COP30 shows why dismantling ISDS is essential for real climate action
Standing in Belém during COP30, I felt the weight of the moment. We came to the Amazon hoping for decisive progress on phasing out fossil fuels, yet the final outcome fell far short of the ambition science and justice demand. The agreement brought welcome commitments on adaptation finance and global indicators, but it refused to confront the structural forces that make climate action so difficult.
In my intervention at COP30 I spoke about one of those forces: the system of investor–state dispute settlement. Through ISDS, fossil fuel companies can sue governments for billions when they try to protect forests, regulate emissions or plan a responsible fossil exit. Across the Amazon alone, hundreds of oil and gas projects are still shielded by ISDS clauses. This turns forest protection into a financial risk and creates climate finance in reverse[1].
This is not an abstract legal debate. Communities promised development are instead confronted with polluted water, violated rights and arbitration claims that drain public budgets. I carry their voices with me not as a metaphor, but as a reality shaping every climate negotiation.
ISDS as a Brake on Climate Action
COP30 showed once again that climate policy cannot succeed while outdated investment treaties give corporations the power to punish ambition. No amount of climate finance can compensate for a legal system that undermines public interest decisions before they are even taken. Europe has already recognised this by terminating all intra-EU investment treaties and withdrawing from the Energy Charter Treaty. The lesson is simple: what is signed can be undone.
If we want genuine climate progress, we must align investment governance with climate goals. That means no new treaties with ISDS, coordinated exits from existing ones, stronger public-law mechanisms for resolving disputes, and investment frameworks that support a just transition rather than obstruct it.
Belém reminded me that the climate crisis is also a democracy crisis. The future cannot be guided by treaties written for a world that no longer exists. For climate goals to be credible, governments must reclaim the policy space to protect people and the planet. Yet too often the process absorbs the urgency, producing agreements that gesture toward ambition without confronting the structural obstacles.
The Gap Between Diplomacy and Reality
Indigenous peoples from across the Amazon expressed this clearly. Many arrived at COP30 with the message that they are the solution, but left disappointed. As one representative put it, “There was enormous expectation … but the final agreement didn’t provide the answers that the Amazon asked for, and that the world expected”. [2]. Their frustration reflects the growing divide between climate diplomacy and lived reality.
There are steps forward, the termination of some investment treaties, countries rejecting ISDS, and regions exploring climate-aligned frameworks, but these remain partial, uneven and too slow for a world already at its climate tipping points. The shifts are real, but not yet transformative.
Both ENDS will continue to work with partners who are pushing for the systemic changes the COP process is still unwilling to deliver, from dismantling harmful treaties to building investment governance that protects forests, communities and the climate. The direction of travel is clearer than ever, but the pace must change. COP30 makes one thing unmistakable: we cannot afford to wait for the process to catch up with reality.
[1] https://www.bu.edu/gdp/2025/11/10/defunding-the-amazon-mapping-isds-risk-from-the-oil-and-gas-sector-in-amazonian-countries/
[2] https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/cop/what-cop30-climate-summit-amazon-delivered-forests-indigenous-people-2025-11-22/
For more information
Read more about this subject
-
Dossier /Rights for People, Rules for Corporations – Stop ISDS!
Indigenous communities in Paraguay saw their attempts to regain their ancestral lands thwarted by German investors. In Indonesia, US-based mining companies succeeded to roll back new laws that were meant to boost the country’s economic development and protect its forests. This is the level of impact that investment treaties can have on social, environmental and economic development and rights. Why? Because of the ‘Investor-to-State Dispute Settlement’ clauses that are included in many such treaties.
-
Dossier /Wetlands without Borders
With our Wetlands without Borders program, we work towards environmentally sustainable and socially responsible governance of the wetlands system of the La Plata Basin in South America.
-
Dossier /Trade agreements
International trade agreements often have far-reaching consequences not only for the economy of a country, but also for people and the environment. It is primarily the most vulnerable groups who suffer most from these agreements.
-
News / 5 november 2025Interview: Both ENDS at COP30 for Climate Justice and Systemic Change
Both ENDS is present at COP30 to advocate for genuine access to climate finance for locally led, gender-just climate solutions and the mechanisms that facilitate this, including those for farmer-led restoration. Furthermore, the organisation participates to ensure the crucial connection between the climate negotiations and the trade and investment frameworks that shape them.
Learn more about the Both ENDS team at COP30 below, and find all the activities and side-events in which Both ENDS will participate.
-
News / 5 november 2025Overview of Both ENDS events at COP30 in Belem, Brazil
Both ENDS is present at COP30 to advocate for genuine access to climate finance for locally led, gender-just climate solutions, and for the mechanisms that make these possible, including those supporting farmer-led restoration. The organisation also engages to highlight the crucial connection between climate negotiations and the trade and investment frameworks that shape them.
Below is an overview of the Both ENDS team at COP30 and a detailed look at the activities and side-events in which Both ENDS will participate.
-
Dossier /International trade and investment with respect for people and planet
The network of international trade and investment treaties is large and complex. The Netherlands alone has signed more than 70 bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and is party to the trade and investment agreements concluded by the EU, like the EU-Mercosur and EU-Indonesia trade deals.
