Delegates from global giants and smaller nations expected to clash at Brazilian summit over how to tackle the climate crisis and who should pay
The UN’s Cop30 climate conference is under way, with negotiators, diplomats and leaders from around the world in Belem, Brazil, to discuss how to handle the climate crisis.
But who are the big players, and what do they want?
Deciding to host a conference for 50,000 people in a small city in the Amazon rainforest was always going to be a controversial decision but Brazil is determined to carry it off. The powerhouse of Latin America, with 212 million people, Brazil is the world’s 10th biggest economy and has risen to become the eighth biggest exporter of oil and gas. But its defining feature is the Amazon rainforest, imperilled by the climate crisis and suffering record droughts, wildfires and the continuing depredations of ranchers and soy planters, but still the lungs of the world and a hotspot for biodiversity.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who leads a governing coalition drawn from opposing ends of the political spectrum after his narrow presidential victory over the rightwing populist Jair Bolsonaro, wants the world to be in no doubt: Cop30 will be the Cop of the Amazon. To that end, his flagship project is the Tropical Funds Forever Facility, a projected $125bn (£96bn) fund that would enable governments and local communities to keep their forests standing instead of exploiting them for short-term gains.
