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Analysis and Environment

Is the COP30 climate summit already in crisis, with six months to go?

Mounting concerns about Brazil's approach to the COP30 climate summit have observers asking whether the meeting will be able to tackle the difficult choices involved in curbing emissions

By Madeleine Cuff

19 May 2025 , updated 20 May 2025

COP30 will be held in Belém, Brazil this November

Dominika Zarzycka/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/Alamy

It is now less than six months before the world’s nations gather in Brazil for the COP30 climate summit, where observers hope to see key action on halting global warming. But with skyrocketing accommodation prices, distracted world leaders and accusations that the meeting’s Brazilian hosts are dodging the difficult topics, is COP30 in crisis?

This year’s meeting is particularly important, coming a decade after countries struck the Paris Agreement, the landmark climate deal designed that pledged to keep warming below 2°C or, ideally, 1.5°C. While the latter goal…

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