Brazil taps veteran diplomat to lead COP30 as Trump quits UN climate accord

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Brazil has chosen a veteran diplomat for the top job at the UN COP30 climate summit as the country attempts to balance action on global warming with the US’s exit from the Paris climate agreement under President Trump.

André Corrêa do Lago, previously an ambassador to Japan and India, will have the role of president-designate at the world’s most important climate negotiations to be held in November in the Amazonian city of Belém.

His appointment came just a day after Donald Trump said the US would withdraw from the Paris agreement, the landmark UN accord aimed at limit the global temperature rise. The US is the only country to leave the accord, quitting during President Trump’s first term in the White House.

Corrêa do Lago, 65, will have the task of driving progress on the Paris agreement at COP30 without the support of the world’s largest historical emitter.

Marina Silva, Brazil’s minister of environment and climate change, said on Monday that the Trump stance was “the opposite of policy guided by evidence brought by science and common sense imposed by the reality of extreme climate events that occur, including in his own country”.

“These will be challenging times for the entire world,” she added. “We must face them with information, commitment to life and the ability to negotiate politically.”

Corrêa do Lago said he believed Brazil could play a big role through the UN summit and “create a COP that will be remembered with enthusiasm”.

But he faced a “tough mission” as the Paris accord approached its tenth anniversary with right-wing politics on the rise and multilateralism in decline, said Caetano Scannavino, co-ordinator of Brazilian campaign group the Health & Happiness Project, known by its Portuguese initials PSA.

The appointment was broadly welcomed by activists who had criticised the past leaders of UN climate talks held in the petrostates of United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan because of their involvement in the fossil fuel industry. 

Corrêa do Lago was long rumoured as a top candidate for the role, on the back of years of diplomatic experience and deep knowledge of the UN COP process where he served as the country’s chief climate negotiator. 

Ana Toni, currently secretary for climate change in the ministry in Brazil, was named COP30 chief executive.

Environmental protection is one of the main pillars of the government of president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and he views the UN climate summit as an opportunity to project the country’s ecological credentials globally.

Amazon rainforest deforestation, which surged under hard-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, has fallen sharply since Lula’s return to power in 2023. The felling of trees and land clearance is Brazil’s single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. 

However, the Lula administration has faced criticism from green campaigners for its embrace of oil and gas exploration, as the South American country ramps up offshore production. 

Another challenge for Brasília is the increase of destructive fires in the Amazon, fanned by a historic drought, as well as in other biomes such as the Pantanal wetlands. 

At this year’s COP, Brazil has been charged with creating a road map to plug a trillion-dollar funding gap needed to address climate change, following on the groundwork in Azerbaijan.

Countries are also due to discuss their upgraded national climate plans, providing an insight into how far the world is from the Paris accord goal of limiting global warming to well below 2C and preferably no more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Brazil has updated its own goal of cutting emissions between 59 and 67 per cent from 2005 levels by 2035, mainly by relying on its forests as stores of carbon.

Rio de Janeiro hosted the UN Earth Summit in 1992, a milestone event that led to the creation of the UN’s framework convention on climate change, which oversees the annual climate summits.