “Whore’s Highway.”
I think the new highway, Avenida Liberdade, will be the only lasting benefit of the 30th party of the councilors.
[Not counting all the cases of STDs.]
The IPCC needs to be demonetized, the International Court of Justice needs to be demonetized. They are both world government agencies trying to force their far left views onto the rest of us. There is no reason for anyone to have anything to do with either.
The Climate Change industry is very lucrative.
From memory: .”..the Universal Declaration of Human Rights..” includes ‘every man has a right to a home.’ Which in the USA in the 1990’s led to “sub-prime” housing loans, which in turn led to the 2008 real estate crash.
When politicians start messing with established financial procedures – big problems.
Setting aside those who genuinely cannot make a place for themselves, no one should have a right to a home. You have to contribute to society so those more fortunate can help you raise yourself.
The transition to a greener economy can, and must, be done in such a way that individuals and communities also benefit.
Now tell me about The Little Red Riding Hood.
Just take a look at Google Street View and see how 90% of Belém residents live. You can’t see the remaining 10% because they live in gated communities with a three-meter-high wall or fence with private security and no Street View.
If you have to live in a gated community than you have a huge social problem I would think. I don’t think for those 90% climate is their first priority.
Is this $1000+ per night money out of the activists’ pockets, or is it what various governments are using tax revenue for? If it were the former, most of these con-men would have stayed home. Likewise if they had to prove that they and the conference actually provided some positive results.
Ah. Now it makes sense.
I wonder how many COP30 attendees will find out what a “trans-brazilian” is ?
Is the $1,000 a night for accommodation or company?
Both under the catagory of “accommodation” in the per diem. That way its all covered under eat drink, and “make Mary” or whatever her name might be.
Maria…
A West Side Story…