German delegation arrives in Belém as COP30 opens in the Amazon
Former German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock, now serving as president of the UN General Assembly, and Environment Minister Carsten Schneider will attend the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, this weekend. The talks take place in the Amazon region and bring together world leaders, negotiators and civil society to address the accelerating climate crisis.
Baerbock’s role and message
Although Baerbock previously led Germany’s climate negotiating efforts as foreign minister, she will not be part of Germany’s core negotiating team at this conference. Instead, she will take part in a series of panel discussions and public events. At the start of her visit she called the climate emergency "the greatest threat of our time," noting that the impacts persist despite ongoing wars and geopolitical tensions.
"Some 3.6 billion people – almost half the world's population – are already severely threatened by the consequences of climate change: droughts, floods, extreme heat and growing food insecurity," she told dpa.
Baerbock warned that these climate impacts are deepening "the vicious cycle of hunger, poverty, displacement, instability and conflict," and stressed that international cooperation is essential because "CO2 doesn't stop at borders." She emphasized that poorer nations, which have contributed least to global emissions, require substantially greater support, including climate finance and resilience measures: a single hurricane can erase decades of development in vulnerable island states.
Schneider’s responsibilities and planned engagements
Environment Minister Carsten Schneider, who heads Germany’s official negotiating line, is also expected in Belém. Ahead of the decisive negotiation phase, Schneider will meet members of local Quilombola communities — traditional Afro-Brazilian groups who live in and depend on the rainforest — and visit a nearby nature reserve to observe local conservation and livelihood issues firsthand.
Both ministers’ visits highlight Germany’s twin focus at COP30: advancing multilateral negotiations while underscoring the human and ecological stakes in the Amazon and other vulnerable regions. Their presence aims to reinforce calls for stronger global cooperation, increased climate finance for the most affected countries, and practical measures to protect ecosystems and communities on the frontline of climate change.
