![\"Fiona](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Fiona_Harvey_old_image.png\")
Fiona Harvey<\/p>\nFiona Harvey<\/p>\n
Ministers and high-ranking officials from nearly 200 countries have gathered in the Amazonian city of Belem to discuss how to rein in the climate crisis, before catastrophic levels of global heating become inevitable, writes Fiona Harvey, Guardian environment editor.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, carpenters and builders were still hard at work in the conference centre where the Cop30 UN climate summit <\/a>will take place, unpacking boxes and erecting pavilions where countries will show off their commitment to tackling greenhouse gas emissions and shifting to a low-carbon economy.<\/p>\n By Monday, the pomp and ceremony were ready to begin. There is an element of deja vu here \u2013 world leaders have already visited Belem<\/a>, jetting in last week to this same conference centre to join in round tables about climate action, preserving forests<\/a>, boosting biofuels<\/a> and ensuring social justice while the climate crisis bites.<\/p>\n More than 50 heads of state and government or their deputies took part in that \u201cleaders\u2019 summit\u201d segment, on 6 and 7 November, including the UK\u2019s Keir Starmer, the EU\u2019s Ursula von der Leyen, and Germany\u2019s Friedrich Merz. (Donald Trump, of course, has withdrawn the US from the Paris climate agreement and did not attend; nor did Russia\u2019s Vladimir Putin; Xi Jinping of China and Narendra Modi of India also skipped the summit but have made friendly overtures to Brazil<\/a> over Cop30.) They have all now departed and left the stage to their negotiating teams.<\/p>\n But these are climate talks with a difference. Brazil is refusing to countenance the standard form of tortuous negotiations that have characterised the last 30 years of nearly annual \u201cconferences of the parties\u201d (Cops) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the parent treaty to the Paris climate agreement, that was signed in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n Those were characterised by long and bitter sessions, often stretching late into the night, where negotiators re-stated entrenched positions for days on end before finally \u2013 sometimes \u2013 reaching a compromise conclusion that some present would frequently seek to back track on immediately afterwards.<\/p>\n Instead, Brazil insists, this will be \u201cthe Cop of implementation\u201d<\/a>. That means the real world impact of measures to combat the climate crisis today will take precedence over longwinged discussions of future promises.<\/p>\n \u201cNegotiations need consensus,\u201d said Andre Correa do Lago, president of Cop30<\/a>. \u201cBut implementation is countries choosing what they want to do and executing what they have said they are going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n The problem with that approach is that countries which chose to do very little may be able to get away with it. How Brazil intends to combat that tendency is yet to be seen.<\/p>\n The main outcomes of this Cop, instead of being a list of pledges as has become usual, are more likely to be a collection of \u201croadmaps\u201d covering the key issues: a roadmap on finance, which has already been published<\/a>; a roadmap on how to transition away from fossil fuels; a roadmap on how to scale up low-carbon energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with the target of limiting global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.<\/p>\n On some of these issues, it may not be possible to produce the final roadmap at this Cop \u2013 in the case of the transition away from fossil fuels, for instance, what is more likely is that a forum could be set up that will continue for several Cops before reporting.<\/p>\n Cop30 will cover enormous ground<\/a> \u2013 from the future of energy, to the future of climate finance, to the need for social justice to accompany climate action. It will involve ministers, diplomats, local government officials, scientists, businesspeople, Indigenous people and representatives of all forms of civil society, from nearly every country in the world. Issues including health, biodiversity, nature, wildlife, water, the oceans, transport, migration, food, gender and technology will all be addressed at some point across the two weeks of talks.<\/p>\n The problem Cop exists to solve could scarcely be more urgent: scientists are warning that, as temperatures rise faster than at any point in at least 24,000 years<\/a>, the world stands on the brink of a series of \u201ctipping points<\/a>\u201d that could pitch us into greatly accelerated heating and unstoppable climate catastrophe.<\/p>\n But one question will dominate overall: the question of whether the collective will to solve this problem exists. Can the world come together, despite geopolitical headwinds and open conflict, despite the forces of division fanned by populism, despite the global tide of climate disinformation<\/a>, despite influential voices claiming the climate somehow matters less than it did before the populists took over<\/a> \u2013 and show the unity, mutual respect and spirit of cooperation that are desperately needed, if we are to face this existential threat?