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Chris Bowen meets Turkey’s first lady as lobbying to hold Cop31 intensifies

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Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Climate change and energy minister Chris Bowen has appeared with Turkey’s first lady, Emine Erdoğan, at a major environment event in New York as negotiations over hosting rights for the COP31 summit come down to the wire.Bowen – who is in the US for talks at the UN general assembly – has been lobbying Turkey to drop its rival bid to host the conference in 2026 in order to secure the event on behalf of Australia and Pacific nations.Anthony Albanese is seeking a meeting with the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as part of the negotiations, but the first lady is critical to any breakthrough.A longtime environmental campaigner, she hosted dignitaries at the Zero Waste Blue exhibition on New York’s upper east side on Thursday morning, Australian time. Bowen spoke to the first lady and Turkey’s climate minister Murat Kurum.The event was planned to show off Turkey’s environmental bona fides, including protection of the oceans, and to “strengthen environmental diplomacy by creating a platform for partnership and cooperation”.Organisers said the New York meeting would enhance Turkey’s “global visibility in environmental policy” and “create global awareness under the leadership of Mrs Emine Erdoğan”.Bowen’s attendance had been planned for some weeks, part of his efforts at respectful diplomatic engagement. He was the only foreign government minister in attendance.Photos provided to Guardian Australia show Bowen and Erdoğan posing with other guests.Bowen also spoke to the president of Azerbaijan’sCop29 summit, Mukhtar Babayev.Turkey is adamant its time has come to host the annual event after withdrawing from the race to host Cop26, which ultimately went to Glasgow.Any decision on the host country has to be made through consensus, or the event will default to Bonn in Germany.Both Bowen and Albanese have declined to discuss the status of negotiations with Turkey, but describe Australia’s support among partner countries as overwhelming. Australia has at least 23 votes among the critical 28-country Western European and Others Group whose turn it is to host the annual summit.“I’ve had good and positive conversations with Türkiye, and when there’s more to say, we’ll say,” Bowen told journalists a day before the event in New York.“We do want a very investment focused Cop, on investing in Australia’s renewable energy superpower, as well as lifting the agenda of the Pacific, whose very existence of several countries is at stake.”Asked if a resolution could be achieved before he leaves New York for London, the prime minister said he was not sure.“I will be having discussions with President Erdoğan as well. I’ve had a short discussion with the foreign minister… and my ministers and Turkish ministers are having those discussions.”Albanese and Bowen spruiked Australia as an investment destination to business figures at an event hosted by Macquarie Group, as they pitch returns from the growing renewable energy transition and extraction and processing of critical minerals.Albanese was due to speak at a special climate summit hosted by UN secretary general António Guterres and a separate New York Times conference on climate on Thursday.“This is the decisive decade for acting on the environmental challenge of climate change – and seizing the economic opportunities of clean energy,” he will tell the UN.“We all grasp the scale and the urgency of our task.“If we act now, if we move with common purpose and shared resolve, then we can do more than just guard against the very worst.”

Exclusive: Climate minister, who is trying to persuade Turkey to allow Australia to host the summit, appears with Emine Erdoğan at New York event Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastClimate change and energy minister Chris Bowen has appeared with Turkey’s first lady, Emine Erdoğan, at a major environment event in New York as negotiations over hosting rights for the COP31 summit come down to the wire.Bowen – who is in the US for talks at the UN general assembly – has been lobbying Turkey to drop its rival bid to host the conference in 2026 in order to secure the event on behalf of Australia and Pacific nations. Continue reading...

Climate change and energy minister Chris Bowen has appeared with Turkey’s first lady, Emine Erdoğan, at a major environment event in New York as negotiations over hosting rights for the COP31 summit come down to the wire.

Bowen – who is in the US for talks at the UN general assembly – has been lobbying Turkey to drop its rival bid to host the conference in 2026 in order to secure the event on behalf of Australia and Pacific nations.

Anthony Albanese is seeking a meeting with the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as part of the negotiations, but the first lady is critical to any breakthrough.

A longtime environmental campaigner, she hosted dignitaries at the Zero Waste Blue exhibition on New York’s upper east side on Thursday morning, Australian time. Bowen spoke to the first lady and Turkey’s climate minister Murat Kurum.

