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Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks on the COP30 local weather convention in Belém, Brazil, on Nov. 10, 2025. (Xinhua/Yonhap)
The world should “defeat” local weather change denialism and struggle pretend information, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva informed the UN local weather convention on Monday.
Representatives of assorted nations gathered within the Brazilian metropolis of Belém for COP30, the thirtieth assembly of the Convention of the Events to the United Nations Framework Conference on Local weather Change, responded to Lula’s phrases with cheers and applause.
Lula started his opening handle to COP30, hosted on the border of the Amazon, with criticisms of US President Donald Trump.
Whereas by no means naming Trump, Lula accused the US chief of threatening the Paris Settlement, the muse of the multilateral system for responding to local weather change. The US pulled out of the settlement in the beginning of this yr, and didn’t ship a consultant to COP30.
In an period of faux information, the individuals who reject science additionally reject the progress of multilateralism, the Brazilian chief mentioned, emphasizing {that a} “disastrous” rise in world temperature was solely averted because of the Paris Settlement.
Lula argued that although we’re on track, our tempo stays an issue. If we proceed on the present tempo, he warned, we’ll see the worldwide temperature rise greater than 1.5 levels above pre-industrial ranges, the restrict set by the Paris Settlement.
“This isn’t a risk we are able to afford,” he mentioned.
The quiet viewers burst into applause. Thus started the thirtieth UN local weather change convention, 10 years after the Paris Settlement.
The park outdoors the venue for the COP30 local weather convention in Belém, Brazil, was bustling with members and police on Nov. 10, 2025, the primary day of local weather talks. (Ock Kee-won/Hankyoreh)
A participant stands for a photograph outdoors the venue for the COP30 local weather convention in Belém, Brazil, on Nov. 10, 2025. (Ock Kee-won/Hankyoreh)
Safety on the occasion was intense. Armored vehicles had been stationed on the entrance to Belém’s Parque da Cidade, and armed troops had been scattered all through the premises. Over 50,000 attendees from 190 nations flocked to town for the talks. The road to be admitted into the venue began forming nicely earlier than the opening ceremony at 10 am, and a few needed to wait so long as an hour to get in.
The “Blue Zone,” that includes pavilions run by delegations of nations vetted by the UN Framework Conference on Local weather Change (UNFCCC) and quite a few public organizations, was the place nations promoted their local weather agenda.
Brazil, because the host nation, arrange an enormous, eye-catching sales space made up of over 100 picket pillars adorned with yellow and inexperienced cloth. Tropical vegetation from the Amazon had been positioned all through the positioning. A staffer from the Brazil sales space defined, “A key theme of this convention is safety and restoring the forest.”
Brazil’s pavilion contained in the blue zone of the COP30 local weather talks in Belém, Brazil, on Nov. 10, 2025. (Ock Kee-won/Hankyoreh)
China, which has taken the US’ place in local weather management, had the biggest sales space of all, the place it boasted its inexperienced insurance policies. China produces probably the most carbon emissions out of any nation on this planet (25%). Final yr, China introduced inexperienced insurance policies involving an growth of renewable vitality services to supply 370 GW of inexperienced energy. China additionally claimed that it produces 70% of the world’s electrical automobiles.
The cubicles operated by oil producers Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan had been modern. As an alternative of putting in an area for selling its local weather insurance policies, the Saudis arrange a gathering room for holding closed-door conferences with delegations of assorted nations.
Azerbaijan, which hosted final yr’s convention, promoted its “local weather finance” requirements, a key matter in final yr’s convention, and its improvement of expertise associated to carbon seize, utilization, and storage.
An extended line stretched from China’s pavilion contained in the blue zone of the COP30 local weather talks in Belém, Brazil, on Nov. 10, 2025. (Ock Kee-won/Hankyoreh)
Saudi Arabia’s pavilion contained in the blue zone of the COP30 local weather talks in Belém, Brazil, on Nov. 10, 2025. (Ock Kee-won/Hankyoreh)
The South Korean delegation promoted the Lee Jae Myung administration’s vitality transition insurance policies. The Korean sales space handed out handheld followers that includes characters from “Ok-pop Demon Hunters,” which had been standard. Displays had been supplied by the Jeju provincial authorities, which hopes to host the thirty third local weather convention in 2028, the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Business, Kyung Hee College, and the local weather activist group Options for Our Local weather.
Some criticized the shortage of preparations from the host nation. Energy for the occasion was supplied by a diesel generator, which is inconsistent with the theme of local weather change. The Blue Zone spanned 160,000 sq. meters, across the dimension of twenty-two soccer fields. Energy for such an area requires 130,000 liters of diesel gas every day. Diesel emits probably the most automotive emissions of any gas.
COP30 attendees stand for a photograph in hanbok at South Korea’s pavilion for the UN local weather talks in Belém, Brazil, on Nov. 10, 2025. (Ock Kee-won/Hankyoreh)
Whereas one of many themes of the convention was defending forests, all the web site was adorned with picket decorations. Some mentioned that this was additionally inconsistent with the convention’s message.
“The Brazilian authorities was tasked with main a worldwide consensus on carbon discount, however they’re approving drilling for oil and adorning cubicles at an occasion for forest conservation with wooden. It’s contradictory,” commented local weather activist Waleska Queiroz.
By Ock Kee-won, employees reporter
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