Forests, finance, fossils: climate talks hit full steam
Tens of thousands of delegates have descended on a small Brazilian town for annual climate change talks that will be dominated by adaptation, forests, finance and fossil fuels.
Formal talks will begin on Monday, following a meeting of heads of state last week in Belem, the gateway to the Amazon rainforest.
Australian Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen will attend the two-week Conference of the Parties summit, where last-minute lobbying for the rights to host the next round of United Nations climate talks will be a priority.
The joint Australia-Pacific bid has stalled as a rival bid from Türkiye is in progress, no location has been identified and there is only 12 months to prepare.
Australia is preparing to host the 2026 conference to attract international investment in clean industries and strengthen relations with its strategically important Pacific neighbours.
The annual talks come at a time when global cooperation is strained to respond to the challenges of rising temperatures.
The US government is actively retreating, and Europe has so far not stepped in to fill the gap as assertively as it has at other times when climate targets have faltered.
While promises to reduce pollution have moved the world towards less warming than the troubling trajectory that first brought Paris to light a decade ago, the agreement’s targets to keep temperature rises below 2°C, ideally below 1.5°C, remain off track.
The event is expected to be dominated by discussions on the gap between emissions reduction commitments and temperature limits, as well as adaptation, climate finance and phasing out fossil fuels.
Thanks to its symbolic location in the Amazon rainforest, known as the “lungs of the world”, carbon-absorbing forests will also come to the fore.
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