COP30 Opens in Brazil’s Amazon Gateway with Focus on Action, not New Deals
Delegates are converging on Belem for COP30, the UN’s annual climate summit, with organisers billing this year’s talks as an «implementation COP» aimed at accelerating real-world action rather than sealing a major new pact.
With the world’s largest rainforest on its doorstep, Belem is expected to spotlight Indigenous leadership, forest protection and land stewardship alongside the traditional push to cut fossil-fuel pollution. Brazil is promoting a proposed Tropical Forests Forever Facility, a pay-for-performance plan to reward countries that keep forests standing, though its success hinges on fresh financial pledges.
Logistics have dominated early chatter: limited accommodation has pushed some attendees to book cruise ships and short-stay motels, while sweltering heat and humidity prompted a relaxed dress code. Officials say the discomfort underscores climate realities faced by vulnerable communities.
Ten years after the Paris Agreement, global temperatures have risen sharply and the 1.5°C goal is slipping from reach, scientists warn. Still, plunging costs for renewables have driven progress, and every fraction of a degree avoided reduces the risk of extreme weather, experts say.
Countries are expected to arrive with updated national climate plans, but negotiators are not anticipating a grand bargain this year. Instead, pressure is on to scale up adaptation finance, fund billion-dollar efforts to halt deforestation and land degradation, and turn existing promises into measurable results.
Some remain skeptical. Critics warn the summit risks becoming high-carbon talk with little delivery. Supporters counter that success in Belem will be judged by tangible funding, clearer implementation pathways and momentum to protect the Amazon and other critical ecosystems.
Kursiv Uzbekistan also reports that Governments attending the COP30 climate summit in Brazil are preparing for the possibility that the Trump administration could attempt to disrupt negotiations, even if no senior US officials are present.
