The UN's COP30 climate summit opened in Belém, Brazil, with about 50,000 participants and delegates from more than 190 countries meeting for nearly two weeks of negotiations. Key issues include adaptation finance for poorer nations, and the fact that only around a third of countries submitted updated climate plans up to 2035 on time. Brazil is proposing the multi-billion-pound Tropical Forest Forever Facility to reward forest conservation and penalise deforestation. UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned the 1.5°C limit could be temporarily breached by the early 2030s, while a UN forecast puts current policies on track for about 2.8°C of warming.
COP30 Opens in Brazil's Amazon — Leaders Warn of Global Climate 'Failure' as Talks Begin in Belém
The UN's COP30 climate summit opened in Belém, Brazil, with about 50,000 participants and delegates from more than 190 countries meeting for nearly two weeks of negotiations. Key issues include adaptation finance for poorer nations, and the fact that only around a third of countries submitted updated climate plans up to 2035 on time. Brazil is proposing the multi-billion-pound Tropical Forest Forever Facility to reward forest conservation and penalise deforestation. UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned the 1.5°C limit could be temporarily breached by the early 2030s, while a UN forecast puts current policies on track for about 2.8°C of warming.
05:49 PM, 11/10/2025Environment
The 30th UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) opened on Monday in Belém, deep in Brazil's Amazon, with hosts expecting roughly 50,000 participants for nearly two weeks of intense negotiations.
Delegates from more than 190 countries will debate how to rein in the climate emergency and respond to increasingly severe impacts — from prolonged droughts and powerful storms to larger wildfires and catastrophic floods. A major focus will be demands from poorer nations for greater finance to adapt to harsher climate conditions and protect vulnerable communities.
Agenda and missing plans
Negotiations are likely to be dominated by calls for stronger national action. Contrary to earlier pledges, only about a third of countries submitted updated climate plans covering the period up to 2035 in time for the conference, raising concerns about the collective ability to meet global goals.
Martin Kaiser, head of Greenpeace Germany: 'In view of the inadequate national climate policies, the conference will focus on how the limitation of global warming necessary for our survival can still be achieved.'
Tropical Forest Forever Facility
As host, Brazil is promoting a new multi-billion-pound initiative called the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF). Under the proposal, countries that conserve their tropical forests would receive rewards, while penalties would be levied for each hectare destroyed — with proceeds channelled into the fund to support conservation and restoration.
Guterres: 'Deadly negligence'
The gathering comes a decade after the Paris Agreement, which aimed to limit warming to as close as possible to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Speaking at a preparatory summit, UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the failure to meet that goal so far as 'the hard truth' and warned that the 1.5°C threshold could be temporarily breached by the early 2030s. He called the current trajectory 'a moral failure and deadly negligence.'
US absence and global outlook
The United States, the world's second-largest greenhouse gas emitter, is reportedly in the process of leaving the Paris Agreement and is not attending COP30; officials warn that the absence of US funding could make it harder for other countries to commit resources to support poorer nations.
Current UN forecasts indicate that, under existing policies, the world is on track for roughly 2.8°C of warming — far above the Paris goals and a stark reminder of the scale of action needed.
Context from past COPs
Past COP meetings have produced mixed outcomes. COP29 in Azerbaijan highlighted continuing geopolitical divisions: oil-rich states such as Saudi Arabia pushed back against proposals to phase out fossil fuels, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev described fossil fuels as a 'gift of God' during last year's talks.
What to watch: negotiations over finance for adaptation and loss and damage, the details and reception of Brazil's TFFF proposal, and whether countries increase their near-term emissions-reduction commitments.