Outside, Indigenous groups rallied in protest at the ongoing industry and development in the forests they call home

International News via Reuters:

U.N. climate talks were nearing a midway point on Friday, with countries still wrangling over which issues they might be able to rally around in a final summit deal – and whether such a deal is even possible.

Outside, Indigenous groups rallied in protest at the ongoing industry and development in the forests they call home. They staged a peaceful sit-in at the summit entrance in the morning, before successfully demanding a meeting with COP30 President Andre Correa do Lago.

“We are the ones who protect the climate, and the Amazon cannot continue to be destroyed to enrich big companies,” read a statement from the Munduruku Indigenous group, whose territory in northern Brazil covers nearly 24,000 square km (9,000 square miles), about the size of the U.S. state of New Hampshire.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has highlighted Indigenous communities as key players in this year’s COP30 negotiations.

“President Lula, we are here in front of COP because we want you to listen to us. We refuse to be sacrificed for agribusiness,” the statement said.

Brazil’s COP30 presidency has said it wants the summit to focus on realizing past promises, rather than making new ones.

To prevent an agenda battle at the summit’s start, Correa do Lago struck an early deal to keep contentious items like climate finance, a shortfall in national climate plans, trade and global greenhouse gas reduction goals to one side to be handled separately.

DELEGATES NERVOUS OVER AMBITION OF SUMMIT

The official agenda has negotiators from 195 governments working to flesh out earlier deals, such as advancing ways of measuring and supporting efforts to build resilience against weather extremes and other consequences of global warming, known in COP jargon as “adaptation.”

That approach to the talks left some nervous about the summit’s outcome – worrying that the talks could deliver a lightweight response to an escalating climate crisis, or instead fall apart altogether. 

“If we continue on this current trajectory, there’s going to be a very, very weak outcome, that will kind of make this a washout when this was supposed to be a very pivotal moment,” said Andrew Wilson, deputy secretary general for policy at the International Chamber of Commerce.

Some countries including host Brazil are angling for a strong statement to advance countries’ COP28 promise to pursue “transitioning away from fossil fuels.”

It’s unclear if the two-week summit will deliver on that before it is scheduled to end on November 21.

With action on fossil fuels left off the formal agenda, one way of presenting agreed progress on the issue is to include it in a negotiated cover text, often seen as the conference’s central deal.

“I know it can be a difficult topic to sort of find the right way to talk about, but if we can have a chance to do that here in Belem, I think that’s a good thing,” Andreas Bjelland Eriksen, Norwegian climate minister told Reuters.

While a cover deal is still not certain, momentum is building for one to demonstrate that global unity on climate change is still intact outside of the United States pulling away.

Reporting by Adriano Machado, Valerie Volcovici, Simon Jessop and William James; Writing by Katy Daigle; Editing by Hugh Lawson