<\/p>\n Share<\/a> Could a cold war emerge between fossil-fuel-powered petrostates and states embracing the accelerating transition towards electrifying everything? Some observers think so<\/a> and a quiet deal made on the eve of Cop30 hints in that direction, writes Damian Carrington, Guardian environment editor.<\/p>\n China and the European Union have agreed to join a coalition to harmonise carbon markets between countries, Bloomberg reported<\/a>. The UK, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico, Chile, and Zambia are also on board.<\/p>\n Wind turbines operate as the sun rises at the Klettwitz Nord solar energy park near Klettwitz, Germany. Photograph: Matthias Schr\u00e4der\/AP<\/p>\n National emission trading systems usually set a cap on total emissions, with companies emitting less than their quota able to sell permits to those that exceed theirs. But there are more than 35 different emissions trading systems in the world.<\/p>\n Harmonising these could unify major blocs of nations, all operating under the same rules which would ease free trade between them. The significance is that this would exclude petrostates refusing to play by the same rules as the world works to slash the emissions driving the climate crisis. These nations, such as Saudi Arabia, Russia and \u2013 under Donald Trump \u2013 the US, might face border tariffs on their high-carbon goods.<\/p>\n In this scenario, the world could divide into opposing blocs of electrostates<\/a> and petrostates. Which bloc might prevail is up for discussion, but the Economist noted<\/a> this week: \u201cChina is now making more money from exporting green technology than the US makes from exporting fossil fuels.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a> The global south has put the north to shame in the run up to the Cop30<\/a> climate conference in Bel\u00e9m, writes Jonathan Watts, the Guardian\u2019s global environment editor.<\/p>\n From heartrending testimonies of extreme weather disasters and conflicts exacerbated by droughts to inspiring examples of ambition in their climate plans, the less developed nations of the world have shown they are willing to step up and face the climate crisis even as some of the wealthiest countries most responsible for it walk away.<\/p>\n Ahead of the two-week gathering, only 106 out of 194 nations that signed up to the Paris agreement have submitted updated climate plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs). This is down by a third from Cop26 in 2021. More than half of those who submitted were from the global south. The omissions include at least five of the G20 group of wealthy countries – Russia, Argentina, South Korea, Turkey and Saudi Arabia – according to the latest United Nations register of NDCs<\/a>.<\/p>\n People wander in an out of the Hangar Convention Centre which is the venue for the Cop30 climate summit in Belem this month. Photograph: Fernando Llano\/AP<\/p>\n The number of presidents and prime ministers who attended last week\u2019s climate summit is also down from previous editions. At its conclusion, only 44 leaders signed the Bel\u00e9m declaration, which warned: \u201cClimate change, environmental degradation, and biodiversity loss are worsening hunger, poverty, and food insecurity.\u201d<\/p>\n The planet\u2019s three biggest emitters – China, the US and India \u2013 did not send state leaders to Bel\u00e9m, though the latter two nations at least sent representatives to address the gathering in a constructive manner.<\/p>\n The absences allowed Trump, Xi and Modi to avoid hearing of the horrifying experiences and requests for help from their counterparts in poorer nations who are suffering the consequences of those still-rising emissions. Delegate after delegate from Africa, Asia and South America stated that dire climate impacts are now the lived reality for millions of their people.<\/p>\n Tuvalu climate minister Maina Vakafua Talia said the US withdrawal from the Paris agreement and Trump\u2019s denial of climate science showed \u201ca shameful disregard for the rest of the world.\u201d He said the dangers of inaction were evident in recent disasters like Hurricane Mellissa, which devastated Jamaica, Cuba and others Caribbean islands, and Typhoon Tino, which has killed more than 188 people in the Philippines. \u201cThe more we warm our oceans the more extreme these weather events are becoming,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no time in history when the world has faced such a threat.\u201d<\/p>\n Pakistan\u2019s climate secretary, Aisha Humera, said the climate crisis was the biggest human rights violation of our time. She said a 2022 a superflood had inundated a third of her country and caused $30bn dollars of damage. \u201cWe thought that was a one-in-a-century event, but just three years later we faced another flood of catastrophic proportions, washing away lives and livelihoods.\u201d In Pakistan\u2019s mountains, she said 13,000 glaciers were melting at unprecedented rates. \u201cRecurring glacial outburst floods have become an annual nightmare,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is not a cycle of disaster, it is a escalating cascade.\u201d<\/p>\n Like several other climate afflicted countries, she said Pakistan needed the wealthy nations of the world, which were most to blame for the climate disasters, to face up to their responsibilities and make good on promises of financial support: \u201cFrom the frontline of this crisis, we demand that we operationalise the loss-and-damage fund with billions not millions and make it available to countries like Pakistan.