This quarters Project Profile is on the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), held in Belém, Brazil, which unfolded amid intensifying climate impacts and growing pressure on the international system to move from pledges to delivery. While the conference produced a range of institutional and procedural outcomes, it also underscored how much of the global climate agenda remains stalled at the level of political commitment rather than implementation. Many of COP30’s headline advances took the form of new frameworks, processes and dialogues, reflecting both incremental progress and the persistent inability of governments to mobilize sufficient finance or agree on contentious issues such as fossil-fuel transition.