The next UN Climate Change Conference - COP30 in Brazil

 
The 30th Conference of the Parties (COP) for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will be hosted by Brazil from 10th to 21st November 2025 in Belem, the capital of the state of Para. The city is located close to the Amazon, a crucial location given the climate change impacts on that crucial ecosystem and life resource.  There has been disquiet in the UN about the venue for COP30 as Belem is regarded as economically poor with limited capacity for dealing with an international conference of the size and scale of the COPs. For example, additional transport routes have had to be constructed for COP30 straining resources in Belem and including road construction in the Amazon itself.

Brazil holds the presidency for COP30 and has called for a course-correction as efforts to address climate change and meet agreed commitments are falling well behind stating: "the world must exponentially scale and speed up efforts to meet the commitments we have made".

The second global stocktake will take place  at COP30 measuring countries progress towards meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement. The first stocktake occured at COP28 and the results were far from reassuring. 

Brazil has proposed an action agenda for COP30 comprising six themes with a total of 30 objectives. The six themes are:

1. Transitioning Energy, Industry and Transport
2. Stewarding Forests, Oceans and Biodiversity
3. Transforming Agriculture and Food Systems
4. Building Resiliance for Cities, Infrastructure and Water
5. Fostering Human and Social Development
6. Cross-cutting issues - Unleashing Enablers and Accelerators, including on Finance, Technology and Capacity Building 

The sheer number of objectives and the wide scale of the themes appear far too ambitious and complex to achieve meaningful results and complete international agreement. Tangible results and concrete international cooperation are now essential given the increasingly dire situation.

The COP30 website can be accessed: COP30 Website 

Environmental contamination on the Earth - PFAS chemicals and a new acid rain

                                                          Nature (c) 

Science journal Nature has published further evidence of the prevasive impact of PFAS chemicals in the environment with the detection of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) across the world in lakes, rivers, bottled water, beer, cereal crops, animal livers, human blood, urine and so on. It's been found in leaves and needles trees in Germany, Canadian Arctic ice cores and ground water in Denmark. The concentration levels of TFA are rising with concerning increases being five to ten-fold in plants in some countries as one consequence. The graph above from Nature illustrates the increase. 

TFA is being distributed around the world through rain and snow. Wherever it rains, TFA comes with the water. 

TFA is a defined as a 'forever chemical'  as natural processes cannot break the strong carbon-fluorine bonds, a charcteristics of many of the PFAS substances. What is not clear is the health and environment impact on living things on the planet from the long term exposure to this chemical. Other PFAS chemicals have already been found to be carcinogenic. Continuing surveillence is warranted.