Brazil ramps up Cop30 climate talks with 21-point draft at Amazon summit

With a direct letter sent to nations and a draft text released on Tuesday, host country Brazil is shifting the UN climate conference into a higher gear.

The letter sent late on Monday comes during the final week of the first climate summit in the Amazon rainforest, a key regulator of climate because trees absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that warms the planet.

Cop30 President Andre Correa do Lago later released a proposal with 21 options for negotiators to choose from on four sticky and interrelated issues.

“It’s text Tuesday and we’re sort of off to the races,’’ said World Resources Institute’s David Waskow, who said the nine-page proposal “addresses some of the core questions that have been part of the presidency consultations”.

The four key political issues are whether countries should be told to do better on their new climate plans; details on handing out US$300 billion in pledged climate aid; dealing with trade barriers over climate; and improving transparency, which Waskow said was really about reporting climate progress.

While the options in the draft text “are a first step, what’s required now is to eliminate the options that add to delay and ignore the urgency of action”, said Jasper Inventor, deputy programme director of Greenpeace International.