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. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to reshape how data and knowledge are produced, shared, and used in transboundary water negotiations, but it also risks entrenching political imbalances, deepening mistrust, and displacing the need for genuine cooperation.