At COP30 in Belém, Brazil, ISWA set out to show that waste and resource management is a core climate solution. Through a series of sessions and the Road to COP30 Megatrends webinar, ISWA translated its COP30 Declaration and the future Road to Clean Growth campaign into clear messages for governments, cities, industry, and financial institutions. Together, these activities illustrated how the sector can deliver rapid methane reductions, support circular economies, and enable a just transition that protects people and the environment.
In the session Solid waste in climate action, ISWA and National Member ABREMA underlined the starting point: better waste and resource management protects people and the planet, and a clean, healthy environment is a basic human right. Speakers stressed the need to follow the waste hierarchy, from prevention and reuse through recycling and recovery to environmentally sound disposal, and to design the entire system as one integrated chain from collection to final sinks. Solutions must reflect local social, technical, economic, and cultural realities, rather than be copied from other regions.
Session with ABREMA represented by James Law, ISWA President:
This session brought the ISWA Declaration for COP30 goals into focus, calling on governments to recognise the mitigation potential of the waste and resource management sector in their Nationally Determined Contributions and climate plans, to prevent waste generation, scale up source separation, invest in Environmentally Sound Management compliant infrastructure, and phase out open burning and uncontrolled dumping. Within the upcoming Road to Clean Growth campaign, this is a crucial step toward embedding clear waste and circular economy targets in national frameworks so that economic growth can be decoupled from waste generation and pollution.
The session Preventing methane emissions from landfills, hosted by Zero Waste Europe with ISWA experts, focused on one of the fastest and most cost-effective climate actions available today. Participants underlined the need to phase out landfilling and dumping of biodegradable waste, roll out separate collection of organics, and divert these streams to composting, anaerobic digestion, or other suitable treatment options. Noncompliant landfills must be upgraded or closed, methane captured and used where feasible, and legacy dumpsites remediated in line with Environmentally Sound Management guidelines. Continuous monitoring of methane emissions at operational and closed sites is essential for credible mitigation reporting and access to climate finance.
These messages mirror the ISWA Declaration, which prioritises organic waste management and methane mitigation and calls for climate finance, robust carbon markets, and performance-based models to support infrastructure upgrades, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. For the Road to COP30 campaign, this session illustrated the type of rapid methane reduction and dumpsite closure action that can turn the vision to Decouple, Decarbonise, and Decontaminate into real municipal projects.
The Road to COP special webinar, Megatrends in the Waste Sector – Shaping the Next Generation of Circular Infrastructure, provided the strategic backdrop for ISWA engagement at COP30. Drawing on extensive operational experience of campaign partner SUEZ, speakers identified four trends that are redefining the sector: a global move away from landfill that depends on real markets for secondary materials and waste based energy; a shift from a purely sanitation driven agenda towards decarbonisation, where biogas, biomethane, and waste to molecule routes support wider energy transitions; growing reliance on project finance models that place long term performance and offtake contracts at the centre of project design; and a global spread of technologies that must still be carefully adapted to local waste composition, regulation, infrastructure, and affordability.
Sessions on just transition, supply chains, and climate justice ensured that social dimensions remained at the heart of the Road to COP30 narrative. At the Malaysian Pavilion panel Future Proofing Industries: Strengthening Sustainable Supply Chains for Just Transition, ISWA was represented in a discussion with leaders from TNB, MGTC, Mahindra Group, and WBCSD. The ESWET contribution focused on the European association perspective on upcoming EU legislation on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) requirements, highlighting how policy on supply chains and disclosure will influence investment decisions in waste and resource infrastructure and can support a fair transition for industry.
Malaysian Pavilion, session on “Future Proofing Industries: Strengthening Sustainable Supply Chains for Just Transition”
Later the same day, Road to COP30 campaign partner Kanadevia Inova contributed to The Sarawak Journey session, which showcased the Malaysian state’s ambitions for decarbonisation through hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuels, and carbon capture, utilisation, and storage. Speaking alongside the Deputy Minister of Energy and Environmental Sustainability of Sarawak and regional energy and sustainability experts, Kanadevia Inova highlighted both the challenges and the key enablers needed to attract private investors into complex low–carbon infrastructure, including clear long-term policy signals, stable offtake, and bankable project structures.
Malaysian Pavilion, session on “The Sarawak Journey”
Finance for methane mitigation was further explored in a panel organised by ISWA and the Climate Bonds Initiative, together with partners including the Global Methane Hub, and representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture of Chile. Drawing on key takeaways from the ISWA World Congress, this discussion focused on what is needed to mobilise capital for methane mitigation projects, including credible project pipelines, sound monitoring and reporting, and taxonomies and instruments that recognise the value of avoided emissions in the waste sector.
These discussions on supply chains, investment conditions, and financial enablers reinforced ISWA messages on just transition and climate justice. ISWA stressed that the shift to modern waste and resource systems must recognise and integrate informal workers, protect health and livelihoods, and uphold human rights and gender equity. Ending open burning and uncontrolled dumping, which disproportionately affect low-income communities, and strengthening extended producer responsibility and producer municipality interfaces were highlighted as priorities for fairer value chains. These priorities are fully aligned with the Declaration, which calls for an inclusive, equitable, and socially protective transition, particularly for the informal sector.
Seen together, the sessions in Belém and the Megatrends webinar demonstrate how ISWA is turning its COP30 Declaration and Road to COP campaign into concrete guidance and action. They translate high-level commitments on organics, methane, circularity, finance, and justice into specific technical and policy asks, positioning waste and resource management as a major but underutilised climate lever. They help cities and partners design the next generation of circular infrastructure that is environmentally sound, economically viable, and socially just.
ISWA at COP Sponsors and Partners
