The planet’s biggest climate conference, COP30, has kicked off with representatives from more than 190 countries descending on the Brazilian city of Belém. They will spend two weeks deep in negotiations — likely contentious — on how to rein in dangerous global warming.
COP30 is supposed to be the summit where countries really get down to the details of how they plan to halt catastrophic climate change. There’s a huge amount at stake. Last year was the hottest on record, capping a decade of unprecedented heat, and the impacts are already roiling the planet — from hurricanes and floods to fires and extreme heat.
Here’s what to expect over the next two weeks.
What are COPs?
In 1992, more than 150 countries signed a UN treaty to limit the alarming rise of planet-heating pollution. The first COP — which stands for “conference of the parties” that signed this agreement — took place in Berlin in 1995. Member states have been convening almost every year since.
A breakthrough moment came in 2015. At COP21 in Paris, more than 190 countries approved the Paris climate agreement, pledging limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and preferably to 1.5 de
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