Climate activists deployed an empty chair at the start of the UN’s climate summit COP30 on November 10 to underscore the absence of the US, the world's richest nation and second-largest carbon polluter.

The US joins only three other nations — San Marino, Afghanistan, and Myanmar — in skipping the COP30 negotiations in Belem, leaving 195 countries to address the scourge of accelerating climate change without one of history's biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.

US President Donald Trump, who has long denied the very existence of a climate crisis, withdrew from the 10-year-old Paris Agreement for the second time upon returning to the White House, and his administration has declined to send high-level negotiators to the summit.

"The empty chair primarily illustrated the US absence, but it was also intended to be a call-out for other nations to step in and step up," Danni Taaffe with Climate Action Network International said, as quoted by AP.

Still, some US politicians like California Governor Gavin Newsom showed up in Belem, defying Trump's climate-skeptic ideology. "The United States of America is as dumb as we want to be on this topic, but the state of California is not. And so we are going to assert ourselves, we're going to lean in, and we are going to compete in this space," Newsom told reporters.

United front without Washington

When Trump returned to the White House in January, Brazil’s cabinet and diplomats braced for the worst, as it immediately became clear Washington would once again pull out of climate policy accords.

Yet despite the US’ conspicuous absence, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva urged negotiators not to forget that "the climate emergency increases inequality."

"It deepens the perverse logic that defines who is worthy of living and who should die," Lula stated at the opening session.

The Brazilian leader and UN climate secretary Simon Stiell pointed to recent climate-induced devastating events, including Hurricane Melissa in the Caribbean, typhoons battering Vietnam and the Philippines, and a tornado tearing through southern Brazil, as evidence that extreme phenomena have become more frequent as the Earth warms.

"Climate change is not a threat of the future. It is already a tragedy of the present time," Lula said.

Stiell noted that individual nations cannot cut heat-trapping gas emissions fast enough alone. "Humanity is still in this fight. We have some tough opponents, no doubt, but we also have some heavyweights on our side. One is the brute power of the market forces as renewables get cheaper," he said.

The UN released updated calculations showing national pledges promise to reduce projected 2035 global greenhouse gas emissions 12% below 2019 levels, two percentage points better than last month before new commitments rolled in.

But those figures depend on a US pledge from the Biden administration in December, before Trump returned to office and began working to boost fossil fuels whilst obstructing clean energy development, including wind and solar projects.

The US has emitted more heat-trapping carbon dioxide from burning coal, oil, and natural gas than any other country historically. While China currently ranks as the world's largest carbon polluter, more accumulated atmospheric CO2 — which persists for at least a century — originated from the US.  However, Beijing is among the slew of nations to have submitted its 2035 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) - the emission-reduction targets pledged by each country under the Paris Agreement - to the UNFCCC Secretariat on time this year, targeting all greenhouse gases across the entire economy.

The Paris Agreement sought to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above historical averages, though many scientists now consider staying below that threshold unlikely.

Todd Stern, former US special envoy for climate, said Trump's actions damage the fight against climate change, adding: "It's a good thing that they are not sending anyone. It wasn't going to be constructive if they did," he said, as quoted by AP.

In its opening address, Lula also called on the world to "defeat" climate denialism and fight fake news, making thinly veiled references to US President Donald Trump.

"COP30 will be the COP of truth" in an era of "fake news and misrepresentation" and "rejection of scientific evidence," Lula said.

Without naming Trump, who notoriously branded climate change "a con job", Lula added, "They control the algorithms, sow hatred and spread fear. It's time to inflict a new defeat on the deniers."

Brazil's centrepiece proposal is the Tropical Forest Forever Facility fund, which aims to raise $125bn to protect tropical forests globally. The initiative already secured commitments worth several billion dollars from both wealthy and developing nations, though some major countries like the UK and China declined to provide funding while supporting the plan.

This year's talks are not expected to produce an ambitious new agreement. Instead, organisers and analysts frame COP30 as the "implementation COP," with countries arriving with updated national plans to fight climate change.

Lula and Stiell acknowledged the Paris Agreement is working to a degree, but stressed action must accelerate to address mounting climate impacts on the world's poorest regions.

“We are moving in the right direction, but at the wrong speed," Lula said.

During the opening ceremony, the Brazilian president also outlined three pillars of action set to guide the COP30 negotiations: fulfilling existing climate commitments, enhancing global governance, and placing people at the centre of climate-related decisions.

Amazon Transport Alliance launched

Meanwhile, Amazonian countries launched the Alliance for Sustainable, Resilient, and Integrated Transport in the Amazon on November 11, an initiative supported by the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDB Group) and the World Bank Group to strengthen regional connectivity, the institutions announced in a statement.

Transportation ministers from Amazonian countries and senior representatives signed a declaration at the IDB Group Pavilion in Belém to reshape transportation in the region under an inclusive, efficient, and resilient approach.

The Alliance aims to develop a Regional Action Plan 2026-2030 to serve as a roadmap for promoting connectivity and improving efficiency of transportation systems, the development banks said.

Participants emphasised the urgency of strengthening connectivity and reducing gaps in access to basic services in the Amazon region, where infrastructure limitations, dependence on fossil fuels, and vulnerability to disasters hinder development and regional integration.

The alliance aligns with the sustainable infrastructure pillar of the IDB Group's Amazonia Forever programme, the connectivity pillar of the South Connection programme, and the "livable Amazonia" pillar of the World Bank Group's Amazonia Viva initiative.