For more than three decades, the global climate conversation has followed the same familiar rhythm: world leaders gather, agree on bold targets, and pledge new commitments to limit warming and protect vulnerable communities. These efforts are coordinated through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) — the international treaty established in 1992 that underpins global cooperation on climate issues.
Each year, the treaty’s member nations (known as “Parties”) meet at the Conference of the Parties (COP) to review progress, negotiate new measures, and renew their promises. The Paris Agreement (2015) was one noteworthy milestone, setting a shared goal to limit global temperature rise to well below 2C, and ideally 1.5C.
These gatherings have shaped the world’s climate agenda, but they’ve also exposed its biggest weakness: follow-through.
Ambitious goals tend to stall once the applause fades. Promises become policy documents…rather than tangible projects. And as impacts accelerate, (stronger storms, hotter heatwaves, and rising seas) communities can’t afford to wait for pledges to catch up with reality.
If the last 30 years have taught us anything, it’s this:
planning alone won’t protect people; implementation will.
COP30: Belém, Brazil
Image: Sergio Moraes
A powerful influence model with poor accountability
The UN’s climate process has achieved a remarkable feat: nearly universal participation in a shared mission to stabilize the planet. Unfortunately, its structure also limits how far that cooperation can go.
The UNFCCC’s framework relies on what Prometheus Founder Sam Youdal identifies as “an influence model.”
“As with all things UN, it’s all an influence model. And there are few ways to offer incentives, to punish non-performance, or to build in rewards at the national level.”
Countries submit Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) — their self-defined climate targets — and report progress every five years. But there is no global enforcement mechanism, and accountability depends on peer pressure, transparency, and goodwill.
This voluntary system has delivered some progress, but as Sam notes, it also leads to chronic underfunding:
“Every paragraph seems to mention innovation, education, and finance as being critical to the transformation, but as always, it’s very little funding chasing thousands of projects.”
Over time, COPs have become sprawling events: part negotiation, part exposition, and part political theatre. The size and scope can overshadow technical rigor, while smaller nations tend to struggle to have their needs heard. The result? A widening gap between the ambition written in agreements and the action visible on the ground.
COP29: Baku, Azerbaijan
Image: Dominika Zarzycka/NurPhoto
COP28: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Image: Sean Gallup
COP27: Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
Image: Xinhua/Sui Xiankai
When cooperation works: lessons from the ozone layer
It’s worth remembering that global environmental cooperation can and does succeed. The Montreal Protocol, the treaty that phased out ozone-depleting substances, remains a textbook example of follow-through done right.
What made it work, though? Clear science-based targets. Binding rules. Enforceable timelines. And crucially, financial and technical assistance to help developing countries transition to safer, greener technologies.
That combination (accountability paired with support) transformed the ozone crisis into one of humanity’s quiet success stories. And the same ingredients could guide climate adaptation and resilience efforts today.
Adaptation and the economics of “doing”
As the world heads toward COP30 in Belém, Brazil, the conversation is shifting. It’s no longer just about cutting emissions…it’s also about adapting to the damage that’s already been done.
Adaptation means preparing for the unavoidable: strengthening coastlines, modernizing water systems, updating infrastructure, and helping communities build resilience. Recent research, including the Returns on Resilience study by SYSTEMIQ, shows that these investments deliver high returns, both in reduced losses and in economic growth.
Yet adaptation remains underfunded. For every dollar invested in resilience, several more flow into projects that ignore climate risk altogether. The “Baku to Belém” roadmap aims to change that by scaling up adaptation finance to $1.3 trillion per year by 2035, with an interim target of $300 billion annually by 2030.
Whether these numbers translate into actual projects all depends on delivery, and on moving beyond what we call the proof of promise to the proof of work.
The politics of trust
Behind the technicalities lies a human reality: broken promises erode trust.
When developed nations fail to deliver the climate finance they’ve pledged, developing nations lose faith in the process. Negotiations stall, cooperation falters, and the shared mission fragments. Many vulnerable countries now view the climate process as a cycle of commitments without consequences.
Predictable, transparent finance isn’t just a policy issue, it’s also a matter of credibility. Without it, National Adaptation Plans remain blueprints, but not lifelines.
From pledges to performance: a blueprint for real follow-through
If the global community hopes to close the gap between ambition and action, a few fundamentals can guide the way forward:
Dedicated public finance for adaptation and loss & damage.
Private capital can help, but it cannot substitute for equitable public investment.
Time-bound and enforceable targets.
Set measurable milestones and track them publicly.
Technology transfer and capacity building.
Adaptation requires tools and skills, not just funds.
Local leadership.
Indigenous and community voices must be co-authors of climate resilience, not observers.
Transparent monitoring and accountability.
Open reporting builds trust and ensures resources actually reach the frontlines.
What Prometheus Believes: adaptability over abstraction
At Prometheus, we see adaptability, not abstraction, as the foundation for effective climate action. Sam says: “In my mind, adaptability must drive one possible future. And Prometheus can help with that on a nation-by-nation basis, one nation at a time.”
The real work is in the doing, not in the promise of doing or the pledge on a piece of paper. The countries need real help now, and it’s fine to work these conferences at a macro level while still concentrating on adaptability innovations — funding and structural — on a country level.
We believe the path forward lies in bridging global ambition with national implementation. That means exploring ways to:
- Support adaptable frameworks that help nations integrate preparedness and resilience into their long-term development plans.
- Encourage innovative funding structures that make resilience investment more accessible and sustainable.
- Prioritize nation-by-nation collaboration, focusing on practical solutions that strengthen systems, institutions and communities from the ground up.
It’s not about abandoning the global process. It’s about ensuring it connects meaningfully to what’s happening at the national and local levels.
The path ahead: from pledges to proof
COPs will remain an essential tool in shaping global conversations. But if they are to exist as trusted events, their legacy has to shift from statements of intent to records of achievement.
Follow-through is where credibility — and lives — are won or lost. It’s where global strategy becomes tangible safety for real people.
Prometheus envisions a world where adaptability is the measure of leadership, and where international cooperation fuels concrete progress one nation, one plan, and one resilient community at a time. Diplomacy sets the direction, implementation builds the road, and as the world looks toward Belém and beyond, that road must lead somewhere solid, toward resilience that’s not just promised, but proven.
