{"id":133503,"date":"2025-11-11T06:11:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T06:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/133503\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T06:11:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T06:11:08","slug":"new-approach-to-foot-dragging-by-richer-countries-appears-to-pay-off-as-summit-begins-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/133503\/","title":{"rendered":"New approach to foot-dragging by richer countries appears to pay off as summit begins \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talks at Cop30<\/a> only began on Monday afternoon but already the climate summit has its first deadline and it\u2019s a tight one. <\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the heads of all 150 national delegations will be summoned together to take stock of what they have achieved in the previous 48 hours. <\/p>\n

That may sound like a demand from the summit organisers to show they won\u2019t tolerate any performative time-wasting, but it has actually come from groups of poorer nations. <\/p>\n

Tired of foot-dragging by richer countries on key issues such as climate finance and emissions cuts, they want proof that there is genuine engagement by all. <\/p>\n

The Cop presidency, held by Brazil<\/a>, is happy to facilitate \u2013 it supports their unofficial slogan for the talks, that this must be the action or implementation Cop where they walk the walk on all the pledges, agreements and initiatives of previous Cops. <\/p>\n

\"BrazilianBrazilian member of the Chamber of Deputies, Celia Xakriaba Nunes Correa, gestures as she speaks to the press during COP30. Photograph: Pablo Porciuncula\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

So far, the message seems to be getting through and things are moving at pace, with the agenda for the talks agreed in an unexpectedly quick time \u2013 albeit because some proposed supplementary items were excluded in return for the stocktake. <\/p>\n

At the opening ceremony for the summit in the Amazonian city of Bel\u00e9m, the emphasis was on maintaining this co-operative approach to the talks. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Irish Times view on the Cop30 summit: a call to action which must be heededOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Simon Stiell, head of UN Climate, the permanent body that oversees the summit as it moves from country to country each year, took inspiration from the setting for his speech. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe find ourselves here in Bel\u00e9m, at the mouth of the Amazon and we can learn a lot from this mighty river,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Amazon isn\u2019t a single entity, rather a vast river system supported and powered by over a thousand tributaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo accelerate implementation, the Cop process must be supported in the same way \u2013 powered by the many streams of international co-operation.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"AA heron flies over the Guama River in Belem, Para State, Brazil on November 9, 2025. Photograph: Mauro Pimentel\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Reminding the delegates of the task ahead, he told them: \u201cLet me be clear: in this arena of Cop30, your job here is not to fight one another \u2013 your job is to fight this climate crisis, together.\u201d <\/p>\n

That fight was having some success, the summit heard later. <\/p>\n

Based on the plans individual countries have submitted for cutting their own national greenhouse gas emissions, total global emissions could fall by 12 per cent by 2030. <\/p>\n

However, that is a long way off the 43 per cent drop scientists have said is needed to keep the planet from heating to more dangerous levels. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am not sugar-coating it. We have so much more work to do,\u201d Stiell said. <\/p>\n

Respecting the science was another theme of the opening day. <\/p>\n

Veteran diplomat, Andr\u00e9 Correa do Lago, appointed by the summit\u2019s Brazilian hosts to be the Cop30 president \u2013 effectively the chair of the talks \u2013 said this must be \u201ca Cop that will hear and believe the science\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"BrazilianBrazilian president Lula da Silva. Photograph: Pablo Porciuncula\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Brazilian president Lula da Silva criticised the rise in fake news that peddled \u201canti-science, anti-universities\u201d views and said this must be a Cop to \u201cdefeat the denialists\u201d. <\/p>\n

Their remarks were a subtle but unmistakable dig at US president Donald Trump<\/a> who has cut funding to science agencies and dismissed climate change as a \u201ccon\u201d. <\/p>\n

The US has withdrawn its funding from the UN climate agency itself, leaving a 20 per cent hole in the budget to be filled by philanthropy. <\/p>\n

Stiell warned countries that could not continue and signalled they would have to contribute more to keep the agency afloat. <\/p>\n

The talks, along with thousands of side events hosted by countries, science agencies, activist organisations and business groupings, are scheduled to conclude on November 21st. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Cop30: as the window for meaningful action narrows fast, the stakes couldn\u2019t be higherOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Talks at Cop30 only began on Monday afternoon but already the climate summit has its first deadline and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1347,2885,25815,21646,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-133503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-brazil","9":"tag-climate-change","10":"tag-climate-sustainability","11":"tag-cop30","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topnews","17":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}