Government ministers from around the world were preparing for a final few fraught days of talks at the U.N. climate summit as they bid to secure a deal that demonstrates global resolve amid increasing assertiveness from developing nations.
The job will not be easy. Countries are now digging into some of the toughest issues - many of which have been left off the formal agenda to ensure the talks keep moving even if one issue gets hung up.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is also expected to arrive on Wednesday to help rally consensus among parties at the summit in the Amazon city of Belem ahead of Friday's final scheduled session. Developing nations flex more muscle
New dynamics in climate diplomacy have seen China, India and other developing nations flex more muscle this year, while the European Union is hobbled by weakening support back home and the once-dominant United States has skipped out altogether.
Asked if there was any one issue dominating the talks, COP30 President Andre Correa Do Lago replied: "Everything, everything. It's very complicated."
Brazil's top goal for COP30 is to deliver an agreement that reaffirms the 2015 Paris Agreement, while acknowledging its shortcomings by laying out clear plans for future climate action.
The summit's work is "dry, it's complicated, it's anguished, it's tiring - and it's absolutely necessary," said Britain's energy minister, Ed Miliband. Mind the gaps
Over the last week negotiators had a chance to air their differences on three key issues: climate finance, unilateral trade measures, and planned emissions cuts that don't go nearly far enough.
The Paris treaty's central goal, to prevent warming beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, will be missed.
Current emissions trends have the world warming by at least 2.3 degrees Celsius, which Norway's climate minister said parties agreed would need to be addressed.
"It is a must-have to be able to talk about how we close the gap going forward," the minister, Andreas Bjelland Eriksen, told Reuters.
A bloc of developing countries is also seeking a payment schedule to ensure wealthy countries follow through on promises made at last year's COP29 to annually deliver $300 billion in climate finance by 2035. The United States - absent from COP30 - has reneged on past commitments. Clean tech talks
China's growing role in the UN climate talks follows decades of Beijing representing developing-country interests at the talks while growing its own green technology sector.
"It's not that China set out with a brilliant new strategy; it just happened," said Li Xing, a professor at the Guangdong Institute for International Strategies.
"With the U.S. stepping back — Trump isn't interested in this sector at all — China sees an opening and says, 'We're interested; we're willing to go'," Li told Reuters in Beijing.
Another testy issue has some developing countries grousing about carbon border taxes or tariffs imposed by some countries on Chinese-made green products, given the now-urgent need for the world to speed its clean energy transition.
Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran mediated by Qatar in Doha have concluded, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister, Kazem Gharibabadi has said. ...
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Iranian and U.S. negotiating teams were due in Doha this week, but Iran said on Monday no meeting had been scheduled as weekend missile fire from both...
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Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran mediated by Qatar in Doha have concluded, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister, Kazem Gharibabadi has said.
On 1 July, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Azerbaijan on a working visit.
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi is visiting Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway this week in a landmark tour of the Nordic region that reflects Beijing's efforts to strengthen ties with Europe at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty.
German prosecutors have arrested a German-Rwandan national on suspicion of aiding genocide and 25 counts of murder during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, authorities said on Wednesday (1 July).
Iranian and U.S. negotiating teams were due in Doha this week, but Iran said on Monday no meeting had been scheduled as weekend missile fire from both sides tested the interim ceasefire to end the four-month-old war.
Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran mediated by Qatar in Doha have concluded, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister, Kazem Gharibabadi has said.
The U.S. and Iran have agreed to 'stand down' and resume technical talks, allowing vessels allowed to move freely under the interim peace deal, a U.S. official said.
Mexico ended their 40-year wait for a World Cup knockout win, while Erling Haaland sent Norway through and Kylian Mbappé fired France into the last 16.
The wife and children of Argentine footballer Lucas Trejo were among around 1,700 people who died when two earthquakes struck northern Venezuela last week.
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi is visiting Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway this week in a landmark tour of the Nordic region that reflects Beijing's efforts to strengthen ties with Europe at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty.
South African police arrested more than 900 people during nationwide anti-migrant protests on Tuesday (30 June), as demonstrations across the country turned violent in some areas, although most remained peaceful.
German prosecutors have arrested a German-Rwandan national on suspicion of aiding genocide and 25 counts of murder during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, authorities said on Wednesday (1 July).
At least five people have died after a fire swept through a 10-storey apartment building in the Belgian city of Antwerp, authorities said on Wednesday.
Eight Kenyan schoolgirls have pleaded not guilty to murder charges over a dormitory fire that killed 16 fellow students and injured dozens more at a boarding school in the country's Rift Valley region.
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