Crisis meeting in the Amazon What you need to know about the climate conference
The Amazon: extremely important for the climate, but under enormous stress.
Image: Jorge Saenz/AP/dpa (Archivbild)
A truck stands in a deforested area of the Amazon.
Image: Fernando Souza/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa (Archivbild)
Tens of thousands of delegates from almost every country in the world are meeting in Belém in the Brazilian Amazon region to negotiate how to curb the worsening climate crisis.
Image: Fernando Llano/AP/dpa
An activist is seen outside the site of the World Climate Conference in Brazil.
Image: Marcelo Camargo/Agencia Brazil/dpa (Archivbild)
There was great jubilation in Paris in 2015: the world had agreed to fight the climate crisis - and to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees if possible.
Image: Christophe Petit Tesson/dpa (Archivbild)
The Amazon: extremely important for the climate, but under enormous stress.
Image: Jorge Saenz/AP/dpa (Archivbild)
A truck stands in a deforested area of the Amazon.
Image: Fernando Souza/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa (Archivbild)
Tens of thousands of delegates from almost every country in the world are meeting in Belém in the Brazilian Amazon region to negotiate how to curb the worsening climate crisis.
Image: Fernando Llano/AP/dpa
An activist is seen outside the site of the World Climate Conference in Brazil.
Image: Marcelo Camargo/Agencia Brazil/dpa (Archivbild)
There was great jubilation in Paris in 2015: the world had agreed to fight the climate crisis - and to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees if possible.
Image: Christophe Petit Tesson/dpa (Archivbild)
Ten years after the Paris Agreement, the climate crisis is anything but over. Instead, the problem has become far greater. Now there is a crisis meeting in a very special place.
10.11.2025, 20:53
10.11.2025, 20:54
dpa
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- The World Climate Conference has begun on the edge of the Amazon rainforest.
- However, since the breakthrough at the Paris Climate Agreement to limit warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees, emissions have risen even further.
- The world is currently heading towards a warming of 2.8 degrees by the end of the century, and the 1.5 degree limit is likely to be breached within the next ten years.
- There is a threat of catastrophic consequences for humanity.
- Contrary to all commitments, only around a third of countries have submitted new climate protection plans by 2035 in time for the conference.
Ten years ago, there was jubilation in Paris: after a tough struggle, the global community had agreed to try and get the climate crisis under control. The Paris Climate Agreement was born. In the meantime, however, the crisis has escalated significantly - and a meeting is being held in Brazil on the edge of the Amazon tropical forest, which is so important for the global climate.
In the past few days, heads of state and government from all over the world have come to Belém. But only now that they have left again are the tough negotiations really getting underway. There is a lot at stake.
What is the climate situation now?
According to the latest UN forecast, the world is heading towards 2.8 degrees of warming by the end of the century with its current climate policy - and thus towards catastrophic consequences for humanity. The internationally agreed 1.5-degree target will be torn within the next decade. This would mean more storms, more floods, more droughts and so on - not to mention the threat of tipping points with irreversible consequences.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized to world leaders: "The bitter truth is that we have not managed to stay below 1.5 degrees."
So far, despite all the conferences and plans, people have not been able to turn the tide: Global emissions continue to rise. Last year, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), they even rose more drastically than at any time since modern measurements began in 1957.
And now the Amazon is supposed to turn things around?
Brazil wants to use the symbolic power of the Amazon to make the world aware of the urgency. "If you only see the forest from above, you don't know what's happening under its roof," emphasizes Brazilian host President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The world must look reality in the eye.
The German head of Greenpeace, Martin Kaiser, warns that if deforestation increases by a few percent, the rainforest will turn into a savannah. "Then the global climate will tip. Without protecting the Amazon, there can be no climate protection. That is a scientific truth that is as simple as it is inconvenient." Large forest areas such as the Amazon are natural reservoirs for greenhouse gases - what is contained in trees and plants does not pollute the climate.
After three years in authoritarian states - Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan - the climate summit in Brazil is being held in a democratic country for the first time, which offers more scope for protests by activists.
But the omens are not the best. Wars and other crises are causing the climate to slide down the list of priorities for many governments, and almost everywhere the coffers are tight. The oil and gas lobby wants to slow down the energy transition - and has found a powerful supporter in US President Donald Trump.
Will Trump make an appearance in Brazil?
The US President is not expected in Belém - on the very first day of his inauguration in January, he signed the renewed withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement. However, this withdrawal will not take effect until a year later.
Nevertheless, Trump is still an elephant in the room: with the withdrawal of the USA, there is a lack of money - both for the UN conferences and for the support for climate protection and adaptation to rising temperatures and their consequences that is so important for poorer countries.
What exactly is the conference about?
Many countries have not done their homework: Contrary to all commitments, only around a third have even submitted new climate protection plans by 2035 by the time of the conference - and the ones they have are not enough to contain the crisis. "In the coming years up to 2035, much more must happen than the usual "business as usual", emphasizes Kaiser. UN climate chief Simon Stiell also put the pressure on at the start: "We need to move much, much faster."
Adaptation to the consequences of climate change is the main item on the official agenda. Indicators are needed here that make progress measurable, explains Laura Schäfer, who heads the International Climate Policy department at the organization Germanwatch. "To this end, the poorest and most vulnerable countries need clarity and reliability as to how they will receive financial support for climate protection measures and dealing with the consequences of climate change."
Host Brazil is promoting a new fund worth billions to protect tropical rainforests. Countries that preserve their tropical forests are to be rewarded. For every hectare destroyed, on the other hand, lavish penalties are to be paid and flow into the fund.
What role does the EU play?
At climate conferences, the EU was long regarded as a champion of greater ambition - but those times have changed. Due to enormous resistance, the EU only agreed on the 2035 climate target due for the conference at the last minute. The EU now wants to achieve its targeted emission reductions of up to five percentage points by 2031 through climate certificates from abroad.
Climate researcher Niklas Höhne from the NewClimate Institute described this as a step backwards, which also makes it less likely that we will actually be able to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. The EU is now allowing certificates that it had excluded for its 2030 target due to doubts about their reliability.
During his visit to Belém, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced that Germany wanted to participate in the fund - but he did not have a specific amount in his luggage.
What would be a success in Brazil?
In the best-case scenario, a package would be adopted "to take all the necessary steps to stabilize global warming below 1.5 degrees," Kaiser emphasizes - including a binding plan to phase out fossil fuels. At the last climate conference, oil states such as Saudi Arabia tried to block an agreement on the planned phase-out of coal, oil and gas.
According to observers, it would also be important to back up commitments to poorer countries with money. Last year in Azerbaijan, some of these sensitive issues were postponed.
Has the Paris Agreement failed?
The experts agree: without the agreement, the world would be on an even worse course - namely four to five degrees of global warming, as previously predicted. "The Paris Climate Agreement has set something in motion and it can no longer be stopped," says climate researcher Höhne, referring to the rapid expansion of renewable energies. The world has changed and will continue to do so.
