COP30 in Belém puts Brazil at the center of a global test—can the world still act together to fight climate change?
The Amazonian city of Belém will host COP30 (U.N. Climate Conference) in November. However, the destiny of the rainforest will not be the sole issue on the agenda. The meeting unexpectedly became a test of multilateralism’s survival.
While the Trump administration promotes the domestic dismantling of environmental legislation and wags a global offensive against climate pacts, the Brazilian presidency knows it will organize a summit at the crossroads of the international order.
At stake is the international community’s commitment to a world with rules. Failure, therefore, will not just mean another climate meeting without results. It will also mean a dangerous – and perhaps irreversible – defeat for multilateralism.
Eighty years after the creation of the U.N., the American government is not only warning that the global order is obsolete but also that it is now a threat to its interests. Its dismantling, therefore, fulfills a strategic objective.
So, in a behind-the-scenes diplomatic operation, the Brazilian government and the president of COP30, André Corrêa do Lago, are putting together a final declaration that will also be transformed into a reaffirmation of the defense of multilateralism.
His tone has been that the world needs to relaunch its “belief and enthusiasm” for multilateralism to respond to the crisis. Faced with the derailment of the global agenda, there will also be a call for the world to work in a coordinated way. Therefore, part of the process has focused on defending institutions and agreements. Contrary to the US government, the COP30 president still insists that there is no future without cooperation between governments.
One option is to create an alliance to defend the Paris Agreement. At meetings, the EU has called the treaty “the best way forward.” The G77 also insisted on preserving the pact, but it demanded that the rich economies provide resources to enable an energy transition.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva made the point that Belém will not only be about climate change. He claims Multilateralism is “the cornerstone of the global response” to the challenges of the 21st Century.
If the negotiations had been complex in recent years, the unease was amplified in 2025. The Brazilian government is aware that developing countries are frustrated by the lack of commitment from the rich North.
“We want to make COP30 a major collective effort to deliver on climate commitments”, he said on April 28th. “The planet is tired of unfulfilled promises. This year, all countries must present their new NDCs with targets to reduce carbon emissions by 2035,” said Lula.
However, the second frustration is that, among the rich countries, there will be pressure for Europeans, Japanese, and others to cover the hole left by the Americans in the budget for the fight against climate change.
Added to all this is the fact that science shows that the world has very little time left to avoid a climate collapse.
The assessment is that, while 25 years ago the world could wait for the end of the Trump administration and eventually resume the climate agenda, the current crisis does not allow this period to be wasted. For diplomacy, the window for action is closing.
In bilateral meetings or public speeches, the COP30 president has been calling on governments worldwide to act. Faced with the issues introduced by Trump on the global agenda, he also called for international cooperation.
However, Donald Trump’s government has already shaken the summit’s organization. The US left the Paris Agreement, causing an earthquake in international politics. Brazil was forced to postpone the announcement of its program for the event at the beginning of the year and eventually adapt it to the “new circumstances.”
The new situation led Brasilia to engage in diplomatic consultations to gather opinions and positions from governments worldwide, in an unexpected scenario of international disruption created by the White House.
One of its conclusions was that, once again, decisions must consider science. In a March speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Corrêa do Lago recalled the creation of the IPCC. “Leaders listened to the warnings of science,” he insisted. We enter 2025 with the regrettable realization that 2024 was the hottest year,” he said. He highlighted how the year was also the first to record a rise of 1.5 degrees above the pre-industrial era average.
“We are experiencing global urgency. It’s no longer a matter for science or negotiations,” said Corrêa do Lago. “It has reached our doorsteps and our lives,” he warned.
When a program was finally established, it was divided into four pillars, hoping to pave the way to Belém in the coming months.
- Global Ethical Assessment – Brazil and the U.N. will gather young and religious leaders, artists, indigenous peoples, scientists, and decision makers around a new pact with the planet.
- Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty—working with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to prepare a guide for including social policies and food system transformation in NDCs.
- Global Initiative for the Integrity of Information on Climate Change—This initiative, in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, aims to value science and combat misinformation.
- Rainforests Forever Fund—To be launched at COP30, this fund will reward developing countries that preserve their forests.
