What COP30 means for the herbal industry

Many expected COP30 to be a moment, when countries would finally confront the major driver for the climate change crisis — fossil fuel. In the run up to the event, many countries had raised the issue of fossil fuel phase out as a potential outcome of the event. However, by the end of the first week, this ideal was completely halted, as major oil producers and several emerging economies put a stop to these conversations. Any message hinting of a fossil fuel phase out and change to renewables, was gradually phased out of the discussion (1). 

As David Carlin (2025) eloquently states “After thirty global climate conferences, the world is still unable to name the primary source of rising greenhouse gas emissions in an agreed UN text. It is similar to holding three decades of lung health conventions without ever mentioning smoking. The scientific evidence is clear, public support is strong, and yet political consensus on fossil fuels remains out of reach”.

In the face of an ever-increasing global energy demand (2), and the unequivocal major impact of fossil fuels on our climate system, this outcome can be seen as an indicator of the influence of the fossil fuel industry on global politics, trumping scientific findings, and recommendations and putting short term profits before long-term survival. The scientific community has repeatedly warned that warming of more than 1.5°C risks unleashing ever more severe climate change impacts and extreme weather and decreases adaptation options.

Avoiding a temperature increase beyond 1.5°C is crucial to avoiding further dramatic changes and minimize risks. Given more recent analysis, it is likely (a 75% chance) that the 2026–2030 five-year mean will exceed 1.5°C above the 1850–1900 average, meaning that we are more than likely to exceed these temperatures soon (3). 

Avoiding the subject of our energy supply, will likely mean that greenhouse gas emissions will continue to rise, and will increase global temperatures, leading to increased extreme weather conditions. This in turn will affect the whole, world, though those parts with more extreme weather conditions, or zones that lie at the edges of ecosystems will feel these effects first. This will include plant species such as myrrh and frankincense and gentian and cordyceps. 

Several nations have voiced their concerns at the lack of intention behind a fossil fuel phase out, and a voluntary pledge called the Belém 4x Pledge, spearheaded by Brazil, Italy, Japan and India, committed its participants to quadruple sustainable fuels production and use by 2035, compared to 2024, to aid this process. It seems, that while at the centre stage, this issue has been neglected, it has inspired several actors to come together to try different routes to tackle this big issue. Climate Action Network have criticised this pledge as greenwashing, since ‘sustainable fuels’ folds in biofuels, hydrogen and e-fuels rather than genuine renewables, and strongly urge parties, not to sign it (4).

One of the most significant positive outcomes from COP30 was the increased focus on climate adaptation.

For years, international climate discussions have concentrated on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. While this is indeed crucial to avoid further problematic climate changes, governments increasingly recognise that many of the impacts of climate change are already unavoidable — and in fact, happening today. Droughts, floods, extreme weather events and changing growing conditions are affecting agricultural production worldwide.

In Belém, countries agreed to increase efforts to close the adaptation gap, including a commitment to work towards tripling adaptation finance by 2035. Negotiators also advanced work on adaptation indicators that will help measure whether communities and industries are becoming more resilient to climate impacts.

Medicinal and aromatic plants are often cultivated in regions highly vulnerable to climate disruption. Changes in rainfall patterns or rising temperatures may alter phytochemical profiles, impacting both efficacy and consistency, make plants more susceptible to disease or devastate crops. Wild-harvested species face additional threats as habitats become increasingly unstable and threatened by land change use. 

As adaptation funding expands, medicinal plant producers may gain access to new opportunities for investment in sustainable land management projects such as soil restoration projects, agroforestry projects, water conservation technologies, and climate-resilient cultivation systems. Businesses that can build climate resilience into their business models may become more attractive partners for international buyers seeking long-term supply security. However, climate resilience will also rely on international buyers offering suppliers more protection and accountability in case of crop failures. 

Several countries, most impacted by climate change today, voiced concerns that the final list of indicators to measure the progress of adaptation efforts, was unclear and unusable (1). This highlights how challenging it may be to agree to indicators on a global scale, particularly when different parts of the world, may have completely different habitats, with different indicators of climate change, and different types of adaptation needed. 