\u201d<\/p>\n The grimmest testimonies came from delegates from war-torn nations who described how climate-induced problems were amplifying the damage afflicted by conflict. Even so, they had made the efforts to update their NDCs.<\/p>\n The ambassador of Sudan, Ahmed Eltigani Mohamed Swar, painted a nightmarish picture of climate collapse and violence: \u201cAn unprecedented rise in temperatures, along with recurring waves of drought and desertification. Devastating floods that threaten the livelihoods and food security of millions of citizens\u201d and \u201carmed conflicts that exacerbate the fragility of the state and drain its resources.\u201d Outlining a vicious cycle, he said air and water pollution had also deteriorated due to attacks on industrial plants, oil storage facilities and forests. Despite this he said Sudan continues its unwavering commitment to the goals of the Paris agreement and was striving to implement its climate plans in the agriculture, energy and water sectors.<\/p>\n Palestine\u2019s ambassador, Ibrahim Al-Zaben, said climate change intensified the already dire situation imposed on his people by the 58-year Israeli military occupation and more recent \u201cwar of extermination.\u201d He described a worsening shortage of water and food, collapsing sewage systems and grave risks to public health. Despite the grim situation in Gaza, where he said there were a quarter of a million victims of the Israeli army, he spelled out how Palestine was trying to take steps to upgrade its climate plans and improve its sustainability and transparency. He called for global solidarity to stop greenhouse gas emissions, secure climate finance and improve environmental justice. In the face of all the challenges, he said Palestine remained steadfast. \u201cOur message to the world and our appeal from this platform is a message of hope, resilience, and determination to contribute to a just, sustainable, peaceful, and free future, not only for our people but for our planet, for our future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n A military tank stationed outside of the Cop30 summit venue in Bel\u00e9m as a man rides by on an electric scooter. Photograph: Fernando Llano\/AP<\/p>\n While many observers in the global north lament the decline in the climate consensus, multilateralism and overseas development aid as inexorable, the hosts and many delegates at last week\u2019s Bel\u00e9m summit spelled out alternatives and stressed the need for political solidarity.<\/p>\n One of the primary bones of contention is climate funding. On 5 November, Brazil<\/a> and Azerbaijian (the hosts of last year\u2019s and this year\u2019s COP) unveiled a Baku-Bel\u00e9m Roadmap to raise $1.3tn so that poorer nations could cope with the climate crisis. The authors said the funds were available, noting that the target was less than 1% of the $180tn managed by pension funds and insurers worldwide. They said political will was needed to channel this money where it was needed more.<\/p>\n Some wealthier nations and groups, including the EU said they were aware of the need to support the worst-affected countries, but there were few specifics. Meanwhile the World Bank, other international institutions and many governments continue to pour huge sums into subsidising fossil fuels. A huge gap remains in financing expectations and delivery. Movement in this area will be key to a successful conference.<\/p>\n Most of the western media has blamed the low participation rates in Bel\u00e9m on a lack of accommodation and high prices, but this too is shifting responsibility onto the global south. There are certainly infrastructure problems, which is not surprising given this Amazonian municipality is one of the poorest host cities in the history of the Cop and one of the worst affected by rising temperatures. But a bigger reason for the weak turnout is just as likely to be that rich, high-emitting countries are turning their backs on the parts of the world that they have lived off for centuries and now condemn by their slow or non-existent action to phase out fossil fuel emissions.<\/p>\n Share<\/a> Rich countries have lost enthusiasm for combating the climate crisis while China is surging ahead in producing and using clean energy equipment, the president of the UN climate talks has said, writes Fiona Harvey, Guardian environment editor.<\/p>\n More countries should follow China\u2019s lead instead of complaining about being outcompeted, said Andr\u00e9 Corr\u00eaa do Lago, the Brazilian diplomat in charge of the Cop30 conference<\/a>, which begins on Monday.<\/p>\n Andre Correa do Lago, the Cop30 president, at a press conference in Brasilia last month. Photograph: Adriano Machado\/Reuters<\/p>\n \u201cSomehow the reduction in enthusiasm of the global north is showing that the global south is moving,\u201d Corr\u00eaa do Lago told reporters in Bel\u00e9m, the city in the Amazonian rainforest where the fortnight-long Cop30<\/a> conference is taking place. \u201cIt is not just this year, it has been moving for years, but it did not have the exposure that it has now.\u201d<\/p>\n He pointed to the world\u2019s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, China, which is also the biggest producer and consumer of low-carbon energy<\/a>. \u201cChina is coming up with solutions that are for everyone, not just China,\u201d he said. \u201cSolar panels are cheaper, they\u2019re so competitive [compared with fossil fuel energy] that they are everywhere now. If you\u2019re thinking of climate change, this is good.