Starmer warns ‘consensus is gone’ on fighting climate change

US President Donald Trump has come under fire from world leaders for his stance on climate change ahead of the COP30 global summit.

President Trump, who is not attending the meeting in the Amazonian city of Belen, was called a liar by the leaders of Colombia and Chile for his rejection of climate science.

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has acknowledged the decline in political support for climate change. He said it was an issue of unity internationally and in the UK, but “today, unfortunately, that consensus is no longer there.”

Over the next two weeks, countries will try to negotiate a new climate change agreement, with a focus on channeling more money to protect forests.

Many leaders of the world's largest countries – India, Russia, the United States and China – are conspicuously absent from this year's summit.

And although Trump is not present at this meeting in Belem, his views on climate change are certainly on the minds of many other leaders present.

Speaking at the UN in September, the US president said climate change was “the greatest scam the world has ever committed”.

He said: “The entire globalist concept that calls for successful industrialized countries to hurt themselves and radically destroy their entire societies must be completely and utterly rejected.”

Without naming the US leader, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva warned Thursday of “extremist forces that are fabricating fake news and dooming future generations to live on a planet forever changed by global warming.”

The leaders of Chile and Colombia went further, calling the US president a liar and asking other countries to ignore US efforts to roll back action on climate change.

Maysa Rojas, Chile's environment minister, told the BBC: “The science is very clear. It is very important not to falsify the truth.”

But while Trump's criticism appealed to audiences, winning agreement on new steps to combat warming is proving much more difficult.

Here in Belem, only a few dozen leaders have emerged, and most countries have failed to present new plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the main cause of rising temperatures.

Despite acknowledging that global political support for the climate movement was waning, Starmer told the crowd: “My message is that the UK is doing everything it can.”

But in a blow to Brazilian hosts on Wednesday night, the UK decided to pull out of its flagship $125bn (£95bn) fund to support the world's rainforests.

President Lula hoped that the Rainforests Forever Fund could raise $25 billion from public sources – mostly from developed countries such as the UK – to support governments and communities protecting the world's rainforests, such as the Amazon and the Congo Basin.

Protecting these ecosystems is critical to combating climate change: they make up just 6% of the world's land mass, but contain billions of tons of planet-warming gases and are home to half the planet's species.

The UK's move came as a surprise as it had been closely involved in developing the fund and made a global commitment to countries to stop deforestation by 2030 when it hosted the COP summit in Glasgow in 2021.

Lord Zac Goldsmith, who worked on the issue when he was a former environment secretary, told the BBC Prime Minister's Programme: “The UK was supposed to be the lead participant, but at the last minute the UK pulled out. This has caused, to put it mildly, real disappointment here in Brazil… The Brazilian government is furious behind the scenes.”

This decision also contradicts the position of the Prince of Wales. Also addressing leaders on Thursday, he declared the fund a “visionary step towards valuing nature's role in climate stability” and shortlisted it for his £1 million Earthshot Prize.

Prince William tried to encourage leaders to overcome their differences and move forward.

“I have long believed in the power of urgent optimism: the belief that even in the face of enormous challenges, we have the ingenuity and determination to make a difference, and to do it now,” he said.

And he urged them to take action for the sake of their children and grandchildren.

“Let us rise to this moment with the clarity that history demands of us. Let us be the generation that turns the tide – not for the sake of applause, but for the quiet gratitude of those yet to be born,” he said.

From Monday, countries will spend two weeks negotiating the way forward on climate change, asking critical questions about how to attract funding previously promised for those already suffering the worst impacts of climate change.

The past few weeks have seen devastating extreme weather conditions across the world.

Hurricane Melissa, which hit the Caribbean islands last week, is one of the strongest the island nations have ever faced and has killed more than 75 people.

A recent analysis from Imperial College found that climate change has increased the amount of extreme rainfall associated with a Category 5 hurricane by 16%.

Additional reporting by Ion Wells and Justin Rowlatt