BELEM, Brazil — For 30 years, world leaders and diplomats have gathered at United Nations negotiating sessions to try to curb climate change, but Earth's temperature continues to rise and extreme weather worsens.

So this month, they're hoping for fewer promises and more action.

Past pledges from nearly 200 nations have fallen far short and new plans submitted this year barely speed up pollution-fighting efforts, experts say. And if the numbers aren't sobering enough for world leaders when they kick off the action Thursday, there's the setting: Belem, a relatively poor city on the edge of a weakened Amazon.

Unlike past climate negotiations — and especially the one 10 years ago that forged the landmark Paris climate agreement — this annual U.N. conference isn't primarily aimed at producin

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