The annual climate summit, which this year is being held in the Amazonian city of Belém (Brazil), officially began this Monday, although it was held last Thursday and Friday. At 29 degrees and with 73% humidity in the street, this meeting has begun in which for two weeks the countries will try to agree on a common approach to confront the climate crisis in a complicated international political moment from which the fight against warming is by no means isolated.
“It is time to impose a new defeat on the deniers,” proclaimed the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, at the opening of the summit. In his speech he warned against misinformation and algorithms that attack science. Furthermore, he has defended multilateralism in this difficult international moment.
“Your job here is not to fight among yourselves, but to fight together against this climate crisis,” Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the UN climate area, told attendees at the same opening event. “Multilateralism is definitely the way,” added André Correa do Lago, the Brazilian diplomat who presides over this COP30. “Urgency is the distinctive element of this mission,” Correa do Lago emphasized in reference to the battle against warming. “That element that is so present, as we saw with great sadness this week in Paraná and in the Philippines, and two weeks ago in Jamaica,” in , the most recent typhoon and hurricane.
Lula has also referred to these disasters that fuel climate change, who has drawn a parallel between the colossal logistical challenges of hosting the summit in the Amazon and combating the climate emergency. “It would have been easier to celebrate it in a city without problems. But we decided to prove that, when there is political will and commitment to the truth, nothing is impossible.” And he added: “To those who wage war, I tell you that it is much cheaper to spend 1.3 billion to end the climate problem than 2.7 billion on wars, as they did last year.”
The Belém event is the thirtieth to be held since the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was agreed upon at a summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. This convention is the one that in the last three decades has guided the steps of the international fight against climate change under the umbrella of the UN. As a result of this framework, in December 2015, the Paris Agreement was born, the most ambitious of the climate pacts launched so far.
The Brazilian Government’s forecasts before the summit began were that around 170 countries would participate in the negotiations. The United States informed the UN a few days ago that it would not send a delegation to Belém, although it could land at any time because, although Donald Trump has withdrawn his country from the Paris Agreement, it remains a member of the framework convention. The participation of the United States in the latest environmental meetings in the context of the UN has not been especially positive for the advancement of international treaties: in October, to countries that supported a tax on carbon dioxide emissions from the international maritime sector. In August, he actively contributed to stopping this pollution. And a few days ago the US Government asked the UN to slam the door on the fight against climate change in the report that analyzes countries’ plans to cut emissions.
These blows by the Trump Administration are joined in the EU by a wave of brakes on climate and environmental policies. And the advance of far-right denialism in the Government of many countries. That is the context in which a climate summit will take place that does not have a clear focus like other recent events, beyond the fact that it is held in the Amazon, one of the great sinks on the planet that is also threatened by global warming.
Last year’s summit, in Baku (Azerbaijan), was that the richest countries must contribute to those with fewer resources to combat and adapt to climate change. And in Dubai in 2023, for the first time in these three decades of black-on-white negotiations, he pointed out the main people responsible for this crisis.
The Belém meeting will, however, be dominated by the failure to comply with one of the obligations of the Paris Agreement. The almost 200 countries that are part of this treaty must periodically present their emissions cutting plans (known by the acronym NDC), in which they self-impose specific goals. These commitments must lead to the temperature increase not exceeding 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels and, to the extent possible, 1.5 (although this last barrier is assumed to fall in the next decade and the only alternative is that this excess of 1.5 is only temporary).
In February 2025, all countries should have presented their new plans, with objectives for 2035. . The UN then asked governments to do so before September 30. But only six dozen complied with this new extension, which has prevented scientists from being able to provide the United Nations with a good analysis of what the new cutback objectives mean. In recent days, the pace of presentation of NDCs has increased and this Monday 108 national plans already appear in the UN registry.
Although it has not been possible to make an accurate assessment, what is known is that they are not aiming for the increase in temperature to remain within the safety margins, between those 2 and 1.5 degrees. And one of the most controversial points of debate is how to address this gap between what should be done and what the different governments envisage. The other gap that must be covered is that of financing for developing countries, which has also suffered a significant blow due to the withdrawal of the United States from climate forums.
Li Shuo, director of the China Climate Hub at the Asian Society Policy Institute, sees this Belém summit as a “collective graduation ceremony for the Global South.” Because of the withdrawal of the United States and the hesitations of the European Union, but also because of the step forward that it represented, where for the first time it committed to concrete cuts in its emissions. China is also leading the world in the installation of renewables and the manufacturing and sale of electric cars.
In a letter prior to the start of the summit, Corrêa do Lago combined satisfaction with the progress with urgency to urge countries to have more ambition and step on the accelerator. The diplomat maintained that the climate transition is already an irreversible trend and a driver of sustainable development and that “the Paris Agreement is working.” Now, he emphasizes, “the challenge is to accelerate its implementation to keep the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal within reach, while strengthening resilience in the face of growing impacts.” [del calentamiento global]”.
The letter from the Brazilian ambassador precisely praises Chinese leadership by stating that “the climate transition is the trend of our time, as Chinese President Xi Jinping has pointed out.” That mention – the only name next to Lula’s – is significant at a time when the American Donald Trump proclaims that global warming is a farce.
“In some ways, the decline in enthusiasm from the Global North shows that the Global South is moving forward,” Corrêa do Lago told reporters on Sunday in Belém. “It is not something new, it has been brewing for years, but it has not had the visibility it has now,” he added in statements reported by the Reuters agency.
In addition to accelerating the implementation of the Paris Agreement, trying to establish roadmaps for aspects such as adaptation to climate change or the abandonment of fossil fuels, Brazil’s priorities for this summit are to reinforce multilateralism and “connect the climate regime to people’s lives and the real economy.” Hence his idea of creating and paying those who protect him with their sustainable way of life.
