BRASILIA (dpa-AFX) - COP30 got off to an optimistic start Monday following the announcement that dozens of new national climate plans - known as NDCs - pushed the tally to 113 countries now committed to curbing global warming.
Together, they represent nearly 70 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions - a significant step forward in the race to keep temperatures in check.
A preliminary assessment by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which convenes the yearly COPs, suggests these pledges could cut emissions by 12 per cent by 2035. However, it is not yet enough to guarantee the 1.5°C goal.
As negotiations began at the annual two-week summit, held in the Amazonian city of Belem in Brazil, UN climate chief Simon Stiell urged delegates not to 'squabble', but to focus on turning ambition into action.
In his opening remarks, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said that commitments and agreements made by successive COPs were beginning to show impact, with the global emissions curve now starting to bend downward.
He stressed that no country can afford the economic shock of climate disasters that slash GDP by double digits.
In his opening address, Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva warned that 'climate change is not a threat to the future - it is a tragedy of the present.'
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