Brazil's COP30 Climate Summit Opens With A Plea For Countries To Get Along

The world’s biggest historical emitter of greenhouse gases – the United States – opted to skip the two-week summit in the Amazon city of Belem.

BELEM, Brazil, Nov 10 (Reuters) - The COP30 climate summit opened on Monday with the U.N. climate chief urging countries to cooperate rather than battle over priorities, as efforts to limit global warming are threatened by a fracturing international consensus.

Host country Brazil brokered a deal on the agenda for the two-week summit in the Amazon city of Belem, deflecting attempts by developing-country negotiating blocs to shoehorn contentious issues like climate finance and carbon taxes into the talks.

It was unclear whether countries would aim to negotiate a final agreement for the end of the event – a hard sell in a year of fractious global politics and U.S. efforts to obstruct a transition away from fossil fuels.

Some including Brazil have suggested that countries focus on smaller efforts that do not need consensus, such as deforestation, after years of COP summits making lofty promises only to leave many unfulfilled.

“In this arena of COP30, your job here is not to fight one another – your job here is to fight this climate crisis, together,” U.N. Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell told delegates from more than 190 countries attending.