COP30: Countries Meet on Climate in Brazil

Belém, Brazil —(Map)

On Monday, the important international climate meeting COP30* began in Belém, Brazil. The United States is skipping the meeting, but leaders from almost 200 other countries from around the world are working hard to try to reach agreements needed to tackle the climate crisis.

In 2015, the world’s countries signed the “Paris Agreement” to work together to try to limit global warming to 1.5ºC. In recent years, world leaders have held follow-up “COP” meetings to check in on how the world is doing in its fight against the climate crisis, and to reach agreements on next steps.

This year’s meeting, COP30, is being held in Belém, Brazil. Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, opened the meeting yesterday. The meeting’s location helps put a focus on the Amazon rainforest, which is important in the fight against climate change.

The location of this year’s COP30 meeting – Belém, Brazil – helps put a focus on the Amazon rainforest. Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, opened the meeting yesterday. Above, Mr. da Silva speaking at a special meeting for world leaders last Thursday.

Climate experts say that immediate action is needed. There’s concern that the world may soon permanently go beyond the 1.5ºC temperature increase that countries were trying to avoid.

Ending the use of fossil fuels is one of the most important actions needed. But fossil fuel use has continued to grow. This trend seems likely to continue. Worldwide, countries are focused on developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, which demands lots of energy.

The United States, one of the world’s largest and most polluting countries, is not officially attending the meeting. US President Donald Trump has called climate change a “hoax” (a trick or joke based on false information).

Since he took office for the second time in January, Mr. Trump has taken many steps to reverse climate actions the US has taken in the past. His government is actively promoting fossil fuels and working against renewable energy sources.

But over 100 American state and local leaders are attending the meeting in spite of the official US government position.

China is currently the world’s biggest polluter. But China is also leading the way in the climate fight by producing renewable energy technology on a huge scale. Last year, China added more wind turbines and solar panels than all the rest of the world put together.

One of COP30’s main goals is for countries to move from making promises of climate action to showing specifically how they’ll keep these promises.

For years, poorer countries have asked richer countries for help dealing with climate change. Wealthy countries caused most of the pollution that triggered global warming, but poorer countries are often hit hardest by the effects of the climate crisis.

At COP29, wealthy countries agreed to pay up to $300 billion a year by 2035. But experts say poorer countries will need around $1.3 trillion a year to prepare for and recover from climate-related damage. An important COP30 challenge is to figure out how this money might be raised.

UN climate chief Simon Stiell pointed out that no nation can actually afford the growing costs of climate disasters. This is why immediate action is important.

The meeting is expected to end on November 21. But recent COP meetings have gone longer than expected as countries struggled to reach agreements.

* COP stands for “Conference of the Parties”, which basically means “Meeting of the countries that signed the agreement”. In this case, the agreement is the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This is the 30th meeting since the agreement was first signed.

** Climate change temperatures are measured against the time when humans started burning coal for power. This article talks about climate change using Celsius (C). Talking about climate change in Celsius is more common and it makes the changes easier to see and remember.
If you want to think about the temperature changes in Fahrenheit( F), you can use these figures: 1.2ºC = 2.16ºF, 1.5°C = 2.7°F