What COP30 Means for Somalia’s Fight for Climate Resilience

As the curtains fall on COP30 in Belém, Brazil, many of us working on the frontlines of climate action are asking a simple but uneasy question: What exactly changes for countries like Somalia now?

For decades, global climate summits have promised transformation. Yet for those of us living in places where droughts, floods, and food insecurity are no longer seasonal shocks but a permanent national condition, the gap between diplomatic language and lived reality keeps widening.

Belém was different in tone: Yes, but the real test is whether this moment becomes a turning point or just another polished summit that fades into the background while vulnerable nations struggle to rebuild their lives, year after year.

I write this not as an observer, but as someone who spends their days working with young people, communities, and local leaders through the Green Hope Movement, a youth-led environmental organization in Somalia. From that vantage point, the road ahead looks both urgent and uncertain.

Why Belém Hit Close to Home for Somalia

This year’s COP carried a symbolic weight. Brazil hosted the world within the Amazon, one of the planet’s natural lungs, at a time when global climate impacts are spiraling faster than political responses. Belém didn’t just remind the world of the Amazon’s importance; it silently echoed the anxiety felt across climate-vulnerable nations, especially in East Africa.

For Somalia, the Amazon’s story felt deeply familiar. Both regions carry ecosystems under threat, communities facing displacement, and young people campaigning tirelessly for survival rather than symbolism.

We didn’t travel to COP30 expecting miracles. Years of broken promises, especially at COP29, made sure of that. But we did hope for clarity, real action, not recycled commitments dressed in new vocabulary.

After COP29’s Failures, Somali Hopes Were Thin

Let’s be honest: COP29 left a bitter taste across Africa.

• Adaptation finance barely moved.
• Loss and Damage remained a headline, not a lifeline.
• Climate-vulnerable nations were told again, to wait.
• Mitigation overshadowed adaptation, as if frontline communities must first endure more suffering before wealthier nations feel urgency.

For Somalia, where three consecutive failed major rainy seasons wiped out millions of livestock and displaced entire communities, waiting is no longer an option. The drought-to-flood cycle that followed has turned our climate reality into a relentless crisis without pauses.

COP29 didn’t just disappoint, it cost lives, slowed recovery, and stretched already thin national budgets.

What Belém Needed to Deliver for Somalia and East Africa

This year, the stakes were unmistakably high. To be meaningful for Somalia, COP30 had to break the cycle. Three priorities stood out clearly:

1. Adaptation Finance That Matches the Scale of the Crisis

Somalia cannot continue managing climate shocks with fragmented emergency assistance. Communities need long-term, predictable investment in:

• climate-smart agriculture
• water harvesting systems
• early warning systems
• resilient infrastructure
• coastal protection
• drought management frameworks

Adaptation is not charity, it is survival. And delayed funding only magnifies future losses.

2. A Real Loss and Damage Mechanism, Not Symbolism

Somali families rebuilding after floods or drought-driven displacement cannot rely on pledges that fluctuate with political moods.
For the first time, Belém needed to show that the Loss and Damage Fund can function as a real financial instrument, not a moral gesture.

3. Space for Frontline Voices

Climate decisions cannot continue to be made in side events and closed-door meetings dominated by powerful nations.
Somalia’s pastoralists, farmers, youth activists, and coastal communities must not remain footnotes in protocols. Their leadership is essential to designing workable solutions.

East Africa Is Already Living the World’s Climate Future

If the global community wants a preview of what unchecked climate change looks like, they don’t need simulations, they only need to visit East Africa.

Across the region:

• droughts pushed millions toward hunger
• floods wiped out homes, farms, and roads
• pastoral communities lost decades of assets
• climate displacement became a new normal
• disease outbreaks surged after extreme weather

Somalia sits at the heart of this storm. Climate extremes define our economy, migration patterns, social systems, and even political stability.

This is why adaptation must stop being the quiet paragraph in global climate agreements. For Somalia, adaptation is national security, economic policy, and community survival rolled into one.

Why Belém Still Offers a Window of Possibility

Despite the cautious mood, Belém offered something previous summits lacked:
a shift in global energy and political consciousness.

Brazil positioned itself as a bridge between continents and between economic realities. The Amazon framed global discussions in a human-centered, ecosystem-centered way. Indigenous voices shaped the narrative more strongly. African negotiators held firmer ground. Youth movements, including Somali ones, found more visibility.

Belém didn’t solve the climate crisis. No single COP can.
But it did something subtle and important: it widened the political and moral space for adaptation and resilience to take center stage.

That alone opens a door Somalia desperately needs.

The Somali View of the Road Ahead

From my perspective as a Somali climate activist, the path forward is both hopeful and demanding. Belém was not an answer, but it was a marker.

Our country cannot afford to wait for the world. We must:

• strengthen national climate governance
• integrate adaptation into every development policy
• equip youth and local communities with resources, not slogans
• invest in ecosystem restoration
• modernize water management
• empower climate-resilient livelihoods
• build local innovation around renewable energy

And we need global partners to step up, not with charity, but with the shared responsibility that history and emissions make unavoidable.

Belém’s Legacy Depends on What Comes Next

If COP30 becomes another missed opportunity, the consequences for Somalia will be severe.
But if the world chooses courage over convenience, Belém could mark the beginning of a new climate era, one that recognizes that resilience is not optional.

For us in Somalia, the road from Belém is not simply a diplomatic chapter.
It is a test of whether global climate politics can finally see, hear, and act on the realities we live every day.

As we move forward, those of us leading climate action on the ground, like Green Hope Movement will continue pushing, planting, restoring, and mobilizing.
Because whether the world delivers or delays, our communities cannot afford to stand still. The road from Belém is long. But we will be walking it with clarity, resolve, and an unshakable demand for justice.