Fight fake news and climate deniers, Brazil’s Lula says at UN talks

The world must “defeat” climate denialism and fight fake news, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said at the opening meeting of the UN climate talks.

In a rallying cry for COP30, President Lula again made thinly veiled references to President Donald Trump, who called climate change “a scam” in September.

The two weeks of talks began Monday in the lush Brazilian city of Belém, on the edge of the Amazon rainforest.

They are taking place in a tense political context and the United States has not sent any senior officials.

On Monday, thousands of delegates flocked to the COP headquarters on a heavily air-conditioned former airfield, some of them from shipping container accommodation and cruise ships moored on the riverbank.

Members of the Guajajara indigenous group, dressed in traditional costumes, performed a welcome song and dance for the assembled diplomats.

In his speech at the conference, President Lula stated that “COP30 will be the COP of truth” in an era of “fake news and misrepresentations” and “rejection of scientific evidence.”

Without naming President Trump, President Lula continued, “they control the algorithms, they sow hatred and they sow fear.”

“It is time to inflict a new defeat on the deniers,” he said.

Since President Trump took office in January, he has promised to invest heavily in fossil fuels, saying this will ensure greater economic prosperity for the United States.

His administration has canceled more than $13 billion in funding for renewable energy and is taking steps to open more of the United States to oil and gas exploration.

That puts the country at odds with most nations that are still committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and investing in green energy.

This backdrop has put the COP talks in a difficult position, as nations seek to make progress in the fight against climate change without the participation of the world’s largest economy.

Some delegates fear the United States could still decide to send officials to undermine the talks. Other environmental talks collapsed this year after pressure from the United States, described by some participants as “bully tactics.”

Addressing officials in Belém, UN climate chief Simon Stiell initially struck an optimistic tone. He said significant progress had been made in the last decade to reduce emissions of planet-warming gases.

But then he pointed to “disputes” between countries.

“None of you can afford it, as climate disasters take double digits off GDP,” he said.

Brazil wants to use its presidency of the talks to ensure progress on key promises made in previous years.

That includes moving away from planet-warming fossil fuels, financing developing countries on the front lines of climate change, and protecting nature.

President Lula’s centerpiece is a fund called the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), which Brazil hopes will raise $125 billion to protect tropical forests globally.

Fundraising got off to a slow start. Last week, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, at the last minute, that the UK would not contribute public money.

But on Monday, UK climate envoy Rachel Kyte told BBC News that the fund was a “brilliant idea” and that the UK “will make the investment at some point.”

After a struggle, the nations finally agreed to a conference agenda on Monday.

It promises to consider the question of whether countries can still work to keep global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Groups on the front lines of climate change, including the coalition called the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), which mainly represents Caribbean and Pacific countries, had insisted that the talks address the long-standing goal.

In recent weeks, even the UN has said it accepts that exceeding this temperature is “inevitable.”

Last week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told leaders in Belém that failing to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C was a “moral failure and deadly negligence.”

Additional reporting by Esme Stallard