UN Climate Talks Reach Midway Point Amid Disputes and Indigenous Protests

World 09:27 AM - 2025-11-15

Brazil's COP30 President Andre Correa do Lago meets with Munduruku indigenous people who are blocking access to the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Belem, Brazil, 14 November 2025.

UN climate negotiations were approaching their midway point on Friday, with countries still debating which issues they might rally around in a final summit agreement – and whether such an agreement is achievable at all.

Outside the venue, Indigenous groups staged a peaceful sit-in at the summit entrance, protesting ongoing industrial activity and development in the forests they call home. Their demonstration resulted in a meeting with COP30 President André Corrêa 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 northern Brazilian territory covers nearly 24,000 square kilometres – roughly the size of the U.S. state of New Hampshire.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has repeatedly emphasised the central role of Indigenous communities in this year’s COP30 negotiations. However, during their meeting, Indigenous representatives questioned why they had been brought to the host city of Belém if they were not being fully included in the discussions.

Officials told them that additional conference passes were being arranged, although Environment Minister Marina Silva noted that their demands were directed at the Brazilian government and would need to be addressed there.

Delegates Concerned Over Summit Ambition

Brazil’s COP30 presidency has said it intends the summit to focus on delivering on past commitments rather than announcing new ones.

To avoid early disputes over the agenda, Corrêa do Lago secured an agreement to move contentious issues – such as climate finance, gaps in national climate plans, trade, and global greenhouse-gas reduction goals – to separate tracks outside the main negotiations.

The official agenda tasks delegates from 195 countries with strengthening previous agreements, including developing methods to measure and support efforts to build resilience against extreme weather and other impacts of global warming, known as “adaptation” in COP terminology.

This approach has left some participants anxious about the summit’s prospects. Observers fear the talks could result in a weak response to an escalating climate emergency or fail entirely.

“If we continue on this current trajectory, there’s going to be a very, very weak outcome – a washout, when this was supposed to be a pivotal moment,” warned Andrew Wilson, Deputy Secretary General for Policy at the International Chamber of Commerce.

Some countries, including the host nation Brazil, are pushing for a strong commitment to advance last year’s COP28 pledge to “transition away from fossil fuels.” It remains uncertain whether the two-week conference, scheduled to conclude on 21 November, will deliver on that ambition.

With fossil-fuel action excluded from the formal agenda, negotiators may try to include progress in a final “cover text,” which often serves as the conference’s principal agreement.

“I know it can be a difficult topic to find the right way to address, but if we have a chance to do it here in Belém, I think that’s a good thing,” Norwegian Climate Minister Andreas Bjelland Eriksen told Reuters.

Although a cover decision is not guaranteed, diplomats say momentum is building to produce one – an effort to demonstrate continued global unity on climate action despite the United States’ withdrawal from the process.

Source: Reuters



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