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Time of India
5 hours ago
- Time of India
Brazil chooses one of its poorest regions for UN climate talks, here's why
Source: Bloomber The upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in November is set to be unlike any other. For the first time, world leaders, scientists, activists, and business executives will gather in Belem, Brazil, a city located on the edge of the Amazon rainforest and grappling with poverty and environmental challenges. Unlike past host cities such as Paris, Dubai, or Bali—known for their luxury and tourist appeal—Belem was deliberately chosen to highlight climate vulnerability, deforestation, and socioeconomic inequalities. Organisers hope the unique venue will focus global attention not just on emissions targets but also on creating climate solutions that benefit developing nations and frontline communities. Why Belem was chosen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) COP30 President-Designate Andre Corrêa do Lago emphasised that choosing Belem is a symbolic decision. Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva believes climate negotiations must confront real-world challenges head-on, rather than being discussed in insulated luxury settings. 'You are going to see a developing city, with infrastructure challenges and high poverty rates, set against one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth,' do Lago said. The Amazon rainforest, often referred to as the 'lungs of the planet,' is central to discussions on climate change mitigation and biodiversity preservation. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Libas Purple Days Sale Libas Undo By hosting COP30 in Belem, Brazil aims to directly link climate policies with poverty reduction and forest conservation. How Belem's location reflects the urgency and challenges of COP30 Location and infrastructure challenges – COP30 will be held in Belem, Brazil, which is already struggling with infrastructure and accommodation. The city's high hotel prices, lack of enough rooms, and the use of cruise ships to host delegates highlight how climate negotiations intersect with real-world social and economic issues. Key focus on climate action – COP30 is an important milestone for the Paris Agreement, where countries must update their climate action plans (NDCs) to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The event emphasises urgent global cooperation to limit warming to 1.5°C. Symbolism of Belem – Choosing Belem, a city near the Amazon rainforest and marked by poverty, symbolises the need to connect climate action with social justice, deforestation control, and sustainable development. COP30 pushes for $1.3 trillion climate finance to support vulnerable nations Another key priority is climate finance. The $1.3 trillion annual funding roadmap is under discussion to help vulnerable nations adapt to climate impacts and shift to clean energy as reported by Associated Press (AP). Developing countries argue that they contribute the least to global emissions yet suffer the most from floods, droughts, and rising sea levels. COP30 aims to strengthen commitments for equitable financial support, ensuring no country is left behind in the climate transition. Amazon protection and nature-based solutions take center stage at COP30 The Amazon rainforest, spanning multiple countries but largely within Brazil, is a critical carbon sink. Its deforestation, however, has reached alarming levels, at times turning parts of the Amazon into net carbon emitters. COP30 will prioritize: Halting illegal deforestation Restoring degraded ecosystems Incentivizing sustainable land use practices Strengthening indigenous land rights This focus aligns with the growing recognition that nature-based solutions are essential to achieving climate targets. Adding momentum, the United Nations' top court recently declared that access to a clean and healthy environment is a basic human right. This ruling strengthens arguments that states have a legal duty to reduce emissions and protect ecosystems. According to court President Yuji Iwasawa: 'Failure of a state to take appropriate action to protect the climate system may constitute an internationally wrongful act.' This legal shift could influence COP30 negotiations, pushing countries toward stronger and enforceable climate commitments. Vision for COP30 : A 'Summit of Solutions' Do Lago envisions COP30 as a turning point: 'We hope to be remembered as the COP of solutions, where people realized climate action creates opportunities and growth rather than sacrifice.' By holding the summit in Belem—where poverty, deforestation, and climate risk intersect—organizers aim to keep discussions grounded and outcomes impactful. The success of COP30 will depend not only on emissions pledges but also on innovative solutions, equitable financing, and a shared vision for a sustainable global future. Also Read | Rare flesh-eating bacteria kills 4 in Florida: Here's what you need to know about Vibrio vulnificus
Indian Express
10 hours ago
- Indian Express
At £150 million price tag, why Alexander Isak is the hot striker available in transfer window