The event was planned to show off Turkey’s environmental bona fides, including protection of the oceans, and to “strengthen environmental diplomacy by creating a platform for partnership and cooperation”.

Organisers said the New York meeting would enhance Turkey’s “global visibility in environmental policy” and “create global awareness under the leadership of Mrs Emine Erdoğan”.

Bowen’s attendance had been planned for some weeks, part of his efforts at respectful diplomatic engagement. He was the only foreign government minister in attendance.

Photos provided to Guardian Australia show Bowen and Erdoğan posing with other guests.

Bowen also spoke to the president of Azerbaijan’sCop29 summit, Mukhtar Babayev.

Turkey is adamant its time has come to host the annual event after withdrawing from the race to host Cop26, which ultimately went to Glasgow.

Any decision on the host country has to be made through consensus, or the event will default to Bonn in Germany.

Both Bowen and Albanese have declined to discuss the status of negotiations with Turkey, but describe Australia’s support among partner countries as overwhelming. Australia has at least 23 votes among the critical 28-country Western European and Others Group whose turn it is to host the annual summit.

“I’ve had good and positive conversations with Türkiye, and when there’s more to say, we’ll say,” Bowen told journalists a day before the event in New York.

“We do want a very investment focused Cop, on investing in Australia’s renewable energy superpower, as well as lifting the agenda of the Pacific, whose very existence of several countries is at stake.”

Asked if a resolution could be achieved before he leaves New York for London, the prime minister said he was not sure.

“I will be having discussions with President Erdoğan as well. I’ve had a short discussion with the foreign minister… and my ministers and Turkish ministers are having those discussions.”

Albanese and Bowen spruiked Australia as an investment destination to business figures at an event hosted by Macquarie Group, as they pitch returns from the growing renewable energy transition and extraction and processing of critical minerals.

Albanese was due to speak at a special climate summit hosted by UN secretary general António Guterres and a separate New York Times conference on climate on Thursday.

“This is the decisive decade for acting on the environmental challenge of climate change – and seizing the economic opportunities of clean energy,” he will tell the UN.

“We all grasp the scale and the urgency of our task.

“If we act now, if we move with common purpose and shared resolve, then we can do more than just guard against the very worst.”

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

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China, World’s Largest Carbon Polluting Nation, Announces New Climate Goal to Cut Emissions

China, the world’s largest carbon polluting nation, has announced a new climate fighting goal to cut emissions by 7% to 10% by 2035

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — As Earth keeps heating up and its weather gets more extreme, more than 100 world leaders lined up Wednesday to talk of increased urgency and the need for stronger efforts to curb the spewing of heat-trapping gases.But few large concrete national plans — especially from major polluters China, Europe and India — were unveiled despite a pressing deadline and sticky Wednesday warmth.With major international climate negotiations in Brazil 6½ weeks away, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres convened a special leaders summit during the General Assembly to focus on climate change. The idea is to get the countries to submit warming-fighting plans that are stronger, incorporate them throughout their economies and have them in line with an international temperature limit goal that is fast slipping away from reality. “The science demands action. The law commands it. The economics compel it. And people are calling for it,” Guterres said in opening the Wednesday afternoon marathon session with 121 leaders scheduled to speak. ‘Here we must admit failure’ “Warming appears to be accelerating,” climate scientist Johan Rockstrom said in a science briefing that started the summit. “Here we must admit failure. Failure to protect peoples and nations from unmanageable impacts of human-induced climate change.”“We’re dangerously close to triggering fundamental and irreversible change,” Rockstrom said. Under the 2015 Paris climate accord, 195 nations are supposed to submit new more stringent five-year plans on how to curb carbon emissions from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. Technically the deadline was in February and about 50 nations — responsible for one-quarter of the world's carbon emissions — have filed theirs, including Pakistan, Micronesia, Mongolia, Liberia and Vanuatu. All of those nations submitted on Wednesday. UN officials said countries really need to get their plans in by the end of the month so the U.N. can calculate how much more warming Earth is on track for if nations do what they promise.Before 2015, the world was on path for 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming since pre-industrial times, but now has trimmed that to 2.6 degrees Celsius (4.7 degrees Fahrenheit), Guterres said.Kenyan President William Ruto said Wednesday that climate change was both the single greatest threat and development opportunity facing Africa, with the right action making the difference between survival and devastation.Without urgent action on climate change the world is “walking blindfolded towards the abyss,” Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said in a speech that opened the General Assembly on Tuesday.“Bombs and nuclear weapons will not protect us from the climate crisis,” said Lula, who will host the November climate negotiations in the Amazon city of Belem. He announced the launch of the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), a billion dollar program aimed at compensating countries for keeping forests standing.José Raúl Mulino Quintero, the president of Panama, said that although his country is already one of the few that emits less carbon than it absorbs with its forests, he promised they would reduce their carbon emissions further by 2035. “We believe one can always take another step for sustainability for future generations,” Quintero said. He said Panama would restore almost 250,000 acres (100,000 hectares) of critical ecosystems including mangroves and watersheds, “because nature is our first line of defense against climate change.”The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – Sept. 2025

