US exit from Paris climate deal complicates finance targets, says COP30 head

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BRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazil sees an opportunity to amplify the voices of developing nations in upcoming climate finance talks, according to comments on Thursday from the head of the global COP30 summit set to be hosted by the South American nation later this year.

The comments from Andre Correa do Lago come as world leaders grapple with the recent withdrawal from the Paris climate accord by the United States, ordered by new U.S. President Donald Trump.

Correa do Lago told reporters in Brasilia that negotiations will likely be “harder” at the COP30 summit compared to last year’s meetings, when the United States was “engaged in having policies to fight climate change.”

Expectations for the COP30, to be hosted in the Amazon city of Belem in November, include discussions on a longstanding dispute over who will pay for poorer countries to transition their economies to cleaner energy and deal with the impacts of global warming.

During last year’s summit in Azerbaijan, a bitter fight pitted rich and poor nations against one another and ended with a pledge from wealthy countries to annually contribute $300 billion by 2035 to help fund the transition and mitigate impacts.

But the pledge is only a fraction of the $1.3 trillion per year developing countries argue is needed.

Correa do Lago noted that rich countries want to lower their financial contributions, which he described as “profoundly wrong.”

The COP30 head said Brazil will also seek to parlay its current leadership of the BRICS bloc of developing nations to build a consensus among those countries to strengthen their negotiating position ahead of the Belem climate talks.

(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; Writing by Manuela Andreoni and Andre Romani; Editing by David Alire Garcia)