Ten years after the Paris Agreement, part of the focus will also be on implementation. Brazil’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva, argues that this includes tripling renewable energy, doubling energy efficiency, abandoning fossil fuels, halting deforestation, and the necessary climate finance, all in line with the mission of not exceeding 1.5°C.
However, within the Brazilian government, it is clear that the moment is challenging at home and abroad. The problem is not just Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. The COP30 organizers assess that by changing his security policy and alliance with Europe, Trump will force governments on the Old Continent to spend more on their military budgets and buy and produce more weapons.
The consequence could reduce money spent on the climate issue, including international cooperation. Diplomats fear the agenda will be put on the back burner without cash.
At the end of April, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to wealthy countries not to forget the commitments made a decade ago. “Developed countries must pledge to double adaptation finance to at least USD 40 billion annually by 2025. And we require significantly larger contributions, including innovative sources of finance, to support loss and damage funds,” he said.
He used the situation on the African continent as an example. Despite having 60% of the world’s best solar resources, Africa has only about 1.5% of installed solar capacity and receives only 2% of global investment in renewable energy.
Domestic issues also cast a shadow over the summit. Many had hoped that by organizing the COP in the world’s largest forest, the debate on fossil fuels could take a different turn after years of deadlock. But even after much pressure from environmentalists, the Brazilian government is insisting on a project to study the possibility of exploring for oil in the Amazon basin.
“I dream of a day when we no longer need fossil fuels, but that day is still far away. Humanity will depend on them for a long time,” Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said.
At the same time, Brazil announced its accession as an associate member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+), which embarrassed activists who supported the government’s environmental plans.
As if that weren’t enough, constructing a new highway as part of the infrastructure to ensure COP30 could take place has become controversial.
The state government, responsible for the project, assures that the highway is “sustainable.” Many, however, are outraged and have opted to denounce the environmental impact. The city of Belém was one of the state capitals in Brazil, and it has lost the most urban vegetation since 2003. According to MapBiomas, over 500 hectares were removed in 20 years.
The government of Pará, the state where the event takes place, has been planning the road since 2012. However, it was shelved because of its impact on the forest and the deforestation it would generate. Now, it has been revived. In a statement, the Pará state government claims that “the reduction in average transit time represents quality of life, in addition to resulting in a reduction of 17,700 metric tons of CO2 annually, contributing to reducing fossil fuel emissions from vehicles”.
It argues that the administration is “implementing various strategic solutions to ensure the road’s sustainability, including construction of a bike path, use of solar energy for lighting, and implementation of 34 wildlife corridors along the route, allowing local fauna to move about freely.”
In a recent article, the award-winning website Sumauma showed some contradictions around the event.
“Colorful trees sprout from the first stretch of the new Doca Linear Park, built in Belém as one of the public works planned for COP30. Up close, it’s easy to see what makes them so different from the trees that normally spring up from the ground. Their trunks are iron rebar, material leftover from municipal construction projects. And they are covered in vines, which wind their way to a treetop formed by potted plants. These are fake trees, or rather imitation trees, created in an Amazon city largely starved of canopy that has cleared even more trees to make space for the U.N.’s climate event”, it says.
The Brazilian government rejects the contradictions by claiming deforestation has fallen significantly since Lula took office. Today, it would be at the lowest rate of area destroyed in the world’s largest rainforest in nine years.
While the international order is in a deep transformation and the results of COP30 are unpredictable at this stage, the forest guardians are aware they may need to put additional pressure on an agreement to be established.
Sara Rodrigues, a fisherwoman from the Volta Grande region of the Xingu River in Pará, believes that the meeting in Belém is the “great opportunity” for their voices to be heard. She and other leaders are creating alliances of people for the climate, inspired by Indigenous chief Raoni and activist Chico Mendes, who died in the 1990s.
“We need to unite. We are the real solution to the climate crisis. The answer will come from us,” she added.
Virgilio Viana, general director of the Foundation of Amazon Sustainability (FAS), considers that the challenge at COP30 is the implementation and acceleration of past decisions. “Looking at scientific data and the global agreements, the issue in Belém is how to act faster”, he points out.
For him, the priority must be a nature-based solution, including restoration and reducing deforestation. “The challenge is to bring prosperity to the guardians of the forest”, he says.
This fight against poverty and the protection of the planet, Brazilian diplomats claim, can only happen with the instruments of cooperation and multilateralism.
About The Author
