1 week ago As Trump casts a pall over Cop30, China’s quiet leadership inspires hope

Amid the climate crisis, China’s quiet leadership in the fight for a sustainable future offers a reason for optimism, particularly for the Global South. After two weeks of contentious negotiations, Cop30 in Brazil concluded with an uneasy deal that sidestepped any mention of fossil fuels, exposing deep divisions and mounting frustrations. Indeed, even as Cop30 convened, the world was already suffering “summit fatigue”. After decades of lofty declarations and limited follow-through, many question...

Politics

1 week ago China’s quiet climate leadership offers hope for Global South and world

Amid the climate crisis, China’s quiet leadership in the fight for a sustainable future offers a reason for optimism, particularly for the Global South. After two weeks of contentious negotiations, Cop30 in Brazil concluded with an uneasy deal that sidestepped any mention of fossil fuels, exposing deep divisions and mounting frustrations. Indeed, even as Cop30 convened, the world was already suffering “summit fatigue”. After decades of lofty declarations and limited follow-through, many question...

Politics

1 week ago ‘Important steps’: what Cop30 deal means for climate unity and Global South

A joint declaration at the Cop30 summit in Brazil – struck without United States participation after Washington withdrew from the Paris climate pact – has kept fragile climate cooperation alive for the Global South even as the meeting fell short of a fossil fuel phase-out. Observers said the outcome revealed both the limits of strained multilateralism and the room that still existed for developing nations to influence the global transition, with several pointing to the UN climate change summit’s...

Politics

1 week ago ‘On the same side’: India, China align on climate at Cop30 as ties thaw

A tentative thaw in India–China ties is rekindling hopes that the two Asian giants could move from strategic rivalry to clean-energy cooperation at a moment when the Global South is searching for leverage in climate negotiations. This cautious warming, after four years of strained relations, has unfolded alongside renewed trade in green-energy components and their increasingly aligned push at Cop30 in Brazil for more climate finance and fairer rules, a convergence that analysts say could subtly...

Politics

2 w. ago Fire breaks out at Brazil’s Cop30 talks, forcing delay at critical phase

A fire broke out Thursday inside the UN climate summit venue in Brazil, burning through the roof and causing a panicked evacuation and the suspension of talks entering a crucial phase. The blaze engulfed pavilions in the summit site in Belem around 2pm, torching a hole through its fabric ceiling, sparking a rush for the exit as smoke filled the corridors and people cried “fire!” It was the third major incident since the Cop30 negotiations started last week in the Amazon region, after Indigenous...

Events

2 w. ago Can Brazil’s Cop30 spark a climate breakthrough in the Amazon?

With a direct letter sent to nations and a draft text released on Tuesday, host country Brazil is shifting the UN climate conference into a higher gear. The letter sent late on Monday comes during the final week of the first climate summit in the Amazon rainforest, a key regulator of climate because trees absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that warms the planet. Cop30 President Andre Correa do Lago later released a proposal with 21 options for negotiators to choose from on four sticky and...

Politics

2 w. ago Cop30: climate protesters rally in Brazil at UN summit’s halfway mark

Thousands of people marched through the streets of Belem on Saturday to press for action from negotiators holding tough talks at the United Nations’ Cop30 climate conference in the Amazonian city. Under a baking sun, indigenous people mixed with activists gathered in a festive atmosphere, blasting music from speakers, carrying a giant beach ball of Earth and holding a flag of Brazil emblazoned with the words “Protected Amazon”. It was the first major protest outside the annual climate talks...

Politics

2 w. ago Pikachu protest at Cop30 takes on Japan’s fossil fuel empire

Protesters in Pokemon costumes stomped around the United Nations climate conference on Friday to send a message to Japan: end financing of coal and natural gas projects across Southeast Asia and other regions of the Global South. The Stop Japan’s Dirty Energy Plans protest aligned with the first of two thematic days with a focus on energy during the annual climate conference known as Cop30, held this year in Belem on the edge of the Brazilian Amazon. Organisers of the protest said the...

Events

3 w. ago Takeaway from Cop30: climate action needs to be up close and local

Spectating from afar during the Cop30 UN climate summit in Belem on the edge of Brazil’s Amazon forests, it is easy to despair. Despite 30 years of concerted global diplomacy and exhaustive scientific evidence of the gravity of global warming, carbon dioxide emissions continue to rise, as do global temperatures. Brazil’s rainforest continues to burn. Global oil and gas production remains robust. Governments procrastinate and funding promises still fail to materialise. Worst of all, the world’s...

Politics

4 w. ago Brazil’s Lula opens Cop30 demanding courage – and cash – to save the planet

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva kicked off the Cop30 climate summit on Thursday, urging leaders to turn promises into action while highlighting his country’s work within the Brics group to reaffirm the importance of climate finance, capacity building and technology transfer in global cooperation. The meeting comes amid the notable absence by the United States. President Donald Trump, who ordered the country’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in January, declined an invitation...

Politics

4 w. ago Rio raids, Venezuela crisis threaten to overshadow Brazil’s UN climate summit

Fallout from lethal police raids in Rio de Janeiro and mounting regional fears about US military intervention in Venezuela are threatening to overshadow the major United Nations climate summit set to begin in Brazil. The Cop30 gathering in the northern city of Belem was supposed to provide President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a chance to showcase the environmental challenges facing the Amazon rainforest while spurring an aggressive response to climate change. Instead, the pair of crises sparked...

Events