The 30th edition of the Conference of Parties (COP) has begun in Brazil’s Belém. Coming 10 years after the historic Paris Agreement, when all signatory members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) committed to a common goal of keeping temperatures below 2°C and “as far as possible below 1.5C”, this would have been an ideal platform to take stock of the achievements so far and ramp up ambition. Instead, there is a visible sense of disarray. The United States has, yet again, withdrawn from the Paris Agreement (though not the UNFCCC) and from 2017, this break seems decisively more hostile. Wielding threats on tariffs and brinkmanship, the U.S. Administration seems actively committed to derail steps toward emission cuts, newer ways to fund adaptation and adopti

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