The COP30 Climate Summit has opened in Brazil with a message from the United Nations that countries seek cooperating rather than battle over competing priorities that continues to fracture the consensus seeking approach of the gathering.  

The COP30 conference marks three decades since global climate negotiations began.

Host country Brazil brokered a deal on the agenda for the two-week summit in the Amazon city of Belem, deflecting attempts by developing country negotiating blocs to shoehorn contentious issues like climate finance and carbon taxes into the talks.  

The gathering expects some 50 000 delegates from over 190 countries, civil society and the private sector in the latest effort to protect the planet from climate catastrophe.  

🇪🇹 Ethiopia proudly takes the stage at #COP30 in Belém, Brazil!

Led by H.E. Dr. Fitsum Assefa, Minister of Planning and Development, the Ethiopian delegation is showcasing bold national climate actions and flagship initiatives such as the Green Legacy Initiative.

Building on… pic.twitter.com/2kidK3KE2S

— Ministry of Planning and Development – Ethiopia (@MoPD_Ethiopia) November 11, 2025

Over 190 countries participating in this year summit, the urgency is palpable after the latest UN Emissions Gap Report found that under the Paris Climate Agreement, available new climate pledges have only slightly lowered global temperature rise over the course of this century, leaving the world heading for a serious escalation of climate risks and damages. 

Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Simon Stiell says the main aim of COP 30 is not to fight one another, but to fight climate crisis together. 

Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva says, “It’s time to inflict another defeat on the deniers. Without the Paris Agreement, the world would be doomed to catastrophic warming of almost 5 degrees by the end of the century. We are moving in the right direction, but at the wrong speed. If the men who wage war were here at this COP, they would realize that it is much cheaper to invest 1.3 trillion dollars to solve the climate problem than to invest 2.7 trillion dollars to wage war, as they did last year.” 

Belém agora é o coração do mundo. 💚

A cidade que pulsa às margens do Guamá recebe negociadores, cientistas, lideranças e povos de todos os cantos do planeta para falar do futuro da Terra.

Trazer a COP para a Amazônia foi um desafio, mas também um gesto de justiça. Porque a… pic.twitter.com/XbdnqSNkcF

— Lula (@LulaOficial) November 10, 2025

The United States is boycotting the gathering given a shift in America’s approach after President Donald Trump made his views on climate change clear at the UN General Assembly this September. 

WATCH | U.S. President Donald Trump says that no U.S. government official would attend the G20 Leaders’ Summit in South Africa later this month, including the U.N. Climate Change Conference, COP30, in Brazil. SABC News Correspondent Sherwin Bryce-Pease has more. pic.twitter.com/sQdyl6lCEn

— SABC News (@SABCNews) November 10, 2025

Some countries are now openly bucking up the international consensus to move awards from resources that are the primary driver of a warming planet. 

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says that overshooting 1.5 degrees is now inevitable. 

“Scientists tell us that overshooting 1.5 degrees is now inevitable starting at the latest, in the early 2030s. How high and how long that overshot lasts depend on the speed and scale of our actions today. To return below 1.5 degrees by century’s end, global emissions must fall by almost half by 2030, reach net zero by 2050 and go on with net negative afterwards.  Renewables are now the cheapest source of new electricity in nearly every country.  They are powering prosperity and empowering communities long left in the dark. Every dollar invested in renewables creates three times more jobs than a dollar invested in fossil fuels – and clean energy jobs now outnumber fossil fuel jobs worldwide.” 

I thank President @LulaOficial and the people of Brazil for bringing the world to the Amazon — one of the world’s most vulnerable areas to climate change — for #COP30.

As negotiations get underway, I reiterate my appeal for an outcome that puts people and the planet first. pic.twitter.com/ozkfQCPfMi

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) November 8, 2025

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