-
News / 6 oktober 2025From Entebbe to Accra: civil society is rewriting the rules of investment
By Fernando Hernández Espino and Bart-Jaap Verbeek
Almost a year after African civil society gathered in Uganda to adopt the Entebbe Declaration, the call to transform international investment governance continues to gain strength. From the 6th to the 9th of October, over 50 civil society organisations from across West Africa, including from Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Gambia, Sierra Leone, as well as from Kenya and Latin America, are convening in Accra to deepen and operationalise the Declaration’s vision.
-
News / 23 september 2025With the undemocratic splitting of the EU-Mercosur deal, Europe is missing the chance to lead on fair trade
Recently, many newspapers have written about Brussels’ rush to finalize the trade agreement between the EU and the South American Mercosur countries. According to the European Commission, national parliaments do not need to approve it because the trade part and the “political” part have been separated. This “splitting” means that the trade part can be approved as an EU-only decision by the European Council and the European Parliament, while national parliaments are sidelined and the political-cooperation part is postponed. Both ENDS and its partners are deeply concerned and are calling on the Dutch government to vote against this outdated agreement.
-
Dossier /Soy: trade in deforestation
The rising demand for soy is having negative consequences for people and the environment in South America. Both ENDS reminds Dutch actors in the soy industry of their responsibilities and is working with partners on fair and sustainable alternatives.
-
Dossier /Towards a socially and environmentally just energy transition
To address the climate crisis we need to urgently transition away from fossil fuels towards clean, renewable energy. However, this transition is not only about changing energy sources. It requires an inclusive and fair process that tackles systemic inequalities and demanding consumption patterns, prioritizes environmental and social justice, and which does not repeat mistakes from the past.
-
Blog / 17 juli 2025A disaster for farmers: here and there
The trade agreement with South America is harmful to farmers, the climate, and biodiversity, on both sides of the Atlantic. It’s time to take this deal off the table once and for all, argues Fernando Hernandez, Senior Policy Officer for Trade and Investment at Both ENDS.
-
News / 16 juli 2025Case Study: Fighting Environmental Transphobia and Social Fragmentation in Brazil
In the face of environmental transphobia, a form of discrimination where trans and gender-diverse communities are disproportionately impacted by environmental degradation,excluded from climate policies, and often met with stigma and exclusion by environmental justice movements, Grupo Orgulho, Liberdade e Dignidade (GOLD) has emerged as a bold and visionary force for change in Brazil. At the heart of this movement is Débora Sabará ,GOLD’s leader, a travesti activist who has fought tirelessly to place the perspectives andneeds of LGBTIQAPN+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex, Queer, Asexual, Pansexual, Nonbinary and other identities), Indigenous and Afro-Brazilian communities at the center of environmental justice conversations.
-
Dossier /Fair Green and Global Alliance (FGG)
Together with civil society organisations from all over the world, the Fair Green and Global (FGG) Alliance aims for socially just, inclusive and environmentally sustainable societies in the Netherlands and the Global South.
-
Dossier /Seeking justice for the affected communities of Vale’s mining disasters in Mariana and Brumadinho
In 2015 and 2019, the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais experienced two severe mining tragedies in Mariana and Brumadinho, due to the same mining company: Vale. Since then, the affected communities have been seeking justice, via the criminal punishment of the responsible parties, and a fair compensation for the loss of their loved ones, their homes and their livelihoods. Both ENDS supports local CSOs by amplifying their quest for justice within an international audience and, more specifically, by raising awareness amongst Dutch investors in Vale about the high risks this company’s activities pose for people and the environment.
-
Blog / 30 januari 2025Brumadinho’s painful “seas of mud”
By Carolina de Moura
Six years ago, Brumadinho tailings dam I, from the Paraopeba Complex, owned by mining company Vale, collapsed. January 25th, 2019, forever changed the lives of thousands. The scars remain open, and the quest for justice, remembrance, and prevention of future mining crimes endures despite all adversities. This was manslaughter coupled with socio-environmental devastation of proportions difficult to measure. These are irreparable losses and damages that could have been avoided if it wasn’t for the greed, negligence, and irresponsibility of decision-makers at Vale, the German certification firm Tüv Süd, and the state of Minas Gerais.
-
News / 22 januari 2025 -
News / 24 december 2024Fórum Suape empowers women's groups with Dare to Trust-grants
Fórum Suape decided to help several women’s groups in their network. First, they wanted to understand the desires and needs of each group, with the aim of fostering collective thinking and understanding their collective interests and goals. Five groups were selected, one group had difficulty in organizing themselves. They did not move forward and did not receive the money. The other four had wonderful results.
-
News / 23 december 2024Dare to Trust: Our stories (Instituto Cordilheira)
Instituto Cordilheira in Brazil has a vast network of grassroot organisations in Brazil. With a lot of creativity they were able to assist many of them with support of Both ENDS's Dare to Trust-project.
-
News / 19 december 2024Trading Away the Future: How the EU-Mercosur deal fails people and the planet - and what needs to be done
On December 6, the visit of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to the Mercosur Summit sealed the agreement on the final text of the EU-Mercosur Association Agreement. Both ENDS condemns this damaging agreement for undermining human rights, the environment, and democracy in Europe, and in Mercosur countries. Should the agreement be ratified as it stands, it will have devastating consequences for the environment, indigenous communities, family farming and small-scale farmers on both sides of the Atlantic.
-
Letter / 9 december 2024
People and the Planet Entebbe Declaration: Reclaiming investment frameworks for people and the planet
The time for change is now. Civil society demands international investment
frameworks that are aligned with economic justice, social and environmental
sustainability, and the needs of communities worldwide.