The choice of Belém as the host city placed forests at the centre of global climate discussions. COP30 saw renewed support for initiatives aimed at protecting tropical forests, including endorsement of the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), an innovative funding mechanism designed to reward forest conservation. The conference also reinforced international commitments to halt and reverse deforestation.

Many of the world’s most valuable medicinal plants are sourced from forest ecosystems. Medicinal plants such as copaiba (Copaifera officinalis), cat’s claw (Uncaria tormentosa), pau d’arco (Handroanthus impetiginosus) and numerous lesser-known botanicals depend on intact tropical forests for their survival.

Greater international attention on forest conservation is likely to increase scrutiny of botanical supply chains. Buyers may increasingly demand proof that ingredients are not linked to deforestation or ecosystem degradation. This trend aligns with wider regulatory developments, particularly within Europe, where environmental due diligence requirements continue to expand.

While some describe the TFFF “an unprecedented initiative”, it remains to be seen, how effective it will truly be, and if countries will follow up with their financial commitments to it (5).

Symbolically, the meeting was held near the Amazon rainforest, which has already lost 20% of forest to deforestation. If another 5% are lost, this will likely cause the rest of the rain forest to lose its weather system and consequently turn into a savanna structure (6). Over 5,000 Indigenous people turned up at COP30 to make their voices heard and, equally importantly, to give a voice to the forest. However, only 360 were able to enter the main negotiations, compared to 1,600 delegates, linked to the fossil fuel industry. Within meetings, Indigenous groups mostly remained observers, unable to vote or attend closed-doors meetings (7).

Various protests happened during the conference, including confrontations between demonstrants and security. One positive result from this was that Brazil recognized 10 new Indigenous territories. The recognition of Indigenous territories is an important step, as Indigenous land is often under threat by illegal deforestation and mining companies, and officially recognising their land, can offer them more protection.

Furthermore, this was the first COP, which formally acknowledged the important role of Indigenous peoples’ land rights and traditional knowledge in combating climate change and of the contribution of their cultural wisdom and practices to the management of their lands, territories, and resources (8). This is an essential in supporting traditional societies, who often show far more sustainable land relationships than modern societies, and hold a lot of traditional knowledge about medicinal herbs.

Their knowledge and understanding of herbal medicine and land management is crucial for a sustainable development and for the protection and conservation of herbal medicine knowledge. For more about the importance of traditional ecological knowledge systems, read our article The relevance of traditional ecological knowledge for modern herbal medicine. 

Perhaps the most important long-term message from COP30 is that biodiversity and climate policy are increasingly being treated as inseparable. It is easy to focus on carbon emissions alone, but land use change, deforestation and agrochemical use are, in some ways, an even more acute threat to ecosystems, and their combined effect with climate change leaves habitats far more unstable and harder to adapt.

This growing recognition may bring increased protection for the natural resources herbal medicine depends on — including all the botanicals used as medicines or foods.

A major focus of COP30 was climate finance, which is seen as the backbone of global cooperation. Negotiators worked to build on financial commitments agreed at previous conferences and to mobilise greater support for adaptation and resilience projects. Although disagreements remained over the scale and speed of funding, adaptation finance emerged as one of the clearest areas of progress. The parties present reaffirmed previously set goals to mobilise at least 300 billion dollars in annual funding. 

This matters because many medicinal plant projects naturally align with the goals that climate finance seeks to support.

While COP30 produced several positive developments, it also highlighted the challenges facing international climate cooperation.

The European Parliament described progress as insufficient relative to the urgency of the climate crisis, while negotiators struggled to secure stronger commitments on fossil fuel transition pathways. Many observers left Belém with mixed feelings about the pace of global action.

For the herbal industry, this serves as an important reminder — climate risks are not waiting for political consensus. Medicinal plant growers are already experiencing changing weather patterns. Wild harvesters are already facing ecosystem pressures. Supply chains are already being disrupted by climate-related events. The herbal industry’s response cannot depend solely on international agreements. Businesses must continue building resilience regardless of the speed of political progress, in a way that acknowledges our global interdependence and shows accountability and transparency, across the supply chains. 

