Leaders from 43 countries and the European Union have signed the Belém Declaration on Hunger, Poverty and Human-Centred Climate Action, pledging to put the people hit hardest by climate change at the centre of the response.

Adopted on Friday, 7 November, at the Belém Climate Summit in Brazil — the leaders' gathering before the COP30 talks open in the Amazon city — the declaration says climate change, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss are already worsening hunger, poverty and food insecurity, while also damaging water access, health and mortality rates.

The text sets out three commitments: strengthening social protection as the foundation for resilience, supporting small-scale food producers, and promoting just transitions for people in forests and other environmentally sensitive ecosystems. To keep the promises measurable, the declaration proposes eight goals across the areas it covers, with collective progress to be reviewed in 2030 and an interim assessment in 2028.

It builds on the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, launched under Brazil's G20 presidency in 2024, whose leaders first met in Doha, Qatar, four days before the Belém signing. At the opening ceremony of COP30, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva warned again that global warming could push millions of people into hunger and poverty, undoing decades of progress.

The same day brought two further Belém pledges. Nineteen countries endorsed the Belém 4X pledge on sustainable fuels, and a new open coalition on compliance carbon markets was adopted, endorsed by Brazil, China, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Chile, Germany, Mexico, Armenia, Zambia and France, with other countries free to join. The declarations are political commitments rather than negotiated COP outcomes, but the Brazilian presidency is presenting them as the summit's first concrete results.

[Source: cop30.br](https://cop30.br/en/news-about-cop30/leaders-sign-declaration-on-hunger-poverty-and-people-centered-climate-action) | [Source: gov.br](https://www.gov.br/mds/pt-br/noticias-e-conteudos/original/desenvolvimento-social/noticias-desenvolvimento-social/2025/declaracao-de-belem-sobre-fome-pobreza-e-acao-climatica-centrada-nas-pessoas/COP30Belem_Declaration_ENG.pdf)