As Frontiers’ CEO, Kamila Markram set out ambitions for an Open Science Charter to make climate change research freely available worldwide, Ambassador Guilherme de Aguiar Patriota confirmed President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s “personal decision” to host COP30 in Belém at the COP 30 in the Amazon: Shaping Our Planetary Future event on 23 January at the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Annual Meeting.

At the event, organized by Swissnex in Brazil with Frontiers (Switzerland) and AYA Earth Partners (Brazil), the Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Brazil to the World Trade Organization and other economic organizations in Geneva, commented that President Lula wanted to demonstrate Brazil’s commitment to combatting climate change and Brazil’s “wealth of energy resources that do not emit greenhouse gases.” The President emphasized that the impetus for COP30 should be one of “implementation,” moving from “negotiation to an action agenda.” He wants the international community, which has discussed the Amazon “for years and decades,” to finally experience it firsthand.

Emphasizing Brazil’s commitment to net zero, Carlos Nobre, Senior Scientist at the University of São Paulo's Institute for Advanced Studies, stated: 

We have to get Brazil to net zero by 2040, so COP30 will be very important. We are doing a study that we are going to release at the end of February in Brasília to demonstrate Brazil can reach net zero by 2040, and then from 2040, that Brazil can remove 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year.

Dr Kamila Markram, Frontiers CEO, outlined Frontiers’ open science agenda for COP30:  

Most science published is behind paywalls and not a single university in the world has access to all knowledge. What was achieved during the Covid pandemic – two vaccines in one year – through free and unrestricted access to scientific research has not been achieved for the climate crisis. This is a ticking time bomb, with five years to halve carbon emissions, 25 years to reach net zero. This is why Frontiers’ agenda for COP30 is to make governments mandate open science for publicly funded research.

About Frontiers 

Frontiers is a leading research publisher. Our role is to provide the world’s scientists with a rigorous and efficient publishing experience. Scientists empower society and our mission is to accelerate collaboration and discovery by making science open – enabling researchers to find the solutions we all need for healthy lives on a healthy planet. Powered by custom-built technology, artificial intelligence, and a collaborative peer review, our community journals give experts in more than 1,800 academic fields an open access platform to publish high quality, high impact research. Through our outreach work to build strong partnerships with business, policymakers, and educators, we’re leading the transition to open science.