They’ll be hoping to advance progress despite growing concerns that multilateral co-operation is on the brink.

The COP30 conference marks three decades since global climate negotiations began. In that time, countries have curbed the projected climb in emissions somewhat, but not enough to prevent what scientists consider extreme global warming in the next few decades.

Over two days, Brazil’s COP30 presidency has lined up 53 heads of state to deliver speeches, along with more than 40 subnational leaders. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to be among them.

Missing from the lineup are the leaders of four of the world’s five most-polluting economies, China, the United States (US), India and Russia, with only the leader of the European Union showing up.

But unlike the others, the climate-denying US administration has opted to send no one to the talks. Some said the absence of the US may free countries to discuss action without any one player dominating the outcome.

“Without the US present, we can actually see a real multilateral conversation happening,” said Pedro Abramovay, Vice President of programs at Open Society Foundations and a former Justice Minister under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

He noted that Lula, in general, had been engaging with leaders outside of Latin America in China, Africa, Southeast Asia and Europe on the topic.

On Thursday, Lula planned to hold bilateral meetings with United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, after meeting one-on-one on Wednesday with the Chinese Vice Premier and leaders from Finland and the European Union.

–Reuters–