UN chief scolds nations for failing climate goals as Brazil hosts COP30 leaders’ summit

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tore into nations for their failure to limit warming to 1.5° Celsius, as Brazil hosted world leaders for a summit ahead of the COP30 climate conference in the rainforest city of Belem.

Scientists have confirmed the world is set to cross the 1.5° C warming threshold around 2030, risking extreme warming with irreversible consequences.

“Too many corporations are making record profits from climate devastation, with billions spent on lobbying, deceiving the public and obstructing progress,” Mr. Guterres said in his speech. “Too many leaders remain captive to these entrenched interests.”

Countries are spending about $1 trillion each year in subsidising fossil fuels.

Leaders have two clear options, Mr. Guterres said: “We can choose to lead — or be led to ruin.”

‘ALARMING STREAK’ OF RECORD HEAT

The COP30 conference marks three decades since global climate negotiations began. In that time, countries have curbed the projected climb in emissions somewhat, but not enough to prevent what scientists consider extreme global warming in the next few decades.

The World Meteorological Organisation announced this year would likely be the second- or third-warmest on record, with the temperature average through August being 1.42° C above the preindustrial average, after record heat in 2023 and 2024.

“The alarming streak of exceptional temperatures continues,” WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said with the report’s release.

Outside of the conference venue — still under construction ahead of next week’s summit start — a small group of indigenous people marched in a circle while singing and urging protection of the world’s forests and their people.

A flotilla bringing indigenous leaders and activists down rivers of the Amazon Basin to the conference was delayed and would not arrive until next week.

During the leaders’ summit on Thursday and Friday, about 150 heads of state, subnational leaders and international organisations were due to deliver speeches that would be televised across the world.

Missing from the lineup are the leaders of four of the world’s five most-polluting economies — China, the United States, India and Russia — with only the leader of the European Union showing up.

The U.S. administration has opted to send no one to the talks, unlike the others. Instead, top U.S. officials were in Greece alongside fossil fuel giant Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) on Thursday as it signed a new deal to explore offshore for natural gas.

Some said the absence of the United States from COP30 may free countries to discuss action without any one player dominating the outcome.

“Without the U.S. present, we can actually see a real multilateral conversation happening,” said Pedro Abramovay, vice president of programs at Open Society Foundations and a former justice minister under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

‘NEW SPACE FOR MULTILATERALISM’

Mr. Lula planned to hold bilateral meetings on Thursday with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, after meeting one-on-one on Wednesday with the Chinese vice premier and leaders from Finland and the European Union.

“In a moment in which a lot of people are kind of claiming the death of multilateralism, I think there is a new space for a multilateralism that is not built in a top-down way from powerful countries towards poor countries,” Mr. Abramovay said.

Brazil is hoping the World Leaders Summit will deliver at least $10 billion of its overall target of $125 billion for its newly launched Tropical Forest Forever Facility, estimating that would be enough to start generating funds for conservation.

China, Norway and Germany were expected to announce contributions in Belem, after Brazil offered the first investment and Indonesia matched that pledge.

But the United Kingdom, which helped to frame the way the fund works, delivered an early disappointment on Wednesday, disclosing that it would be offering no cash.