What COP30 Can Learn from Climate Bioethics

From November 10 to 21, world leaders, scientists, heads of nongovernmental organizations, and civil society leaders are in Belem, Brazil for the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly known as COP30. The main challenges they will discuss include aligning the commitments of developed and developing countries in response to climate finance, refining emission reduction targets, and addressing the impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations.

Just as Bill Gates outlined what he wants everyone at COP30 to know, as he justified shifting the focus of his philanthropy from reducing emissions to prioritizing climate adaptation and human development, we want to highlight  what we know about climate bioethics for COP30. We agree with Gates’s focus on climate adaptation and understand mitigation to be a vital part of that. And we believe that climate adaptation should involve an expansive notion of building resilience for people and communities.

We led the CREEi-Hastings Center Climate Bioethics Program. Climate bioethics is the study of how climate change impacts human, nonhuman, and planetary health and welfare and