It’s been one of those weeks that makes you wonder whether we’re witnessing the slow surrender of global climate ambition. COP30, world leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris Agreement, but just barely. The summit “kept climate cooperation alive, but hanging by a thread”.
Twelve days of negotiation in the Amazon ended without a single mention of fossil fuels in the final agreement, despite over 80 countries pushing for a roadmap to phase them out. Even the promise to triple adaptation finance was watered down and delayed to 2035.
Meanwhile, another New Scientist analysis put it bluntly, as the planet gets hotter, climate action is stalling, not ramping up. Fear, denial, and distraction are taking over where reason should lead. Ten years after Paris, we were supposed to be accelerating progress. Instead, 95% of nations missed their 2035 emissions pledge deadline
It’s almost absurd, the house is burning, and our leaders are rearranging the fire alarms. If this were fiction, it would border on satire: a world conference debating phrasing while forests burn outside.
And yet, among the despair, there’s something worth noticing this week: signs that people still believe in protecting what’s left.
Nature Laws Rewritten — Finally, an Acknowledgment
Australia’s proposed overhaul of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act marks a turning point. For the first time in decades, the government formally acknowledges what seems obvious — that the economy depends entirely on a healthy environment.
It’s not just about regulation. It’s a philosophical reset. The proposed changes, announced by Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, aim to strengthen safeguards for threatened species, tighten assessment processes, and recognise Indigenous land management knowledge.
The new nature laws don’t solve everything, they face the usual pushback from lobbyists and industry but they shift the tone from “protect if possible” to “protect because survival depends on it.”After years of reactive policy, this feels like a small but vital admission that environmental protection is economic protection.
The Global Picture: Cooperation, Barely Alive
Back on the international stage, COP30 in Brazil was defined by chaos and contradiction. Protests, flooding, even a brief electrical fire. It was a summit that mirrored the disorder of the world it’s trying to save.
While the US officially withdrew (again), other nations scrambled to hold the Paris framework together. The “Global Mutirão” named after a Brazilian term for collective effort, reaffirmed multilateralism but offered few specifics.
The one bright note? Brazil’s Tropical Forests Forever Fund, designed to reward nations for keeping forests standing. With $6.6 billion pledged so far, it’s far short of the $25 billion target, but it’s a welcome move away from the flawed offset schemes that often fail to protect anything at all.
Why Action Is Stalling
The companion New Scientist piece asks the hard question:If the impacts of climate change are everywhere, in our heatwaves, our food prices, our disappearing coastlines, why are we still slowing down?
The uncomfortable answer is psychological as much as political. Fear, fatigue, and short-term self-interest are overriding logic. Governments are choosing “cost-of-living” policies over climate reform, even though those crises are two sides of the same coin.
As the author writes, “People tend to leap straight from ‘things are bad’ to ‘we’re all doomed.’’ But we’re not doomed…..yet. We’re just at a crossroads where reason must reassert itself, or chaos will do it for us.
What Fix My Planet Stands For
At Fix My Planet, we refuse to accept that the world’s only options are resignation or delusion.While governments negotiate and hedge, we act.
Our mission has always been about practical optimism — measuring, offsetting, and funding change at the grassroots level.And we’re not slowing down.We continue to review and update every project we support, ensuring that the offsets our community funds are real, verifiable, and ethical.
We don’t chase the illusion of impact — we measure it.Because unlike some markets, we’re not here to sell hope; we’re here to build it.
Why This Moment Matters
The New Scientist writers are right, climate cooperation may be hanging by a thread. But threads can be rewoven.
Australia’s nature law reform, the Tropical Forests Fund, and the persistence of millions of people still acting in their daily lives, that’s where resilience lives.
Change doesn’t come from perfection; it comes from persistence. And as long as ordinary people, not just politicians, keep pushing forward, the story isn’t over.
That’s why Fix My Planet exists.Because we’re not spectators.We’re participants.And we’re not done yet. 🌍