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UN Climate Leader Urges Action to Match Promises at Climate Week NYC

By Katy Daigle and Simon JessopNEW YORK (Reuters) -Speakers at Climate Week NYC delivered a clear message to world leaders on Monday: the global...

By Katy Daigle and Simon JessopNEW YORK (Reuters) -Speakers at Climate Week NYC delivered a clear message to world leaders on Monday: the global energy transition is happening now and it's happening fast, at the event which brings together leaders, advocates and the U.N. General Assembly.The U.N.'s top climate official opened a morning session at the annual event by urging the world to turn promises into practical solutions.“This new era of climate action must be about bringing our process closer to the real economy,” said Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.The premier of Antigua and Barbuda urged wealthy counterparts to speed their efforts, with climate change having become an existential crisis for nations like his.“For small islands, it turns every storm into a fiscal catastrophe,” Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne said.LEADERS PRESSED TO SHOW CLIMATE PROGRESS EVEN AS AID IS CUTWorld leaders at the U.N. General Assembly this week will be pressed to show progress on climate, particularly after recent cutbacks in development aid as wealthy countries also juggle war and economic stability.G20 members Britain, Japan and Australia recently announced new climate plans, or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). More countries are expected to share their updates this week, including China."We now look to China, the world's top emitter, to fully commit to the Paris Agreement it helped craft by issuing an NDC that charts a credible path to that country’s goal of net zero before 2060," said John Podesta, former climate advisor to U.S. President Joe Biden."This means roughly a 30% emissions reduction, covering all greenhouse gases, by 2035, below peak 2024 levels, which new data demonstrates that they reached."BENEFITS OF CLEAN ENERGY BOOM 'NOT SHARED BY ALL'With the U.N. climate summit, COP30, in November, Stiell also took time to celebrate progress that has been made, noting that investment in renewables had increased tenfold in 10 years."The clean energy transition is booming across almost all major economies," he said, adding it hit $2 trillion last year."But this boom is uneven. Its vast benefits are not shared by all," Stiell said. "Meanwhile, climate disasters are hitting every economy and society harder each year. So we need to step it up fast."He also said a new global initiative called Build Clean Now would help to fast-track clean industry shifts.Also on Monday, an alliance working to boost renewables said it plans to spur $7.5 billion in investment toward green energy in developing countries, including India.CLIMATE CHANGE STILL A 'SYSTEMIC RISK' GLOBALLY"Despite political debate globally, varying regulations between markets, emerging de-regulation and reports of corporates deprioritizing ESG, climate change remains a critical systemic risk across the world," said Omar Ali, EY Global Financial Services Leader.A boost to joint decision-making came last week, after countries ratified the High Seas Treaty, which sets into motion the first legal framework for protecting the vast ocean areas that lie beyond any national jurisdiction. The treaty contains 75 points covering areas such as protecting, caring for and ensuring responsible use of marine resources, and includes a provision for requiring environmental impact assessments for economic activities in international waters.WWF International director general Kirsten Schuijt called it a "monumental achievement for ocean conservation" and "a positive catalyst for collaboration across international waters."(Reporting by Simon Jessop and Katy Daigle; Additional reporting by Valerie Volcovici and Virginia Furness; Editing by Bernadette Baum)Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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Kansas law professor calls for cultural shifts to address environmental crises

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Ted Cruz claims without evidence that China is funding U.S. climate lawsuits

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz has said China is funding climate lawsuits against American oil and gas companies to weaken the U.S. He hasn't provided evidence to support the claim.

