Held on the tenth anniversary of the Paris Agreement, COP30 closed with a deal to triple the funding that helps vulnerable countries cope with climate impacts such as floods and heatwaves, but it failed to secure a commitment to phase out fossil fuels. Countries also endorsed a ‘Just Transition Mechanism’ to support fair and equitable shifts to a green economy, though no dedicated funding was attached. We asked Stoyan Tchoukanov, head of the EESC delegation to COP30, about the message the house of EU’s organised civil society delivered in Belém – and about its engagement at COP16 of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.