The United Nations climate conference COP30 officially opened on Monday in Belém, Brazil, with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva warning delegates that climate change has already become a tragedy of the present. The two-week summit is the first COP ever held in the Amazon, and around 50,000 delegates are expected in the city on the edge of the rainforest.

Opening the conference, Mr Lula said bringing the talks to Belém was a political and symbolic decision, aimed at showing that the Amazon is an essential part of the climate solution rather than simply a subject for debate. He told the opening ceremony that the world's most diverse biome is home to nearly 50 million people, including 400 Indigenous peoples.

“Climate change is no longer a threat of the future; it is a tragedy of the present,” he said, recalling recent floods in southern Brazil and Hurricane Melissa in the Caribbean. “We are moving in the right direction, but at the wrong speed.”

Three pillars for the talks

Mr Lula set out three pillars to guide the negotiations: fulfilling the climate commitments countries have already made, strengthening global governance, and putting people at the centre of climate decisions. Among his proposals was the creation of a Global Climate Council linked to the United Nations General Assembly, to improve coordination and political accountability between countries.

He also used the speech to attack those who reject scientific evidence. “We live in an era in which obscurantists reject scientific evidence and attack institutions,” he said. “It is time to deliver yet another defeat to denialism.”

The president has described COP30 as both the COP of Truth, a space to confront misinformation and uphold science, and the COP of Implementation, where promises must be turned into concrete action.

A test for the Paris Agreement

COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago told the ceremony that the conference marks a historic transition into the decade of Paris Agreement implementation. “This COP must be remembered as the COP of Action — a conference that turns commitments into results,” he said.

Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the UN climate body, said renewables have already overtaken coal as the world's main source of energy, and urged delegates to turn ambition into action. Outgoing COP29 president Mukhtar Babayev formally handed over the presidency, saying COP30 opens the first full delivery cycle of the Paris Agreement and that there is now no room for promises without action.

US absence hangs over Belém

The talks opened without the participation of the United States federal government, the world's biggest oil producer and second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. American state and local leaders, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, are due to take part on Tuesday to show that parts of the country remain engaged.

Delegates also face deep divisions over fossil fuels, with slow progress on cutting emissions and weaning economies off oil, gas and coal. The UN climate body's latest tally of national pledges suggests that, if fully implemented, they would deliver a 12% cut in greenhouse gas emissions, an improvement on the 10% estimated in late October. The conference runs until 21 November, when negotiators must agree on how far that progress goes.