A firefighter battles the Canyon Fire in August in Hasley Canyon, Calif. As temperatures rise with human-caused climate change, wildfire risk is getting worse. (Marcio Jose Sanchez | AP)States and localities have filed waves of lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry to make energy companies pay for damages that communities face from climate change. Threatened with potentially huge financial penalties, industry and its supporters recently turned to the Supreme Court for help — without success. Now, Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican, has launched a new line of attack that could help industry by focusing on the money that’s allegedly behind the climate cases. At a June hearing on Capitol Hill, Cruz accused China of funding the lawsuits in order to cripple U.S. oil and gas producers and to strengthen Beijing’s position in global energy markets. If the community court cases succeed, Cruz said U.S. energy production would fall and prices would rise. “And the biggest winner in all of this: China, who’s paying the bills,” he said. However, Cruz’s office has not offered evidence that China or a China-linked nonprofit that Cruz identified by name has funded climate lawsuits in the United States. A spokesperson for Cruz, Macarena Martinez, provided NPR with a response from ChatGPT that reads, in part: “What’s not publicly demonstrated (so far) is a direct, documented grant-to-lawsuit pipeline.” Cruz’s unsubstantiated claim is part of a yearslong effort by the fossil-fuel industry and its allies to fight lawsuits that state and local governments have filed against oil and gas companies, according to environmental advocates and Democratic lawmakers. The litigation alleges that corporations misled the public for decades about the dangers of burning fossil fuels, the primary cause of climate change. The lawsuits seek money to help communities cope with the risks and harms from global warming, including more extreme storms, floods and heat waves. For years, Republican lawmakers have probed the funding sources for America’s environmental movement. That scrutiny has focused more recently on climate litigation as cases proliferated around the country. This summer, a group of Republican state attorneys general called for a federal law to protect energy companies from “activist-funded climate lawsuits.” Ryan Meyers, general counsel for the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group for the oil and gas industry, said in a statement to NPR that the climate lawsuits are “baseless” and a “coordinated campaign” against energy companies. “Climate policy belongs in Congress,” Meyers said, “not a patchwork of courtrooms.” The American Petroleum Institute would not comment on the record about Cruz’s allegation that China is funding the lawsuits. John Chung-En Liu, an associate professor of sociology at National Taiwan University who has studied Chinese climate propaganda on social media, says framing U.S. climate litigation as a China-funded campaign is “an easy tactic” to whip up opposition. “China doesn’t have a very good name in Washington, D.C.,” Liu says, and Beijing does try to influence politics and public opinion globally on a range of issues. China’s embassy in Washington did not respond to messages seeking comment for this story. Sen. Ted Cruz departs a meeting with Senate Republicans in the U.S. Capitol in June. Cruz has claimed that China is funding climate lawsuits in the United States. His office has not offered evidence to support that allegation. (Al Drago/Getty Images | Getty Images North America)‘We should be very careful to actually know what’s real and what’s not’ The alleged funding scheme that Cruz described in June revolves around a nonprofit called Energy Foundation China. Headquartered in San Francisco with an office in Beijing, the group is led by a former official at China’s National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation. Last year, GOP lawmakers asked Energy Foundation China for documents related to its funding of U.S. organizations. At the Senate hearing this summer, Cruz said Energy Foundation China is “one of the primary vehicles” for an international alliance between “leftist billionaires, radical environmental organizations and the Chinese Communist Party.” “And this money isn’t going to tree-planting campaigns or to science fairs,” Cruz said. “It’s flowing directly to aggressive litigation outfits, like the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Rocky