Rather than producing dramatic new targets, COP30 focused its attention on the practical work of adapting to climate change, protecting forests, mobilising finance and supporting communities on the front line of environmental change. For the herbal sector, these priorities translate directly into what’s on the ground.

For most UK herbalists, none of this will be immediately palpable. No indicator agreed in Belém will change what’s on dispensary shelves next month, and no herbalist in Devon or Glasgow will feel the Tropical Forest Forever Facility land in their supply chain any time soon, if it ever does at this scale.

That gap — between the scale of the ambition and the pace of any felt change — is arguably the most honest thing to say about COP30. Much of what it produced is symbolic before it is operational: a facility with big targets and a fraction of its funding secured, indicators that are voluntary rather than binding, a finance goal that stretches to 2035. These are declarations of intent, not guarantees of outcome. Meanwhile, the industries whose interests run counter to this direction of travel — fossil fuels chief among them — are not standing still, and have shown, again, that they can keep the most consequential conversations off the table entirely.

Systemic change of this kind is slow by nature, and there is a real question, voiced by many at Belém itself, of whether it is now too slow for what the climate science demands.

None of that makes it irrelevant to practice. If anything, it’s a reminder that the herbal sector doesn’t get to opt out of these systems just because the mechanisms are distant and imperfect – supply chains for medicinal and aromatic plants sit exactly where climate policy, biodiversity loss, and Indigenous land rights intersect, whether or not any single COP delivers on its promises. What happens to a hectare of forest in Belém or a dryland where frankincense is tapped is not separate from what ends up in a UK herbalist’s dispensary.

In the absence of fast-moving international enforcement, the more immediate lever available to herbalists is the one closer to hand: sourcing decisions. Certifications such as FairWild – designed specifically for sustainably wild-harvested medicinal and aromatic plants – alongside Fair for Life, Fairtrade, and organic standards, are among the clearest ways the herbal sector can act on these values in the absence of political consensus, supporting the growers, wild-harvesters, and ecosystems this entire industry depends on. Paying attention to where herbs come from, and who and what stands behind that sourcing, is no longer a peripheral ethical nicety. It is one of the few concrete ways the herbal world can align its practice with the future it says it wants to see.

1. Carlin D. Your quick guide to the outcomes of COP30. King’s College London. Published November 24, 2025. Accessed July 25, 2026. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/your-quick-guide-to-the-outcomes-of-cop30 
2. Ritchie H, Rosado P, Roser M. Energy production and consumption. Our World in Data. Published 2024. Accessed July 25, 2026. https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-consumption 
3. World Meteorological Organization. New report suggests more global temperature records ahead. WMO. Published May 28, 2026. Accessed July 25, 2026. https://wmo.int/news/media-centre/new-report-suggests-more-global-temperature-records-ahead 
4. Climate Action Network. COP30: CAN rejects Belém 4x pledge on sustainable fuels as credible pathway to just transition. Climate Action Network. Published November 10, 2025. Accessed July 25, 2026. https://climatenetwork.org/2025/11/10/cop30-can-rejects-belem-4x-pledge-on-sustainable-fuels-as-credible-pathway-to-just-transition/ 
5. Schäfer G. The Tropical Forest Forever Facility – a game-changer? Debating Development Research (EADI). Published May 26, 2026. Accessed July 25, 2026. https://www.developmentresearch.eu/?p=2587 
6. Amazon Conservation Association. Deforestation in the Amazon. Amazon Conservation. Accessed July 25, 2026. https://www.amazonconservation.org/the-challenge/threats/ 
7. Maslin M, Chin-Yee S, Parikh P. Analysis: 5 reasons the COP30 climate conference failed to deliver on its ‘people’s summit’ promise. The Conversation. Published November 23, 2025. Accessed July 25, 2026. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/nov/analysis-5-reasons-cop30-climate-conference-failed-deliver-its-peoples-summit-promise 
8. Cultural Survival. Unmistakable message at COP30 in Belém: Indigenous peoples’ rights are non-negotiable. Cultural Survival Quarterly. Published March 17, 2026. Accessed July 25, 2026. https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/unmistakable-message-cop30-belem-indigenous-peoples-rights