The global community has been meeting every year under the auspices of the United Nations. At the meeting held in Paris in 2015, nations decided that they would not set national targets aimed at reducing emissions that affect the global climate. Instead, it was decided in the meeting that nations would report on the actions they had taken in the preceding year aimed at maintaining — if possible, reducing — global temperatures. Reducing the burning of fossil fuels was the most effective way of addressing climate change. The Paris summit set the target of 1.5 degrees Celsius above the level reached during the Industrial Revolution in the 1890s.

The annual meetings are held at different places around the globe. Since these meetings attract a great deal of public attention with activists agitating for more climate-related action by the host country, the United Nations authorities have had to work hard to find a country willing to serve as the host. The 30th conference was kicked off on November 6, 2025, at the Brazilian resort of Belem. The city is on the edge of the imperilled Amazon rainforest. Bringing world leaders to Belem, one of Brazil's poorest provincial capitals, is central to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's efforts to draw attention and money to the Amazon Rainforest and the people who depend on it for their economic and cultural sustenance.

"It is time for the people of Amazon to ask what is being done by the rest of the world to avoid the collapse of their house," he said. Lula was driven to the site of the summit in an electric car made in China, now the largest........

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