The 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) began yesterday in Belém, a city in the Brazilian Amazon that is home to the world’s largest rainforest, marking the first time the global climate summit is being held in the heart of the Amazon.
COP30 is taking place from November 10 to 21. The conference brings together world leaders, scientists, negotiators, NGOs, and civil society representatives to address what many now call humanity’s defining crisis. Brazil’s Secretary of Climate, Energy and Environment, André Corrêa do Lago, is chairing this year’s conference.
Hosting more than 50,000 participants in a relatively small Amazonian city was seen as a logistical challenge, but Brazil—now the world’s 10th-largest economy and a leading oil and gas exporter—remains determined to turn the event into a showcase of environmental and political will.
Despite its economic rise, Brazil’s most valuable resource, the Amazon rainforest, continues to face record droughts, fires, and deforestation. The country has pledged that COP30 will represent “a turning point for climate justice and global cooperation.”
The first day of COP30 opened amid growing tensions between developed and climate-vulnerable nations, especially over financing and accountability.
According to diplomatic observers, attendance from Asian delegations was noticeably lower this year due to high travel costs, accommodation shortages, and ongoing geopolitical rifts.
Adding to the tension, 25 UN experts are preparing to issue a joint statement urging full implementation of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on climate obligations—including a ban on fossil fuel lobbyists and greater transparency in global climate actions.
The ICJ ruling, delivered earlier this year, affirmed that all states have binding legal duties to prevent and mitigate climate damage, with industrialized countries bearing the first and foremost responsibility. The ruling elevated the 1.5°C warming limit to a legal standard and recognized a clean and sustainable environment as a fundamental human right.
However, major emitters—including the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Russia, and the European Union—argued that their responsibilities were confined to existing frameworks under the Paris Agreement and Kyoto Protocol. The ICJ rejected that interpretation, prompting a wave of renewed debate at COP30.
Small island nations, rallying under the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), have declared that the ruling will be at the heart of their negotiating strategy, pushing for climate cooperation as a legal duty rather than a voluntary gesture.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), climate-related disasters—including floods, droughts, sea-level rise, and ecosystem collapse—have displaced nearly 250 million people worldwide over the past decade, an average of 70,000 people every day.
In 2024 alone, 580,000 people were displaced by floods in Brazil, 1.3 million by cyclones in Myanmar, and another 1.3 million by floods in Chad, making climate disasters a leading cause of forced migration.
“Funding cuts are severely limiting the ability of refugees and displaced families to protect themselves from the impacts of extreme weather,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. “If we want stability, we must invest in the places where people are most at risk.”
Half of the world’s displaced populations are now concentrated in politically fragile countries such as Sudan, Syria, Haiti, Congo, Lebanon, Myanmar, and Yemen—nations least responsible for global emissions but most deprived of adaptation funds.
Global climate diplomacy at COP30 has grown increasingly complex.
As expected, US President Donald Trump announced he would not attend the conference, calling climate change “the greatest hoax ever.” Yet analysts warned that even from afar, Washington’s policies could disrupt global progress. Earlier this year, Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement for the second time, reinforcing concerns about the U.S. retreat from international climate commitments.
In contrast, China is poised to play an assertive role despite criticism of its updated climate pledges, citing its rapid advances in renewable energy deployment. India, which took a hardline position at COP29, is expected to soften its tone this year, while the European Union, under domestic political pressure, has quietly relaxed its own emissions targets.
Experts say the joint leadership of China and the EU, in the absence of the United States, could create new diplomatic dynamics in Belém, potentially reshaping climate finance and energy transition negotiations.
On the opening day, small islands and least developed countries reminded rich nations of their “moral responsibility” under the Paris Agreement.
Frustrated by the breach of the 1.5°C threshold, they are demanding concrete progress on fossil fuel phase-out, stronger national commitments (NDCs), and accessible climate finance.
A key proposal gaining traction is the “debt-for-climate action” framework, which would allow vulnerable countries to swap external debt for green investments and resilience projects. The initiative has been dubbed the “Baku-to-Belém Roadmap,” a continuation of commitments made at last year’s COP29 in Azerbaijan.
Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape, once a vocal critic of the COP process as “more talk, less action,” arrived in Belém with a renewed message: “We are both victims and solution providers. What we need is fair access to nature conservation and climate finance.”
As the summit unfolds in the world’s most crucial rainforest, the stakes could not be higher.
COP30 is no longer just a climate summit — it has become a convergence of political, economic, and humanitarian crises, testing the very fabric of international cooperation.
The fragile trust between rich and poor nations, the persistent ambiguity around climate finance, and the soaring number of displaced people all underscore a shared truth: time is running out.
With the ICJ ruling, the legalization of the 1.5°C target, the global call to end fossil fuels, and the “Baku-to-Belém” roadmap, COP30 stands at a crossroads — one that will either chart a sustainable future or add another failed chapter to the history of climate commitments.
