COP30 Climate Summit Opens with Calls for Urgent Action Amid US Absence

The UN's COP30 climate negotiations have begun in Belem, Brazil, with leaders calling for accelerated action and greater cooperation to curb global warming. The summit's president urged nations to unite on the shared task. However, the talks are complicated by the United States, which has not sent high-level negotiators and is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement for a second time. The US is historically the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and its absence has been described as damaging to the global effort.