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UN secretary-general António Guterres earlier used speech at Belem summit to urge countries to find compromises in final hours of negotiations
Inside the halls of Cop30 you see people from all around the world, and it can be easy to forget that there are many people who remain unrepresented.
On Thursday morning, Magne Tony was standing with compatriots from French Guiana outside the entrance to the conference centre, trying to push pieces of paper into the hands of arriving delegates and observers headed: “Our Amazon is dying”.
The main problem is that France are in 9,000 kilometres from Amazonia, from South America, and they’re taking decisions. [But] they don’t really know what is the problem really. They’re taking the decisions from their own mind and the problem is that they’re far from reality.
That’s why we decided to alert the people in the world about [our] problems: water coming up, getting enough to eat, more heat – in some parts of French Guiana, people don’t have water.
These crises, a consequence of Western capitalist madness, primarily affect the most vulnerable: women and communities dependent on forests and rivers. But they also concern all of humanity: French Guiana is part of the Amazon, a regulator of the global climate and essential to planetary balance.
We remind you that French Guiana is the last colony in South America without self-determination. We will not be able to protect our environment or guarantee our food and energy self-sufficiency, essential for our collective survival, as long as decisions are made in Paris without consulting the affected communities or taking into account local specificities.
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She was sure that there would be warnings if there was any danger. But then the floods came. This is Toñi García’s story
Location Valencia, Spain
Disaster Floods, 2024
Toñi García lives in Valencia. On 29 October 2024, devastating storms hit the Iberian peninsula, bringing the heaviest rain so far this century. The national alert system sounded at around8.30pm local time; by then, however, flood waters had already broken through the city. Scientists say the explosive downpours were linked to climate change.
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Scientists discover thousands of sea creatures have made their homes amid the detritus of abandoned second world war munitions off the coast of Germany
In the brackish waters off the German coast lies a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Thrown off barges at the end of the second world war and forgotten about, thousands of munitions have become matted together over the years. They form a rusting carpet on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.
Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists flocked to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the weapons decayed.
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Australia had been pushing to host climate conference next year with south Pacific nations, which are increasingly threatened by rising seas and climate-fuelled disasters
Papua New Guinea has voiced frustration after Australia ditched a bid to co-host next year’s UN climate talks with its Pacific island neighbours.
“We are all not happy. And disappointed it’s ended up like this,” foreign minister Justin Tkatchenko told Agence France-Presse after Australia ceded hosting rights to Turkey.
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St Dominic, Tamar Valley, Cornwall: The frost is yet to arrive and we’re awash with autumn colour as the mild weather continues
Yellow leaves, remaining on the lime tree, brightenthis dull November morning, and appear almost luminous against lichens on the leafless eucryphia. Frost has yet to blemish the early white camellia, and squirrels ignore the strawberry-like fruit of dogwoods in favour of abundant berries and nuts. Just one of the heavily laden hollies has been stripped of berries, probably eaten by a passing gang of wandering fieldfares. Blue flowers clothe aromatic rosemary and the ivy-woven undergrowth shelters violet plants – food for fritillary caterpillars.
Before 8am, the sound of a quad bike (with headlight gleaming through the mist) sounds from opposite as the south Devon beef cattle are escorted into a fresh enclosure of greened-up grass, still growing in the mild weather. Outside this gardened enclave, the landmark clump of beech has been blown bare of its leaves and mast, and the Dupath farm’s Aberdeen Angus bullocks graze in a nearby pasture.
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It’s a climate-vulnerable nation, while also being the world’s sixth-largest greenhouse-gas emitter. Global investment in climate action is vital
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Fallout from increased emissions linked to president’s ‘America First’ policies expected to most affect those in poor, hot countries
This article is co-published with ProPublica, a non-profit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.
New advances in environmental science are providing a detailed understanding of the human cost of the Trump administration’s approach to climate.
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Ending use of coal, oil and gas is essential in tackling climate crisis – but even talking about it is controversial
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Climate summit in Brazil needs to find way to stop global heating accelerating amid stark divisions
“It broke my heart.” Surangel Whipps, president of the tiny Pacific nation of Palau, was sitting in the front row of the UN’s general assembly in New York when Donald Trump made a long and rambling speech, his first to the UN since his re-election, on 23 September.
Whipps was prepared for fury and bombast from the US president, but what followed was shocking. Trump’s rant on the climate crisis – a “green scam”, “the greatest con job ever perpetrated”, “predictions made by stupid people” – was an unprecedented attack on science and global action from a major world leader.
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Brazil’s president welcomes world leaders while navigating divided government, promising action on deforestation and emissions
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has welcomed world leaders to Belém for the first climate summit in the Amazon, where conservationists hope he can be a champion for the rainforest and its people.
But with a divided administration, a hostile Congress and 20th-century developmentalist instincts, this global figurehead of the centre left has a balancing act to perform in advocating protection of nature and a reduction of emissions.
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