COP30 opens amid disagreements, US absence, and a warming planet

The COP30 climate summit opened Monday in the Amazonian city of Belem with urgent appeals for cooperation in tackling global warming, as political rifts and the absence of the United States cast a shadow over the two-week meeting.

UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell urged delegates from more than 190 countries to “fight this climate crisis together” rather than against each other, warning that divisions could jeopardise decades of progress. “Three decades of climate talks have bent the curve downward,” Stiell said, “but we have so much more work to do.”

Host nation Brazil managed to broker an agreement on the summit’s agenda, sidestepping early attempts by developing-country blocs to force debates over contentious issues such as climate finance and carbon taxes. Still, u