BELEM, Brazil: World leaders, climate experts, and activists have gathered in the Brazilian city of Belem as the COP30 Summit officially begins, with the global climate crisis taking center stage.
The high-stakes conference aims to accelerate action on carbon emissions, renewable energy, and climate financing, as nations face mounting pressure to deliver on their environmental commitments and prevent irreversible damage to the planet.
At the first plenary session, President Lula directly challenged climate skepticism and the spread of misinformation, which he argued hinders global cooperation.
“This is the moment to match opportunity with urgency,” he said.
As the two-week annual summit gets underway in a city at the mouth of the Amazon, UN climate chief Simon Stiell urged delegates to avoid “squabbling” and instead concentrate on transforming ambitious goals into concrete action.
“Your job here is not to fight one another – your job here is to fight this climate crisis, together,” he said. “This is the growth story of the 21st century – the economic transformation of our age.”
The opening day of COP30 was marked by cautious optimism after the announcement that dozens of new national climate plans — known as NDCs — have raised the total to 113 countries now pledging to curb global warming, according to the United Nations.
Collectively, these nations account for nearly 70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions — a notable step forward in the effort to keep rising temperatures under control.
A preliminary analysis by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which organises the annual COP summits, indicates that these commitments could reduce emissions by 12 percent by 2035.
While this represents meaningful progress, it still falls short of what’s needed to secure the 1.5°C target. The pressing task now is to transform these pledges into real-world action at a speed that matches the urgency of the climate crisis.
In his opening remarks, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said that commitments and agreements made by successive COPs were beginning to show impact, with the global emissions curve now starting to bend downward.
He acknowledged that much work remains, but highlighted that Belem – “home to the mouth of the mighty Amazon River” – can serve as inspiration.
“The Amazon is not a single river, but a vast system sustained by more than a thousand tributaries,” he said. “In the same way, implementation of COP outcomes must be driven by multiple streams of international cooperation.”
Stiell warned that “no national plan can solve this problem on its own,” stressing that no country can afford the economic shock of climate disasters that slash GDP by double digits.
“It makes neither economic nor political sense,” he said, “to stand idle while catastrophic droughts destroy crops and drive food prices sky-high.” He called it “unforgivable” that extreme weather continues to claim millions of lives when proven solutions already exist.
In his opening address, President Lula warned that “climate change is not a threat to the future – it is a tragedy of the present.”
Citing Hurricane Melissa in the Caribbean and a tornado in Paraná, the President declared this “the COP of truth,” warning that denial and delay are no longer options. “We are moving in the right direction – but at the wrong speed,” he said. “Crossing 1.5°C is a risk we cannot take.”
He went on to call strongly for an end to climate denialism, underscoring that: “In the age of disinformation, obscurantists reject not only scientific evidence but also the progress of multilateralism.
They control algorithms, sow hatred, spread fear, and attack institutions, science, and universities. It is time to impose a new defeat on denialists. Without the Paris Agreement, the world would be heading toward catastrophic warming of nearly 5°C by the end of the century.”
President Lula pressed world leaders to adopt ambitious climate pledges and keep adaptation at the heart of national strategies.
He called for “a roadmap for humanity to overcome, in a just and planned way, its dependence on fossil fuels, reverse deforestation, and mobilize the resources needed to do so.”
