A window into what we’re reading at the Stimson Center’s Environmental Security Program 

As COP30 Concludes, Experts Call for Reform (Reuters) 

Interviews with experts attending COP30 highlight a growing movement for reform to the UN climate negotiations. In particular, there is alignment on a key critique of the current COP structure which calls for a full consensus of nearly 200 countries to make decisions. Since this requirement historically has allowed more ambitious efforts to be blocked during negotiations, suggestions for reform have included the following: a shift to a majority-vote model, holding COP every other year, convening smaller action-focused gatherings, and downsizing COP to exclude big business contingents. 

A leaked UN document revealed that an internal UN taskforce proposed folding the organization’s climate body into another department earlier this year—and even pondered whether COP itself should be discontinued. Since then, UN climate secretariat Simon Stiell has set up a group of 15 former world leaders, diplomats, ministers, business, and Indigenous representatives to advise the body on how to make COPs fit for the next decades. These recommendations will be submitted by the group in the coming weeks. 

READ | No Peace at COP30? Why That’s a Risk the World Can’t Afford  

Colombia Bans Oil and Mining Projects in its Amazon Regions (Mongabay)  

Colombia will no longer approve new oil or large-scale mining projects in the Amazon biome which covers 42% of the its territory. At present, 871 oil and gas blocks cover an area twice the size of France across this region. Sixty-eight percent of these blocks are still in the study or bidding phases, while a further 43 oil blocks and 286 mining requests haven’t broken ground yet. Colombia’s new measure will prevent these projects from going forward.  

Environment Minister Irene Vélez Torres called on other nations to adopt similar protections. Her proposal comes as other Amazonian countries—which control 93% of the Amazon’s territory—have moved in the opposite direction over the past year. Brazil controls 80% of the Amazon, and it has auctioned several oil blocks near Indigenous lands and approved drilling offshore at the mouth of the Amazon river. Peru also has taken steps to restart production at the country’s largest crude oil site in the Amazon, while Ecuador is planning to auction off 49 oil and gas projects worth more than $47 billion.  

READ | Book Review: ‘Oil Sparks in the Amazon: Local Conflicts, Indigenous Populations, and Natural Resources’ 

AI Data Center Expansion Strains Global Energy and Water (Mongabay) 

The rapid expansion of AI-capable hyperscale data centers is driving an extraordinary demand for energy, water, and materials at a time when the world already faces freshwater scarcity and climate emergencies. These centers could demand up to 6.4 trillion liters of water annually by 2027—which is 4 to 6 times the yearly consumption of Denmark. Global electricity consumption by these facilities could double from 536 terawatt hours in 2025 to 1065 by 2030. AI data centers are also undercutting emissions targets, as fossil fuels still provide nearly 60% of their energy. 

Tech giants including Microsoft, Amazon, and Google increasingly choose to locate these power-hungry data centers in developing nations. Experts argue that Latin America’s energy grid could be “crippled within the next 10 years” due to the rapid expansion. Critics also observe a repetition of centuries-old colonial patterns by Big Tech, which prioritizes corporate needs over local communities that struggle with water and electricity shortages. Indigenous leaders question whether this spiral of tech development represents appropriate progress, or merely a recurrence of extractive systems in place for centuries. 

READ | The Global Energy Transition Is About Securing the Future, Not Managing Decline