\u201d<\/p>\n Ministers and high-ranking officials from 194 countries will seek to forge plans at Cop30<\/a> to stay within, or as close as possible to, the limit of 1.5C of heating set out in the Paris agreement, to set a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels, and to ensure that poor countries receive the help they need.<\/p>\n Top of the agenda will be national plans on cutting greenhouse gas emissions<\/a>, which currently would lead to a devastating 2.5C of heating. Vulnerable countries want to draw up a plan that will show how countries can outdo their current inadequate efforts and meet the Paris agreement targets.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n We try our best, but high level negotiations do not always make for the most-compelling news coverage. Nevertheless, it is still disappointing that UK national papers dedicated more space to advertising high carbon travel than to coverage of last year\u2019s Cop talks.<\/p>\n According to research by the New Weather Institute, for the Badvertising campaign, UK papers gave 1,745 column inches over to advertisements for flights and cruises, compared to 1,540 inches to reporting on the climate talks on the key dates at the beginning and end of Cop29.<\/p>\n The total amount of \u2018high carbon advertising\u2019 \u2013 which includes high-carbon travel, products and services that are inseparable from the energy sector, banks who finance the fossil fuel industries, and supermarkets, which are key retailers of petrol and other high-carbon products \u2013 amounted to 5,086ins, more than three times the space given to coverage of the climate conference.<\/p>\n Badvertising call for a cigarette-style ban on advertising for high carbon products. The Guardian is the only national newspaper in the UK that has made a commitment to end advertising for coal, oil and gas companies.<\/p>\n Andrew Simms, a co-director of the New Weather Institute and a founder of the Badvertising campaign, said:<\/p>\n The science tells us that we must do everything possible to prevent catastrophic climate breakdown, but instead of discouraging climate pollution it is being actively promoted wherever you look, in ads for flights and big SUVs. Many climate challenges are hard, like changing energy systems and buildings, but it is easy to stop actively pushing high carbon, often luxury products and lifestyles.<\/p>\n Fossil fuels are like the new tobacco and we need to stop promoting them. Without action, the signal from scientists will be drowned out in the marketing noise from oil companies, airlines, and SUV makers trying to persuade us to consume as many high carbon goods and services as possible.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n There has already been significant wrangling over the Cop30 agenda, with Simon Evans, a journalist from Carbon Brief, posting on on Bluesky<\/a> yesterday afternoon that the agenda was already on its fourth iteration.<\/p>\n \u201cAgenda fights have been common in recent years,\u201d Evans reports, citing similar disagreements ahead of Cop29 in Azerbaijan. The negotiations cannot actually get started until the parties agree on what it is they will talk about.<\/p>\n Among the potential items on the agenda are two from the \u201clike-minded developing countries\u201d, a bloc that includes Bolivia, China, India and Saudi Arabia, including one calling for a new, more ambitious finance goal and another for discussion of \u201cunilateral trade-restrictive measures\u201d.<\/p>\n Honduras, Suriname and Papua New Guinea want to discuss deforestation finance. Small island states want space in the agenda to discuss how to \u201caccelerate implementation & drive ambition toward 1.5C\u201d, with the current process \u201cinsufficient for addressing the need for accelerated action\u201d, they say.<\/p>\n And the EU, meanwhile, wants to discuss reporting under Article 13, the provision of the UNFCCC which asks countries to report on their emissions.<\/p>\n \u201cMany developing countries have yet to do this as required,\u201d writes Evans. \u201c[I] suspect this a way to put on them in response to calls for more finance\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a> Ministers and high-ranking officials from nearly 200 countries have gathered in the Amazonian city of Belem to discuss how to rein in the climate crisis, before catastrophic levels of global heating become inevitable, writes Fiona Harvey, Guardian environment editor.<\/p>\n On Sunday, carpenters and builders were still hard at work in the conference centre where the Cop30 UN climate summit <\/a>will take place, unpacking boxes and erecting pavilions where countries will show off their commitment to tackling greenhouse gas emissions and shifting to a low-carbon economy.<\/p>\n By Monday, the pomp and ceremony were ready to begin. There is an element of deja vu here \u2013 world leaders have already visited Belem<\/a>, jetting in last week to this same conference centre to join in round tables about climate action, preserving forests<\/a>, boosting biofuels<\/a> and ensuring social justice while the climate crisis bites.