Clean Air Month may not generate as many headlines as Earth Day, but May has become a key month in climate policy. This month starts a period of meeting and events that serve as a launchpad for the year’s final event, COP30 this November in Belém, Brazil.
From Clean Air Month To Climate Resilience
In the U.S., Clean Air Month tends to focus on indoor pollution, asthma rates, or vehicle emissions. But globally, the air we breathe has become a proxy for deeper questions: Who gets to live in healthy environments? Who pays for pollution? And what happens when promises made in climate summits don’t materialize on the ground?
Recent reports from the Global Resilience Partnership and the UNDRR underscore a common concern: resilience efforts remain fragmented, underfunded, and overly reactive. As one UN official recently put it, “We can no longer treat resilience as an afterthought. It must be central to how we invest, govern, and plan for climate futures.”
May can seem to be quiet on the climate action front, but it is actually the time when many technical and financial meetings take place. The Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) of the UNFCC typically begin in May. These meetings are not as splashy as the various climate weeks, but they are where rules for climate finance disbursement, adaptation targets, and data-sharing mechanisms are refined.
In parallel, international development banks are re-evaluating funding mechanisms for climate resilience and adaptation. Countries like Barbados, under the Bridgetown Initiative, are pushing for debt reform and climate-adjusted lending frameworks. This is not just a financial issue. It’s a political litmus test for whether climate justice can become a reality, not a slogan.
Climate Weeks: Panama To London To NYC
The first insights into this push for realizing climate justice is happening this week in Panama. The Central American country hosts the first of the UNFCC backed gatherings of the year. It’s focus is lean but clear, “Dialogues For Ambition And Implementation,” and the bulk of the agenda through May 23rd is about just transition, finance and implementation.
June’s London Climate Action Week (LCAW) will offer the next big moment to test global climate momentum. LCAW is becoming a key space where public-private partnerships are proposed, pressure campaigns launched, and roadmaps refined. As one LCAW organizer noted in advance of the conference: “2025 must be the year we stop managing climate risk through press releases and start financing real, local resilience solutions.” This will set the stage for a New York Climate Week and UN General Assembly meeting to push for more action and finance over discussions and pledges.
What the Road to COP30 Tells Us
Looking ahead to COP30, the defining issues will be implementation, equity, and trust. Negotiators will revisit key provisions from the Paris Agreement, including adaptation finance targets, just transition frameworks, and the long-debated loss and damage fund.
Brazil’s choice to host COP30 in Belém, in the heart of the Amazon, signals a pivot toward biocentric approaches to climate policy. Expect biodiversity, Indigenous knowledge systems, and land rights to play a larger role than in past summits. But that ambition must be matched with accountability.
As climate negotiators prepare for SB60 in Bonn, LCAW in London, and UNGA in New York, the contours of the COP30 conversation are being drawn now. Will countries show up in November with more than pledges? That depends on how seriously they treat this stretch run.