Defense of climate multilateralism key to Brazil’s leadership, COP30 president says

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By Gloria Dickie

(Reuters) – Brazil will use its presidency of the annual United Nations global climate talks to press for multilateralism and respect for science, COP30 President-Designate Andre Aranha Correa do Lago said on Wednesday in a rejoinder to U.S. President Donald Trump over climate matters.

In his first formal address as the incoming leader of COP30, Correa do Lago spoke to the U.N. General Assembly in New York, stressing the need for international collaboration at the November summit in the Amazonian city of Belem. 

His address comes during a tumultuous period in U.S. climate politics, with Trump withdrawing the country — the largest historical emitter — from the Paris climate agreement and clawing back American global climate finance during his first weeks in office.

Trump has also pulled the U.S. out of key U.N. climate change assessments. His advisers on reducing the size of the federal government last week cut hundreds of employees from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency that conducts crucial climate research.

“Brazil has the firm conviction that there is no future progress for humanity without deep, rapid and sustained cooperation among all countries,” Correa do Lago said, without explicitly mentioning Trump’s climate policies.

“Multilateral institutions can and must deliver results commensurate with the scale of the climate challenge,” he said.

Correa do Lago said last week that in light of the U.S. moving away from climate leadership, China would have an important role to play. 

(Reporting by Gloria Dickie; Editing by Frances Kerry)