<\/p>\n More than 50 heads of state and government or their deputies took part in that \u201cleaders\u2019 summit\u201d segment, on 6 and 7 November, including the UK\u2019s Keir Starmer, the EU\u2019s Ursula von der Leyen, and Germany\u2019s Friedrich Merz. (Donald Trump, of course, has withdrawn the US from the Paris climate agreement and did not attend; nor did Russia\u2019s Vladimir Putin; Xi Jinping of China and Narendra Modi of India also skipped the summit but have made friendly overtures to Brazil<\/a> over Cop30.) They have all now departed and left the stage to their negotiating teams.<\/p>\n Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, attends an engagement at Museo Emilio Goeldi, meeting youth from the British Council’s Next Generation Brazil Photograph: Victoria Jones\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n But these are climate talks with a difference. Brazil is refusing to countenance the standard form of tortuous negotiations that have characterised the last 30 years of nearly annual \u201cconferences of the parties\u201d (Cops) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the parent treaty to the Paris climate agreement, that was signed in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n Those were characterised by long and bitter sessions, often stretching late into the night, where negotiators re-stated entrenched positions for days on end before finally \u2013 sometimes \u2013 reaching a compromise conclusion that some present would frequently seek to back track on immediately afterwards.<\/p>\n Instead, Brazil insists, this will be \u201cthe Cop of implementation\u201d<\/a>. That means the real world impact of measures to combat the climate crisis today will take precedence over longwinged discussions of future promises.<\/p>\n \u201cNegotiations need consensus,\u201d said Andre Correa do Lago, president of Cop30<\/a>. \u201cBut implementation is countries choosing what they want to do and executing what they have said they are going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n The problem with that approach is that countries which chose to do very little may be able to get away with it. How Brazil intends to combat that tendency is yet to be seen.<\/p>\n The main outcomes of this Cop, instead of being a list of pledges as has become usual, are more likely to be a collection of \u201croadmaps\u201d covering the key issues: a roadmap on finance, which has already been published<\/a>; a roadmap on how to transition away from fossil fuels; a roadmap on how to scale up low-carbon energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with the target of limiting global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.<\/p>\n On some of these issues, it may not be possible to produce the final roadmap at this Cop \u2013 in the case of the transition away from fossil fuels, for instance, what is more likely is that a forum could be set up that will continue for several Cops before reporting.<\/p>\n Cop30 will cover enormous ground<\/a> \u2013 from the future of energy, to the future of climate finance, to the need for social justice to accompany climate action. It will involve ministers, diplomats, local government officials, scientists, businesspeople, Indigenous people and representatives of all forms of civil society, from nearly every country in the world. Issues including health, biodiversity, nature, wildlife, water, the oceans, transport, migration, food, gender and technology will all be addressed at some point across the two weeks of talks.<\/p>\n The problem Cop exists to solve could scarcely be more urgent: scientists are warning that, as temperatures rise faster than at any point in at least 24,000 years<\/a>, the world stands on the brink of a series of \u201ctipping points<\/a>\u201d that could pitch us into greatly accelerated heating and unstoppable climate catastrophe.<\/p>\n But one question will dominate overall: the question of whether the collective will to solve this problem exists. Can the world come together, despite geopolitical headwinds and open conflict, despite the forces of division fanned by populism, despite the global tide of climate disinformation<\/a>, despite influential voices claiming the climate somehow matters less than it did before the populists took over<\/a> \u2013 and show the unity, mutual respect and spirit of cooperation that are desperately needed, if we are to face this existential threat?<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Welcome to the Cop30 live blog! I\u2019m Guardian environment correspondent Damien Gayle, and I will be taking you through the first few hours of our live coverage of the UN climate summit taking place in Bel\u00e9m, Brazil<\/a>.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll be collating all the latest dispatches from our reporters on the ground, the files from the news agencies and any bits and pieces that appear on social media to try to give you the best possible picture of the summit as it unfolds.<\/p>\n![\"Keir](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762782308_302_6453.jpg\")
Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, attends an engagement at Museo Emilio Goeldi, meeting youth from the British Council’s Next Generation Brazil Photograph: Victoria Jones\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n![\"Damian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Damian-Carrington,-R.png\")
Damian Carrington<\/p>\n![\"Jonathan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Jonathan_Watts.jpg\")
Jonathan Watts<\/p>\nFiona Harvey<\/p>\nFiona Harvey<\/p>\n