UK and Guatemala set climate plans before COP30 Belem

Think of this as a live prep class for a UN climate summit. In Guatemala City, the British Embassy and the Ministry of Environment brought together the team heading to COP30 in Brazil’s Amazon. Vice Minister Edwin Castellanos led the delegation, joined by Igor De la Roca, who runs Guatemala’s protected areas agency (CONAP), and Ambassador Rita Mishaan, the country’s Special Envoy for Climate Change, alongside UK officials, according to the British Embassy in Guatemala City.

What did they work on? Guatemala’s next national climate plan, called an NDC, and how to make it stronger on both cutting emissions and coping with impacts. Officials highlighted six areas that need urgent resilience work: forests, water, agriculture, coasts, health and infrastructure. The UK also signalled its push for a high‑ambition COP30, working closely with Brazil and regional partners, the Embassy said.

If NDCs sound abstract, see them as each country’s climate promise and plan. They set targets for reducing greenhouse gases and, increasingly, spell out how to adapt to hotter, wetter or drier conditions. Countries refresh them every five years, and 2025 is a key update year. World Resources Institute explains that the new round is expected to guide action through the next decade and should represent each country’s “highest possible ambition”.

Alongside NDCs, governments write National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). Think of a NAP as a step‑by‑step roadmap to protect people, places and economies from climate risks, with actions like early‑warning systems, climate‑resilient farming and safer infrastructure. Under the UN climate process, the NAP track was created to help countries set medium‑ and long‑term priorities, with technical and financial support available through UNFCCC bodies and climate funds.

You may also hear about the Global Goal on Adaptation, or GGA. It is the Paris Agreement’s shared objective to enhance adaptive capacity, strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerability worldwide. At COP28, countries agreed the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience and launched the UAE–Belém work programme to build indicators so we can actually track progress-work negotiators are advancing through 2025.

The loss and damage fund is the safety net meant to help communities recover from climate harms that cannot be avoided or adapted to, such as destroyed homes after floods or land lost to sea‑level rise. Operationalisation began after COP28; the World Bank is serving as interim host and trustee for four years, while an independent Board sets the rules. The Board held its first meeting in May 2024 and is moving toward getting money to vulnerable countries.

Guatemala is not working alone. It engages with the Cartagena Dialogue-an informal grouping of ambitious countries that meet between COPs to keep momentum-and with AILAC, a regional alliance of eight Latin American and Caribbean nations that coordinate positions in the UN climate talks. These coalitions help mid‑sized countries push for strong outcomes together.

So what should we watch next? Three things: Guatemala’s updated NDC filing, practical steps to advance its NAP priorities, and global progress on measuring the GGA and getting loss and damage finance moving. All of this feeds into COP30, scheduled for 10–21 November 2025 in Belém, Brazil.

For classrooms and curious readers, this story shows how climate diplomacy works in real time. When you read about NDCs, NAPs, the GGA or loss and damage, ask: who is responsible for delivery, how will progress be measured, and where does funding actually flow? These questions turn big pledges into lessons about accountability and real‑world impact.