UN report highlights key role of non-state actors in climate action

Cities, businesses and civil society are playing a central role in implementing strategies to mitigate climate change, according to a UN report released Tuesday at the 30th United Nations climate change conference (COP30) being held in the Brazilian Amazon.

The 2025 Yearbook of Global Climate Action, presented in COP30's host city Belem, finds that these non-state actors, or "non-Party stakeholders," are essential in advancing global efforts to curb global warming.

The report offers an overview of global climate action and highlights both the progress and challenges in the 10 years since the landmark Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015.

This year's edition "demonstrates that the Global Climate Action Agenda has matured from a platform for mobilization into an instrument for implementation," Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said in the foreword.

"It provides evidence that systems transformation is underway, and highlights where momentum must now accelerate," he added.

At the opening ceremony of COP30, Stiell stressed that the implementation of the Paris Agreement has made real progress, noting that for the first time, the curve of emissions that raise the planet's temperature is decreasing.

The yearbook, published by the UNFCCC, shows that the number of individual actors involved in climate action, as registered on the Global Climate Action Portal, has more than doubled from 18,000 in 2020 to over 43,000 in 2025.

The number of registered climate initiatives has also grown from 149 to 243 during the same period, demonstrating a growing global commitment to climate action.

The document says progress is visible in all areas, notably in renewable energy capacity and forest financing. The data also shows greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural practice are decreasing and that disaster mortality rates have fallen.

However, the UNFCCC noted that significant challenges remain, including insufficient investment, worsening deforestation and increased emissions in the construction sector, calling for greater collective efforts to close these gaps.