This year's UN Cop 30 climate talks will proceed with a key goal of scaling up climate finance, but US president Donald Trump's disruptive return to the White House has made efforts to reduce emissions more challenging, according to the Brazilian official leading the summit.
Continuing the fight to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions "is going to be a slightly uphill battle, but I think it's the right one," Brazil climate secretary and Cop 30 president André Corrêa Do Lago said Tuesday at the BNEF Summit in New York City.
"The international context could help a little more", Corrêa Do Lago said, drawing laughter from the audience.
Trump moved quickly after beginning his second term to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement, an exit that will formally take effect in January 2026. He has started to impede US development of renewable energy projects he sees as boondoggles, but he is facing challenges to his attempts to halt government funding and tax credits for the sector.
It is unclear if the US will send a delegation to the Cop 30 summit this year, which is scheduled to take place in Belem, Brazil, in November. Corrêa Do Lago said that invitations have not yet been sent to prospective participants. He also made a distinction between the US government and others in the US, including state and businesses leaders, that have pledged to continue supporting GHG emissions reductions even as the Trump administration moves to boost oil and gas.
Publicly, countries have not changed their tune on climate in response to the US policy shifts. But Corrêa Do Lago said that privately there are "some that say, ‘God, how am I going to convince my people that I have to try to lower emissions if the richest country in the world is not doing the same?'"
Corrêa Do Lago said that this year's summit needs to focus less on technical negotiations over documents that might never be implemented as a result, and more about making an economic appeal for decarbonization and hosting more of a "Cop of solutions, a Cop of action". He reiterated the Brazilian government's goal of increasing climate financing for developing countries from the target set at Cop 29 of $300bn/yr by 2035 to the far higher target of $1.3 trillion/yr.