One evening, a teenaged striker for the Swedish club AIK received a video call from an unknown number. He casually picked it up, only for his eyes to leap out of the orbit. At the other end was Ronaldo Nazario, one of his idols. The Brazilian requested him to join Real Madrid. He stumbled for words and just kept nodding his head. But a month after the call, he ignored Madrid and signed for Borussia Dortmund, the lapidarist club where raw stones are polished to shining gems. Madrid, his parents reasoned, was a step too soon. His parents, migrants from Eritrea who fled the war and settled in the Bagartorp just outside Stockholm in the late 80s believed in steady rather than spectacular promise. Eight years later, tracing unconventional paths with stops at Dutch Club Willem II (loan spell), Real Sociedad and Newcastle United, and suffering occasional setbacks, he could become the third most expensive transfer in the world after PSG recruits Kylian Mbappe and Neymar. His services would come at an eye-popping 150 millions pounds. Add agent fees, add-ons and transfer levy, he could cost around 200 million pounds. Yet, Alexander Isak is not a name that rolls off the tongues of football audiences with as much marvel as those of Mbappe or Neymar. Eyebrows are twitched, chins are stroked, and sometimes heads are banged. It could be that he turns up for Newcastle, a club that has more cult than mainstream adulation, or that he is not a face that screams from advertisement hoarding, or that he keeps an obscenely low profile off the pitch. The first question that swims in the head is whether his price is inflated? Is he or the club living a delusional neverland? Naysayer would pour his supreme but inferior numbers (26 goals and six assists in 42 games) as compared to some of the inflows in this season of gluttonous spending spree. Arsenal, after protracted negotiations, have landed Viktor Gyokeres, for half the sum (73 millions pounds) and twice the number of goals (54 goals and 13 assists) last season. Liverpool's latest fetch Hugo Ekitiké struck 22 times and assisted 12 goals and cost 79 million pounds. Pure economics suggests Isak's price-tag is a rip-off. But footballing intelligence suggests that Newcastle are not bound by greed. Rather, it's a peep into how the transfers work. Foremost, he is among the best in the business, just behind Erling Haaland and Mbappe in finishing but more hardworking than them off the ball. Last season, he skinned the Premier League's most trustworthy centre-back pairing of William Saliba and Gabriel of Arsenal in both legs of the League Cup semi-final with his pace, intelligent pressing and precision. By the end of the second leg, Arsenal supporters were pleading with Arteta to buy him the next season. That could yet be a reality, as the Gunners, if they squeeze the account book could orchestrate the wish of the fans. But at this stage, Isak remains a glint-eyed temptation and not a concrete plan. In Newcastle, he is deservingly hailed as the best player they had on the rolls since Alan Shearer, the highest goal-scorer in the league. Like Shearer, he has the immaculate sense of the goal, to process the patterns of the game and anticipate the ball's passing sequence. The craft of poaching is oversimplified to just being at the right place at the right time. Ignored are their vision and intelligence to be at that place, to weave past his markers, to wander invisibly like a phantom. Last season, Isak was exceptional inside the box. He possessed a conversion rate of 30.26, nearly double as much as Ekitiké. Rewatching both legs of the Arsenal game would offer an affirmation of his poise when hounded by defenders or the onrushing goalkeeper growing big on him, his knack of throwing defenders (Saliba, no less) off-balance is exemplary. He is not averse to scoring from long range either. A 25-yard screamer against Liverpool was vintage EPL stuff. He is not a see-ball-hit-ball type either. The movements are balletic, he dribbles but with minimalistic precision, he drifts out and slithers in with a casual swivel that throws the frantic marker off-kilter. He was first compared to Thierry Henry because they wore the same jersey No (14); two years in the league, it doesn't seem like a silly hyperbole. Like ex-Liverpool centre forward Roberto Firmino, he drops deeper into the pockets, between the lines of defence and midfield. An acute shortage of centre forwards adds a few millions. Premier League experience adds a few more. He is Premier League proven, Ekitiké is not, Brighton did not consider Gyokeres rounded enough to feature in the league and loaned him out to Bundesliga and Championship sides. Whereas he has improved in recent years and excelled against English teams in Champions League, there are still lingering doubts of him setting the goalscoring charts on fire. Besides, he is 25, just about hitting the peak. Other factors too are at play. Like the desperation of a club to sell a player. Newcastle is not a club that grooms and sells players, it's ambitious and desperately tried to keep Isak at St James' Park. It's utterly reasonable that the club has stuck a tag that limits his acquisition to only a handful of Europe's elites. Only that his timing of his transfer request came a trifle too late. The big spenders had already exhausted a bulk of their budget. A heated bidding war is unlikely; it could be just one ambitious club making a decisive swoop. Or a legend making an impromptu video call.
