Global Leaders Gather in Brazil for COP30

World leaders gathered in Brazil for COP30 to revive stalled global climate efforts as key powers including the US, China, India, and Russia stayed away, raising doubts over collective action on worsening environmental crises.

Dozens of world leaders have arrived in Belém, Brazil, for the COP30 climate summit, marking three decades of global environmental negotiations at a moment when faith in international cooperation appears to be waning.

The conference, hosted deep in the Amazon rainforest, is being hailed as one of the most symbolic yet — a return to the frontlines of climate change where the world’s largest tropical forest continues to shrink under relentless deforestation. However, the absence of key powers including the United States, China, India, and Russia has raised questions about the summit’s effectiveness and the future of collective climate action.

With only 53 heads of state in attendance, the European Union stands as the sole major emitter represented, underscoring an increasingly fragmented approach to tackling the planet’s most urgent crisis. Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is chairing the summit, has called on nations to “turn words into action” by honouring long-delayed funding commitments to developing nations.

Central to Lula’s agenda is the launch of the “Tropical Forest Forever” initiative — a $1 billion fund designed to reward countries for protecting forested areas. The plan has already attracted support from Indonesia and China, though climate advocates warn that such pledges must be accompanied by transparency and measurable outcomes.

Adding a boost to the summit, billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg pledged $100 million to improve global methane emissions tracking — a move welcomed by scientists who say methane, a potent greenhouse gas, has been underestimated in climate planning.

Despite the new pledges, frustration lingers among smaller nations that face the brunt of climate disasters. Delegates from the Pacific and Caribbean islands have urged the world’s wealthiest countries to deliver on the long-promised $100 billion annual climate finance target, first agreed in 2009 but still unmet.

As speeches unfold in Belém, the sense of urgency is palpable. The Amazon — once a crucial carbon sink — is nearing a tipping point where it could begin emitting more carbon than it absorbs. Environmentalists say COP30 could be humanity’s final opportunity to reverse that trajectory.

In the words of one delegate, “The Amazon is not just Brazil’s heart — it’s the world’s lungs. If it fails, we all struggle to breathe.”

This year’s summit may not bring every global power to the table, but it serves as a stark reminder that the climate clock keeps ticking — with or without consensus.