UN climate talks begin Monday at a meeting on the edge of the Brazilian Amazon, with leaders insisting on urgency, cooperation and acceleration after more than 30 years of fighting to curb global warming by sharply cutting emissions. carbon pollution it causes it.
André Corrão do Lago, president of this year's conference, known as COP30, stressed that negotiators use “mutirão,” a Brazilian word derived from an indigenous word that refers to a group coming together to work on a common goal.
“Either we decide together to change by choice, or tragedy forces change upon us,” Do Lago wrote in his letter to negotiators on Sunday. “We can change. But we have to do it together.”
Complicating calls for unity is the United States. The Trump administration did not send senior negotiators to the talks and I refuse for the second time from the 10-year Paris Agreement, which is celebrated here in Belém as a partial achievement.
USA supplied more heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the air from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas than in any other country. China is now the No. 1 carbon polluter, but because carbon dioxide remains in the air for at least a century, most of it is produced in the United States.
“I think the environment we find ourselves in, the geopolitical landscape, is particularly challenging,” said Palau Ambassador Ilana Seid, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States. Small island states suffer the worst impacts of climate change as rising sea levels consume land. “The US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement really changed the significance of the entire negotiating system.
President Trump's actions are detrimental to the fight against climate change, said former US special envoy for climate change Todd Stern.
“It's good that they don't send anyone. If they did, it wouldn't be constructive,” he said.
A World Meteorological Organization report published earlier this year warned that climate change is acceleratingwith some consequences now irreversible for centuries. State of the Global Climate Report confirmed global temperatures, greenhouse gas emissions and sea levels reached record highs in 2024.
IN mission statement In a post before COP30, organizers wrote: “We have made progress, but not enough. Climate change is no longer a threat to the future. This is the tragedy of the present.”
“We need to accelerate the fight against global warming and strengthen a multilateral approach to combat climate change,” they said, noting that “climate change has increased the vulnerability of the poorest people to natural disasters.”
In a letter to negotiators released late on Sunday, Simon Still, the UN climate chief, said the 10-year Paris agreement was working to some extent, “but we must accelerate in the Amazon. Devastating climate disruption is already happening, from Hurricane Melissa hitting the Caribbean, super typhoons hitting Vietnam and the Philippines, to a tornado tearing through Southern Brazil.”
Countries must not only do more, faster, but also “must connect climate action to the realities of people's lives,” Still wrote.
The Nature Conservancy's chief scientist, Katherine Hayhoe, likened the multinational talks to a potluck.
“Everyone is doing their part,” which in this case are new and enhanced plans to reduce carbon emissions, Hayhoe said. “And apparently who took the time to bake a fresh pie with fruit they picked, and who fished year-old frozen chicken nuggets out of the back of the freezer.”
“The United States as a country is not going to show up with the dish,” Hayhoe said. But she and several others, including former top U.S. negotiators, point to U.S. cities, states and businesses that they say will pick up the slack.
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