The most high-stakes United Nations climate change conference in years is taking place this November in Belém, Brazil. It’s the 10th anniversary of the landmark Paris agreement, which committed nearly every country on Earth to working together to limit global warming.
They’re off track, making this an important moment to show the world whether world leaders can keep making progress despite serious headwinds. One of the planet’s biggest polluters, the US, has turned its back on the negotiations as President Donald Trump works to stymy renewable energy projects and promote fossil fuels. Generative AI is also making the transition to cleaner energy more difficult as data centers demand more energy. The Verge is tracking key developments and demonstrations at the climate talks as delegates grapple with all of these challenges.
UN climate negotiations burned up and then fizzled out
A fire burns in a pavilion during the COP30 UN Climate Change Conference in Belém, Pará state, Brazil, on November 20th, 2025. Photo: Getty Images“It’s a wrap … Don’t forget to buy an ‘i survived Belém’ shirt,” reads the opening line of an email I got Saturday, the final day of highly anticipated United Nations climate negotiations in Belém, Brazil. The email was sent from Shravya Jain-Conti, the US climate diplomacy lead at the Global Strategic Communications Council (GSCC), who’s been following these events for years. While she sometimes has tips on where to snag a cup of coffee along with her email updates to reporters, the T-shirt tip was a first as far as I’ve seen.
I’ve been mulling over these negotiations since last year, mapping out potential funding opportunities to make a trip to Belém to report on the ground. I resigned myself to covering the news remotely from the US rather than trekking into the Amazon pregnant during a federal government shutdown. My fear of missing out dissipated last week when the UN event venue caught fire, just before a lackluster end to what some had hoped might be the most consequential round of international talks on climate change since the 2015 Paris agreement.
Read Article >- A global roadmap for ditching fossil fuels hangs in the balance.
Negotiators are deadlocked in a tumultuous close to United Nations climate talks. A proposed roadmap for transitioning away from coal, oil, and gas has become a flashpoint. “We’re facing the reality of a no-deal scenario” EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said earlier today.
- UN climate talks were literally on fire.
A blaze broke out in the conference venue Thursday, just ahead of negotiations scheduled to come to a close today in Brazil.
- 1 in every 25 attendees at the UN climate conference is a fossil fuel lobbyist.
More than 1,600 lobbyists for oil, coal, and gas have crowded into pivotal international climate negotiations going down in Brazil. They outnumber delegations from every country in attendance except for Brazil, according to an analysis by the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition.
- Utilities around the world pledged $1 trillion in grid and renewable energy investments by 2030.
The Utilities for Net Zero Alliance made the announcement Friday during the UN climate conference taking place in Brazil. Investment need to grow from $390 billion in 2024 to $670 billion annually between now and 2030 to update power grids, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
Global utilities set out USD 1 trillion investment plans at COP30 as grid spend grows[The International Renewable Energy Agency ]
- Disinformation comes to the forefront of UN climate negotiations.
Brazil, Canada, Chile, and at least seven other countries have endorsed a new ‘declaration’ to combat disinformation on climate change. It came together during the United Nations climate conference taking place this month, where more than 200 advocacy groups have called on governments to crack down on misleading content in advertising and online platforms.
- Data centers are already influencing the global forecast for clean energy.
Growing electricity demand for AI and the Trump administration’s love of natural gas have influenced the International Energy Agency’s latest World Energy Outlook, Heatmap reports.
- Indigenous protesters forced their way into UN climate negotiations.
Some demonstrators held signs that said “our forests are not for sale.” Indigenous leaders from the Amazon Basin have been pushing governments participating in the climate conference taking place in Brazil to “respect our rights, incorporate our ancestral knowledge, and ensure the protection of indigenous territories”.
UN climate talks are getting weird
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attends the General Plenary of Leaders in the framework of the COP30 UN Climate Change Conference in Belem, Para State, Brazil, on November 6, 2025. AFP via Getty ImagesOne of the most consequential rounds of global climate negotiations has kicked off in Belém, Brazil. Leaders from nearly every country in the world — but notably, not the US — are gathering to try to ramp up action on climate change during a time of tremendous transformation when it comes to both energy systems and international cooperation.
Whatever happens over the course of talks at the United Nations climate conference, known as COP30 this year, will be a peek into what the shuffling world order means for the climate we live in now and for generations to come.
Read Article >Why is Bill Gates tone policing on climate change?
Bill Gates at a Bloomberg Philanthropies meeting at the Plaza Hotel on September 23, 2025 in New York City. Photo: Getty ImagesBill Gates wants us all to be more upbeat about climate change. He argues that we’ve made great progress on the problem, aided in large part by technological advances. So it’s time to focus more on improving people’s lives, particularly by fighting hunger and disease, he writes in a memo published Tuesday. Of course, he says AI can help.
It’s supposed to be a hopeful message released ahead of high-stakes UN climate negotiations taking place next month. But it gave me whiplash reading it. Gates is a high-profile climate philanthropist, having invested billions of dollars into new technologies that are supposed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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