NDTV
19 hours ago
- NDTV
Why Brazil Chose One Of Its Poorer Cities For UN Climate Talks
NEW YORK: When world leaders, diplomats, business leaders, scientists and activists go to Brazil in November for the United Nations' annual climate negotiations, poverty, deforestation and much of the world's troubles will be right in their faces - by design. In past conference cities - including resort areas and playgrounds for the rich such as Bali, Cancun, Paris, Sharm El-Sheikh and Dubai - host nations show off both their amenities and what their communities have done about climate change. But this fall's conference is in a high-poverty city on the edge of the Amazon to demonstrate what needs to be done, said the diplomat who will run the mega-negotiations in Belem known as COP30, or Conference of Parties. What better way to tackle a problem than facing it head on, however uncomfortable, COP30 President-designate Andre coorea do Lago, a veteran Brazilian diplomat, said in an interview with The Associated Press at United Nations headquarters. "We cannot hide the fact that we are in the world with lots of inequalities and where sustainability and fighting climate change is something that has to get closer to people," do Lago said. That's what Brazilian President President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has in mind, he said. "When people will go to Belem, you are going to see a developing country and city with considerable infrastructure issues still with, in relative terms, a high percentage of poverty and President Lula thinks it's very important that we talk about climate thinking of all the forests, thinking of poverty and thinking of progress," do Lago said. "He wants everybody to see a city that can improve thanks to the results of these debates." The rich and powerful - as well as poorer nations, activists and media - are already feeling a bit of that discomfort even before getting to Belem. Even with two years of notice, Brazil is way behind in having enough hotel rooms and other accommodations for a global conference that has had 90,000 attendees. The official United Nations COP30 website says Brazil would have an official booking portal by the end of April. But specific plans weren't announced till last week when Brazil said it arranged for two cruise ships with 6,000 beds to help with lodging, saying the country is ensuring "accommodation for all countries" and starting a system where 98 poorer nations have the option to reserve first. Skyrocketing lodging costs are a problem, do Lago conceded. Some places have been charging $15,000 a night for one person and activists and others have talked of cutting back. But he said prices "are already going down," even as local media report otherwise. Do Lago said it will be a local holiday so residents can rent out their homes, adding "a significant supply of apartments." This is a significant year for climate negotiations. The 2015 Paris climate agreement required countries to come up with their own plans to reduce the emissions of heat-trapping gases from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas and then to update those plans every five years. This year nearly every nation - the United States, the No. 2 carbon dioxide emitter and historically biggest polluter, withdrew from the accord earlier this year - has to submit their first plan update. Most of those updates are already late, but the United Nations wants countries to complete them by September when world leaders gather in New York. That would give the United Nations time to calculate how much they would curb future climate change if implemented - before the COP six weeks later. UN Secretary-General Antonio-Guterres, in an interview with AP, reiterated what officials want in those plans: that they cover each nation's entire economy, that they include all greenhouse gases and that they are in line with efforts to limit long-term human-caused warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times. That target is the Paris agreement goal. And it's tough since the world is only a couple of tenths of a degree away and last year even temporarily shot past the 1.5 degree mark. Do Lago said he expects the countries' plans will fall short of keeping warming below the 1.5 degree mark, so tackling that gap will be a crucial element of negotiations. Some of the negotiations' most important work won't be on the formal agenda, including these plans, do Lago said. Another is a road map to provide $1.3 trillion in financial help to poorer nations in dealing with climate change. And finally, he said, Brazil "wants very much to talk about nature, about forests." The nearby Amazon has been an important part of Earth's natural system to suck large amounts of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, but deforestation is a major threat to that. At times, parts of the Amazon have gone from reducing carbon dioxide in the air to increasing it, a 2021 study found. On Wednesday, the United Nation's top court ruled that a clean and healthy environment is a basic human right, a decision that may bolster efforts to come up with stronger action at the November climate conference, some activists said. "Failure of a state to take appropriate action to protect the climate system ... may constitute an internationally wrongful act," court President Yuji Iwasawa said during the hearing. Do Lago said the challenge for countries is to think of these emission-reduction plans not as a sacrifice but as a moment to change and grow. "One of the objectives of this COP is that we hope we will be remembered as a COP of solutions, a COP in which people realized that this agenda is creating more opportunities and challenges," Lago said. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