Mountain Institute and the World Resources Institute.” Energy Foundation China has given money to all three of those groups, according to tax filings. But Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, said at the June hearing that Cruz hadn’t provided evidence that the money was used to pay for U.S. lawsuits — as opposed to trying to cut climate pollution in China. “If it turns out that China is supporting lawsuits in the United States, that would be extremely troubling. And so I think we should be very careful to actually know what’s real and what’s not,” says Ilaria Mazzocco, a senior fellow who focuses on Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. A spokesperson for the Rocky Mountain Institute, Adam Beitman, said in a statement to NPR that the nonprofit does not participate in litigation, and that all of the funding it has received from Energy Foundation China “is focused squarely on the energy transition inside of China.” A spokesperson for the World Resources Institute, Alison Cinnamond, said her organization does not participate in litigation, nor does it direct legal action by other groups. “WRI’s work in China focuses on issues like air quality, sustainable cities, energy efficiency, and resilience — areas that are essential for global well-being,” Cinnamond said in a statement. Michael Wall, the chief litigation officer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, says the nonprofit has used funding from Energy Foundation China exclusively for programs to cut climate pollution in China. In the U.S., NRDC has sued government agencies and corporations that have violated environmental laws, Wall says, and the nonprofit is defending state laws in New York and Vermont to force fossil fuel companies to help cover the costs of climate change. An executive at Energy Foundation China, Vance Wagner, said in a statement that the nonprofit is an independent organization that funds research and other initiatives to address climate change in China, which is the biggest source of heat-trapping pollution globally. Wagner said the group doesn’t fund or engage in activism, litigation or lobbying in any country. An oil pumpjack is seen near a field of wind turbines in Nolan, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images | Getty Images North America)Republican attorneys general want to shield energy companies from lawsuits Days before Cruz accused China of bankrolling the climate cases, more than a dozen Republican state attorneys general sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi asking the Justice Department to recommend federal legislation to give energy companies a “liability shield” to protect them from climate litigation. The Justice Department’s Office of Policy and Legislation is charged with developing legislative proposals, among other duties. Earlier this month, for example, the department sent Congress proposed legislation that would prohibit doctors from providing gender-affirming care to children. In the letter to Bondi, the Republican attorneys general wrote that the legal protection they want to create for energy companies is similar to a 2005 law called the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which generally shields gun manufacturers and dealers from civil lawsuits when firearms are used in criminal activity. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican who signed the letter to Bondi, then served as an expert witness at Cruz’s hearing about China. “I think that where Congress can be helpful in these [climate] cases is in getting to the bottom of where the money is coming from,” Kobach said at the hearing. Cruz’s allegation of Chinese funding was designed “to create political cover” for Congress to give fossil fuel companies legal immunity from climate litigation, says Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, which supports climate lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry by filing legal briefs and providing plaintiffs with documents. The Justice Department did not respond to messages seeking comment. So far, the climate lawsuits filed by states and localities have had mixed results. Some cases have been dismissed by judges who ruled that climate pollution is an issue for the federal government to deal with. But other lawsuits are moving toward trial. In January, the Supreme Court rejected an effort by oil and gas companies to block a climate lawsuit filed by Honolulu. And in March the