The conference is being led by COP30 president André Corrêa do Lago, Brazil’s vice minister for climate, energy and environment at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Among those scheduled to attend are government leaders and ministers, diplomats, U.N. representatives, scientists, business leaders and non-governmental organizations across the globe.

Brazil has launched the Belém Health Action Plan, the first international climate adaptation plan focused completely on health. The plan aims to help countries strengthen their health systems as the impacts of climate change become more serious and more visible.

Minister Watts said New Zealand’s presence at COP30 is essential to ensuring that global climate rules remain fair, effective, and aligned with the interests of both the national economy and the wider Pacific region.

An Indigenous group attended the opening ceremony of the People’s Summit offsite from the COP30 climate conference, while other people walked along the river at sunset in Belem, Brazil. Jose Rivera prayed before an image of the Virgin Mary painted on a tree in Armero,

As world leaders gather in Belém, Brazil, for the COP30 climate summit, faith leaders call out the "tragic, sinful gap between the call to care for creation and the failure of governments to act."

A Canadian anti-whaling activist who has dodged arrest in Japan for more than a decade vowed at COP30 in Brazil to continue fighting for marine protection – taking aim in particular at deep-sea mining and Norway’s krill industry.

At COP30 in Belem, countries have rallied behind proposals for a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels.

Roughly half of Brazil’s grasslands show some degree of degradation, according to University of São Paulo researcher Carlos Eduardo Cerri, who studies carbon emissions in agriculture. Degradation occurs when cattle overgraze, stripping away vegetation that protects the soil and allows it to store carbon.