Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the Opening of the General Plenary of Leaders during the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP 30. Credit: Antonio Scorza/COP30
By Cecilia Russell
BELÉM, Brazil & JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Nov 6 2025 – Political courage is the biggest obstacle to limiting the rise in global average temperature to no more than 1.5°C, said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
“The obstacle is political courage. Too many promises are stalling. Too many corporations are making record profits from climate devastation. Too many leaders remain captive to fossil fuel interests, rather than protecting the public interest,” Guterres said at the opening plenary of the COP 30 Leaders’ Summit in Belém, Brazil.
He called out those who are still making record profits from “climate devastation.” With billions spent on lobbying, deceiving the public, and obstructing progress, too many leaders remained captive to these entrenched interests.
Guterres quoted Prof. Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, who earlier told the plenary that the “alarming streak of exceptional temperatures continues.
“2025 is set to be either the second or third warmest year we have ever observed. The past three years have been the warmest on record. This is the world that my two-year-old grandson was born into.”
She listed the problems associated with this temperature rise, including ocean heat at record highs, affecting marine ecosystems and economies, sea level rise, and Antarctic and Arctic sea ice are tracking at record lows
“And, on a daily basis, we see destructive weather: Months’ worth of rainfall in a matter of minutes, and our rivers on the ground are evaporating into atmospheric rivers in the sky. We have seen extreme heat and fire and supercharged tropical cyclones—as with Hurricane Melissa last week.”
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said it was also necessary to change the conditions that led to climate change.
In his opening address, Lula said, “Climate change is the result of the same dynamics that, over centuries, have broken our societies and split our societies between rich and poor and split the world between developed countries and developing countries.
“It will be impossible to contain climate change without overcoming inequalities within and between nations.
“Climate Justice is an ally of fighting hunger and poverty, in the struggle against racism and gender inequality and the promotion of a global governance that will be more representative and more inclusive.”
Lula said it had been a bold decision to hold the climate talk in Belém, within the Amazon.
“Humanity has been aware of the impact of climate change for more than 35 years since the publication of the first report from the IPCC, but it took 28 conferences to recognize, for the first time in Dubai, the need to get rid of fossil fuel and to stop and reverse the deforestation,” Lula said.
Referring to the Baku to Belém Roadmap, he said it took another year to admit in Baku how climate finance should be scaled up to “at least $1.3tn” a year by 2035.
“I am convinced that although we will face difficulties and contradictions, we need the roadmaps to plan in a fair way, reverse the deforestation, overcome the dependency on fossil fuel, and mobilize the necessary sources to reach these objectives,” Lula said.
Guterres and Saulo both said that the science that tells us about the temperature also has the solutions.
“Science is not only warning us; it is equipping us to adapt. Renewable energy capacity is growing faster than ever. Climate intelligence can ensure that clean energy systems are reliable, flexible, and resilient,” Saulo said.
Guterres reiterated the urgency of addressing the climate crisis.
“Too many countries are starved of the resources to adapt and locked out of the clean energy transition, and too many people are losing hope that their leaders will act. We need to move faster and move together, and this talk must ignite a decade of acceleration and delivery.”
NOTE: This feature is published with the support of Open Society Foundations.
IPS UN Bureau Report
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Excerpt:
Climate change is the result of the same dynamics that, over centuries, have broken our societies and split our societies between rich and poor and split the world between developed countries and developing countries— President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
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