When it comes to the environment, enough is enough — the planet is on the boil, and what was once taken for granted is no longer freely available. The air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat are turning into our worst nightmares. The rising temperatures and polluting environments are affecting all, except the world leaders who still think the environment cannot be their priority. Their myopic vision has led us and they remain in denial.
The opening of the COP30 Leaders’ Summit in Belém, Brazil, should have been a moment of reckoning — a pause to renew commitment to act before the world crosses the 1.5°C threshold. But that was not to be. Instead, it began with a scolding. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres admonished world leaders for their failure to meet the goals they themselves set. “Too many leaders remain captive to entrenched interests,” Guterres said, in a speech that was part moral indictment at its best. His warning was stark: countries are spending nearly $1 trillion every year subsidising fossil fuels — the very fuels that are burning the planet.
Scientists have confirmed that the planet is now virtually certain to cross the 1.5°C warming limit around 2030. Yet, the very nations most responsible for emissions — the United States, China, Russia, and India — were conspicuously absent from the summit. Only the European Union sent a top leader. Their absence cast a long shadow over the gathering, highlighting a troubling erosion of global unity when cooperation is most needed. As the world leaders took their naps, Indigenous communities marched and sang for the protection of forests and rivers at the venue.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the host of COP30, has tried to position the country as both a bridge and a beacon — launching the “Tropical Forest Forever Facility,” a $125 billion fund aimed at protecting the Amazon and other vital ecosystems.
Early pledges have come from Germany, China, Norway, and Indonesia, though the United Kingdom, a traditional climate ally, declined to contribute. Lula’s initiative embodies the summit’s potential: a new model of multilateralism, rooted in cooperation among the Global South and built from the bottom up, not dictated by powerful nations.
After thirty years of climate summits — from Rio to Kyoto, from Paris to Belém — emissions continue to rise, fossil fuel expansion continues unabated, and climate finance commitments remain largely unmet. Global action on the environment is missing as nations place their so-called national interests over the environment, jeopardising it immensely.
The irony is stark. Nations promise “net zero” while licensing new oil fields; they pledge solidarity while funding destruction. COP30 is a wake-up call, but everyone refuses to wake up. They are avoiding the call of reason. It may be too late when they wake up, and nothing is left to save — survival may become the only agenda.
