The “collective therapy session” at UNFCCC COP30
Performing climate finance, avoiding climate debt
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl.2626Keywords:
UNFCCC COP30, climate finance, climate debt, coloniality of global governance, mutirão, therapeutic theatricalityAbstract
This article examines the theatricality of the UNFCCC’s climate finance negotiations at COP30 (Belém, 2025), considering how climate diplomacy operates as a contested political arena in which power is exercised through performative practices. Focusing on the ‘agenda fight’ on climate finance (Article 9.1 Paris Agreement), the study reveals a legitimacy gap rooted in the coloniality of global governance. This article addresses the dilemma that resurfaced at a global event: the mechanisms designed to operationalise Art. 9.1 Paris Agreement, such as climate finance targets, are non-justiciable and constrained by entrenched power structures that dictate their implementation. Instead of encouraging collaborative problem-solving, the Summit’s “Presidency Consultations” served as diplomatic theatre, disguising the unresolved disputes over climate finance. I demonstrate how the Brazilian COP30 Presidency staged the contentious issue as “collective therapy”, and how utilising the indigenous-inspired mutirão concept simultaneously exposed and obscured structural flaws in climate governance. I argue that avoiding calling climate finance a duty or debt reinforces North-South hierarchies. While theatricality can create space for marginalised voices to be heard, it can also constrain transformative potential through ritualised symbolic performance.
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