‘Extremist forces’ lying about climate change: Lula

BELEM: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday warned that “extremist forces” were spreading lies about climate change for political gain, as he urged fellow leaders at a global climate summit in Brazil to take action against global warming.

“We need a roadmap to plan a just way to undo deforestation, overcome fossil fuels and mobilize the resources needed for those aims,” Lula told leaders at the summit days before the United Nations’ COP30 climate talks begin in the coastal Amazon city of Belem.

Read more: US won’t send officials to COP30 climate talks: White House

Chilean President Gabriel Boric, who spoke after Lula, called out President Donald Trump by name, saying the US leader had lied at the UN General Assembly this year when he dismissed climate change as “the greatest con job” in the world.

‘REMOVE TRADE BARRIERS’

On the other hand, China’s Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang called for an end to trade barriers holding back the global energy transition as he urged “true multilateralism” from fellow leaders at COP30.

“We need to strengthen international collaboration on green technology and industry, remove trade barriers and ensure the free flow of quality green products to better meet the needs of global sustainable development,” he said, speaking via a translator.

‘MORAL FAILURE’

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in his address said the world has “failed” in its promise to hold warming below 1.5C as he warned of greater costs and destruction for every nation.

Guterres said decades of delay and denial meant “we have failed to ensure we remain below 1.5 degrees” of warming since the pre-industrial era, the Paris Agreement’s most ambitious goal.

“This is moral failure — and deadly negligence,” he said, adding that the world could still minimize the damage with accelerated action like phasing out fossil fuels.