A personal note about hopes and deeds to strengthen global governance and action on climate change and nature preservation
29 September 2025
Steve Howard | Secretary General of the Global Foundation
There was much global interest this past week about the goings-on at the UN General Assembly where, for one reason or another, world leaders captured our attention with their successive speeches.
Much maligned for its paralysis as an institution, ironically perhaps, the United Nations has just demonstrated its enduring worth as a global platform for official voices of power and influence to be heard. And, over and above all the individual voices, there was an emerging thread, about the imperative of co-operation and the willingness of some, maybe many, nations to embark on a journey of building an improved and cohesive global order.
Australian Prime Minister frames the main game
Among the more notable addresses by world leaders was that delivered by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, available to watch here, notable for several reasons.
Mr Albanese reminded us that the UN, much in need of fundamental reform, is about what we, the people of the world, want and need it to be. He cast Australia in historical and present and future terms, as an active and creative middle power, one amongst other like-minded nations, that sees an effective UN as vital to the security and prosperity of the world as a whole, fully bound up with Australia’s own national interests.
Further, he committed Australia to step up, in partnership with others, in working for the peace and security of all and in addressing the great global challenges to our times, including climate change. In other words, Anthony Albanese posited that Australia and a viable global commons were inseparable. Other nations have a similar point of view.
In and from the Amazon to the world
Just over a month ago, in the Amazon region of Brazil, the Global Foundation convened its most important global roundtable meeting for the year, the Carajás Roundtable. Building upon a strategy formed last year in Rome, where we were embraced by the late Pope Francis, we addressed the current state of the world and the remaking of global governance. We urged a renewed effort for international co-operation, particularly encouraging and illustrating the leadership roles of business and civil society, working in partnership with governments and international institutions, for action on climate change and the preservation of nature.
As we witnessed in Brazil, enlightened business can and must play a leadership role in society, and in ensuring that the necessary great transition facing the world is able to succeed.
Re-thinking action on climate change and nature
Brazil, one of the world’s most significant emerging nations, is a leader in reframing the whole idea of global co-operation on matters affecting the planet and will host the annual UN-sponsored climate change talks, known as COP30, this November. Yes, much like the UN system itself, the COP process has become top-heavy and unwieldy, such that the negotiation of binding outcomes at these large gatherings has become increasingly improbable.
What Brazil is doing, cleverly – and the world and those in favour of positive systemic reform of the United Nations should take note – is reframing the focus and therefore the possible outcomes at the climate change jamboree to be held in Belem, the capital of the Amazon state of Para, around practical actions and implementation, for the benefit of both Brazil and the planet. Brazil’ s approach has government, private sector and civil society working together, hand in glove.
Some examples:
- the Government of Para is transforming Belem into a world-leading sustainable gateway city to the Amazon, with vast green infrastructure investments.
- Brazil is proving up and preparing to launch in Belem an historically large-scale global investment fund to invest in global markets and then distribute some of the proceeds back through participating governments, to the local level, to help avoid further destruction of tropical forests. At a time when the mighty Amazon itself is reaching an environmental tipping point of no return, through deforestation and illegal activity, this is an absolutely vital contribution, that will also assist other nations to preserve their tropical forests.
For the past 18 months, the Global Foundation has been at the forefront of advocating this investment-driven initiative, at the request of the Government of Brazil. Think of this as a new model of global co-operation, of investment displacing aid, to help serve the common good.
New ways of mobilising global action
More than this, Brazil’s new model is transferable to the world. For this, Brazil has placed great store in the work of the Global Foundation, to help act as a bridge across the world, involving all sectors of society. This is a huge task, but one that fits with the principles of our growing Global Alliance, for the mobilisation of global and local Partners and Allies, drawn from business, society, government and institutions, working in concert.
Good intentions translating into good deeds
Australia, among others, is expressing good intentions, while Brazil is delivering good deeds. What might this mean, in an overarching and systemic sense?
Australia has launched a joint bid, in partnership with the Pacific Island States, to host the next annual meeting of the UN’s global climate change talks, COP31, in 2026. A successful bid would put the global spotlight on Oceania and would require a momentous diplomatic and organisational effort, particularly for Adelaide, the intended host city.
Brazil, as with many other nations who see great advantages in transferring leadership and focus on global climate change action to another region in the global South, has offered to partner with and through the Global Foundation in ensuring that the momentum generated during Brazil’s year at the helm can be adopted in a seamless way by Australia and the Pacific Island states. This also has the support of an array of global entities, such as the International Chamber of Commerce and the Vatican’s worldwide charitable arm, Caritas Internationalis.
A Pacific COP?
Will Australia – and the Pacific, the vital co-hosting partner in the eyes of the world, with its ‘feet in the water’ due to the increasing impacts of climate change – get the nod to host COP31? Türkiye is also holding out to host, as a worthy bridge between the developed and the developing worlds.
Over the past 3 months, the Global Foundation and its network has been active behind the scenes, in helping to find a resolution. The strong view of our global network, as expressed in the Statement from Carajás in Brazil, was that ‘we are hopeful that COP31 will be hosted by Australia AND the Pacific Islands, in a bridge of continuity from the new model of COP, which Brazil has created. The Pacific is the key – their feet are in the rising waters’ .
Win-Win?
Let’s hope that a win-win outcome can be achieved, where the Pacific Islands can be at the forefront and that Türkiye can also be supported in its aspirations.
Over and above the specifics of hosting, our ambition is that the ongoing COP and related processes can be remade, in the way that Brazil has fashioned, to involve business and society more closely in achieving practical progress and outcomes, which also support higher global aspirations. At the same time, this reformed method of weaving together international co-operation can become a leading edge for the much tougher yet vital task of re-making the United Nations as a whole, to serve the global common good, for sustainable peace and prosperity.
Steve Howard is Secretary General of the Global Foundation