Guterres and Lula push negotiators at COP30 as deadline looms

BELEM, Brazil: Two global power players pushed negotiators on Wednesday to find compromises at United Nations climate talks in Brazil’s Belem, where a self-imposed deadline is rushing up fast.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva arrived at the COP30 talks to take a hand, in what some attendees hoped could signal progress by day’s end. Lula’s tentative schedule included meetings with negotiators for the European Union, emerging nations in Latin America, the Middle East and Asia, and hard-hit small island nations and African countries.

Raising the possibility of a historic outcome, Greenpeace Brazil Executive Director Carolina Pasquali said: “The COP is nearing the endgame and the joint arrival of both Lula and Guterres gives a clear political signal that they mean business.”

Still, it’s routine for negotiators at these talks to miss deadlines.