justices turned down a request by Republican attorneys general to stop climate lawsuits filed by states including California, Connecticut, Minnesota and Rhode Island. “All these communities are asking is that the oil industry pay their fair share of the damages that they knowingly cause,” Wiles says. “It’s completely reasonable.” In a legal brief challenging a lawsuit that Boulder, Colorado filed against oil and gas companies, the Justice Department recently told the Supreme Court that allowing climate litigation to move forward in state courts exposes energy companies to billions of dollars in damages, as well as a confusing assortment of local regulations. Workers carry solar panels this spring to be installed in the desert in China’s northern Ningxia region. China is the world’s biggest producer of green technology, like solar panels and electric vehicles. (STR/AFP via Getty Images | AFP)Lawsuit critics say oil and gas companies are victims of Big Philanthropy Opponents of the climate lawsuits have long claimed that activists and deep-pocketed philanthropies have been colluding with Democratic politicians to hurt U.S. oil and gas companies. In 2023, Cruz and Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, asked for financial information from Sher Edling, a law firm that’s filed many of the climate lawsuits brought by states and localities. Last year, The Free Beacon, a conservative news site, published a Congressional memo that detailed funding that several nonprofits have given to Sher Edling. Since that money came from tax-exempt organizations, taxpayers effectively have been “bearing the cost” of Sher Edling’s legal work, according to the memo, which was written by Republican staffers on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. The memo added: “Although not illegal, this structure allows the green mafia to achieve its political goals while lowering its tax bill.” The Congressional memo names three nonprofits that gave money to Sher Edling: New Venture Fund, the Tides Foundation and Resources Legacy Fund. Tax filings show that all three got funding from Energy Foundation China, but two of them got those grants before they started funding Sher Edling. Of the three, Resources Legacy Fund in 2017 got $185,00 from Energy Foundation China, according to an Energy Foundation China tax filing. The money was meant “to promote education and analysis to build markets for clean, affordable energy that protects public health.” That same year, Resources Legacy Fund gave Sher Edling about $432,000 for “land or marine conservation,” according to a Resources Legacy Fund tax filing. Resources Legacy Fund did not respond to messages seeking comment. Neither did the Tides Foundation. New Venture Fund declined to comment. Sher Edling declined to comment for this story. Wall of the Natural Resources Defense Council rejected the idea that philanthropic funding has unfairly disadvantaged oil and gas companies in court. “There’s simply no comparison between the resources the oil industry has and the resources that nonprofits have,” he says. “Litigation is a way for people to participate in the governmental process by working to ensure that the laws that protect them are enforced and carried out.” In a letter to Cruz and Comer last year that was obtained by NPR, a lawyer for Sher Edling wrote that fossil fuel companies that are defendants in the climate cases “fear that the communities will prevail in those lawsuits — and so they now hope that you will run interference for them. Respectfully, you should not.” When Cruz accused China of funding U.S. climate lawsuits this summer, he said Beijing’s goal is to establish “global energy dominance and control.” China is the world’s biggest producer of green technology, like solar panels and electric vehicles. And Republican lawmakers and conservative activists for years have argued that climate policies that shift the U.S. away from fossil fuels would make America dependent on Chinese supply chains. But Liu of National Taiwan University says Beijing is probably content to have the U.S. focus on oil and gas, rather than to challenge China in other parts of the energy market. “China wants to be the leader in the key technology in the future, so that they don’t have to be controlled by the West,” Liu says, adding: “If we are following this train of thought, then they will prefer [the] U.S. not taking climate very seriously, and let China take over all the EVs, take over solar and wind.”

