“COP30 will highlight the race to keep warming below 1.5°C, unveil new National Climate Plans (NDCs) and assess progress on critical financial commitments made at COP29“.
This is how the United Nations website announces with great fanfare the opening of the COP30 proceedings, scheduled to take place in Belém, capital of the State of Pará, from 10 to 21 November.
In reality, between evicted families, emptied homes and skyrocketing rents (Belém, in the heart of the Amazon, will host up to 50 thousand people on the peak days of the conference), and the decision to deforest a section of the Amazon rainforest to build a road to the summit, there has already been a lot of talk about it – negatively, obviously.
COP30 takes place 10 years after the Paris Climate Agreement, in which countries committed to trying to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5°C. However, the head of the United Nations (UN) says that the “exceeding” the 1.5°C target is now inevitable”while Donald Trump is far from participating. Meanwhile, the protests are continuing.
What will be discussed at COP30?
Brazil hopes to agree on steps to implement commitments made in previous COPs. In addition to countries’ new emission reduction plans, there are several topics that could be discussed.
So will COP30 make a difference?
A significant breakthrough seems difficult this year and one of the main causes is undoubtedly the influence of the Trump administration.
Let us remember, in fact, that in his speech to the United Nations in September, the tycoon defined climate change as the “biggest scam ever perpetrated on the world,” attacking the overwhelming scientific evidence regarding rising temperatures.
We talked about it here: “The climate crisis is a hoax”: Trump’s show at the UN (and our point-by-point fact-checking)
Indeed, he even promised to increase oil and gas drilling and reverse green initiatives implemented by his predecessors. Additionally, in October, a historic agreement to reduce global emissions from the maritime sector was postponed following pressure from the United States itself and other countries.
In short, the conditions are not the best, which is why in Belém, activists from various organizations have taken part in multiple demonstrations in recent days to demand more decisive measures against climate change.
Among the protesters, Oxfam activists wore giant masks depicting the faces of world leaders such as Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Donald Trump and Keir Starmer, standing in hammocks near the conference site:
This year, the United Nations Conference of the Parties marks the 30th anniversary of climate negotiations. Yet, despite the promises of almost 200 countries, global temperatures continue to rise and extreme climate events are increasingly frequent. And experts warn: the plans presented this year are not aimed at significantly accelerating the fight against pollution.
In any case, COP30, unlike previous editions, does not focus mainly on major diplomatic agreements, but is quietly defined as the “COP of the implementation“, with the aim of transforming climate promises into concrete actions. And the context in which the conference takes place is more than emblematic: Belém, a poor city on the edge of an increasingly vulnerable Amazon.
While the world is facing enormous challenges, COP30 also represents the crucial opportunity to strengthen international commitments and find shared solutions that can finally make a difference for the future of our climate.
Will our heroes succeed?