Climate
Activism
Conservation

As UN Climate Talks Loom in Brazil, Many Would-Be Participants Fear They Can't Afford to Attend

With less than two months until this year's United Nations climate change conference, many prospective attendees are still looking for housing in the small Brazilian host city of Belem

Pooja Tilvawala knows it's a gamble to use more than $46,000 of her own savings to help young people get to the United Nations climate summit in Brazil. But she thinks it’s a necessary one.As national delegations, activists and other attendees struggle to find affordable places to stay by November, with some deciding not to go at all, Tilvawala, who lives in London, has spent hours working from afar to find lodging in Belem, negotiate prices and contracts and put down deposits. She did all that to create a housing portal specifically for young people who want to be part of the international conference. If not enough people sign up for the housing she’s secured, she might lose some of what she’s put down. “There’s always a huge number of fossil fuel company representatives there. And who’s going to be there to combat those voices and those negotiating influences?” said Tilvawala, founder and executive director of the global organization Youth Climate Collaborative. “So I was like, ‘We need to be here.’”With less than two months before this year's Conference of the Parties, or COP30, only about 36% of the 196 participating countries have confirmed attendance and paid for accommodations, according to a spokesperson for the conference presidency. Activists and poorer nations are feeling the crunch as hotel prices have skyrocketed and even private homes, love motels and other makeshift accommodation options are charging a minimum of several hundred dollars a night. Many haven't confirmed housing yet, and the pressure is on The Brazilian government has taken steps to address the problem. Climate Minister Marina Silva said 10 to 20 rooms have been made available “at accessible prices” for vulnerable countries. The government has also brought in two large cruise shops that can house as many as 6,000 people. “Everybody will have access to participate in COP30," Silva said at a recent press briefing. “Facing climate change must be done by all of us, by all the parties of the convention and especially by those who are already living the consequences of climate change.”But U.N. Climate Change executive secretary Simon Stiell sent a letter on Sept. 9 asking that agencies in the U.N. system, and related organizations, review how many people they're sending to COP30 and reduce it where possible.To add to the pressure, a construction workers’ strike started Sept. 15 and includes areas being worked on for COP30. A challenge for a city chosen to illustrate climate realities Belem was initially excited to host the conference, said Arnaldo Vaz Neto, a Brazilian financial advisor who has been working with an organization called the Young Scholars Initiative as an intermediary between locals and COP30 visitors seeking housing. “It’s kind of taught in our childhood to have this behavior of hospitality," he said. But that was followed by the realization that the United Nations had high international standards for its guests. It was difficult to manage expectations on both sides, Vaz Neto said.Belem isn't the only city hosting a U.N. climate conference where lodging rates have gone far higher than usual. Silva said it's happened at nearly all such conferences, with prices three or even four times market rates.“A lot of people here are expecting to charge $1,000 a night but that’s beyond the average,” Hugo Pinheiro, a secretary who works for K Pine Mobile in Belem, and has worked to match delegations with housing and to negotiate on prices.The “accessible” rooms made available by the Brazilian government will rent for between $200 and $600 a night, according to a COP30 presidency spokesperson. Brazilian officials have expressed confidence that all 196 nations will find housing and come to Belem. In a statement, the presidency said it expects 50,000 participants and Belem currently offers 53,000 beds. That's fewer people than recent COPs, even though the Brazil meeting is considered one of the most important negotiations in years because countries have to update and strengthen their carbon pollution plans. Still, housing is making it more difficult for people from some poorer countries and Indigenous groups to attend, as well as for those that traditionally attend COP outside of a country delegation, including activists, NGO and nonprofit groups and youth observers. Some organizations that represent them expect to send fewer people.Hailey Campbell leads Care About Climate, a youth-oriented NGO that was one of the first of its kind to be accredited to attend COP over 10 years ago. Campbell said her group has “never faced such difficulties with access to accommodation." The group posted about the issue on Instagram with the hashtag “#DontPriceUsOut.”Many individual attendees have already decided they can't come. Others are on the fence. Some who will attend are considering options like camping in a tent.This year Hikaru Hayakawa said he's heard from more people who have decided not to go than he remembers at this time in years past — already maybe 30 or 40 people, by his estimate.That's worrisome because many activists from other countries will now miss out on experiencing the strong civil society culture in Brazil, said Hayakawa, executive director of Climate Cardinals, which translates climate information and trains young people. “It could potentially be lost opportunity to build these global networks," he said.The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – Sept. 2025

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Climate

A Whale's Worth

The Canary Islands are a whale Paradise. Their waters hold more than a third of the world’s species, making it the most important enclave in the European Union, and one of the most relevant globally.Today, this paradise is being threatened by different human pressures, such as boat collisions, plastic consumption and climate change. This struggle aggravates their mortality each year and makes us face ourselves as the ones responsible for their survival, forcing us to rethink how much we value these animals currently.How much is a whale worth? Can you put a price on the life of such a majestic animal? How can we estimate that value? How has the value that human beings give to whales changed throughout history? What are whales used and needed for?To answer all these questions, Natacha Aguilar, an eminent Canarian scientist and whale expert, backed up by a group of scientists and non-profit organizations, will guide us in a spectacular journey through time and space to discover the never-told stories of the lives of these animals.

Animals
Culture
Climate

Living with Landslides

This film documents the devastating costs of landslides to both private property owners and taxpayers, and offers solutions. Climate change means landslides will only get worse.

Land Use
Education
Climate

Heimat - Requiem For The World As We Know It

Four theater-makers from Belgium travel to the melting glaciers on Greenland. Their goal: to play a new composed requiem and say goodbye to the world as we know it.

Music
Culture
Climate

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