LONDON — Europe’s leaders have discovered yet another hill they are unwilling to die on: their long-held dream of a world fighting climate change together. President Donald Trump launched his most far-reaching attack on the international climate process Wednesday by ordering the U.S. to withdraw from the 1992 treaty that underpins most global attempts to stave off global warming. It means the world’s richest country and second-largest greenhouse gas emitter will play no further part in United Nations-led efforts to mitigate climate change — a position that could prove impossible to reverse by a future U.S. administration. European leaders might, then, have been expected to respond with loud condemnation. But the silence was deafening. Ursula von der Leyen? Schtum. Keir Starmer? Crickets. Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, was low-key. On Thursday, in a speech to French diplomats, the French president admitted the U.S. attacks on multilateralism, including Wednesday’s pledge to withdraw from 66 international organizations spanning environmental, social and human rights issues — the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) among them — “weakens all the bodies through which we can resolve common issues.” But Macron warned his officials: “We are not here to comment, we are here to act … If we have an intelligent response to offer, we do so. If we don’t have an intelligent response to offer, we look elsewhere.” It’s a far cry from 2017, when leaders across Europe lined up to hammer Trump for ditching the Paris Agreement — a less serious violation of the international regime, given there are now questions about whether the U.S. will ever be able to rejoin the UNFCCC, in which the Paris Agreement resides. But the world looks very different now than it did in 2017. Climate change concerns have been sucked into the black hole of Trump’s geopolitical tumult, and even if Europeans feel aggrieved, little sign of it has escaped the event horizon. “With Europeans still critically reliant on U.S. intelligence and being able to purchase U.S. arms to ensure Ukraine’s survival, it makes no sense to criticize Trump’s latest assault on combating climate change, just as they haven’t criticized the Venezuela operation,” said Robin Niblett, former director of the Chatham House foreign affairs think tank.  PICK YOUR BATTLES EU leaders have demonstrated this week that violations of international law and multilateral trust are way below the bar for confronting the Trump administration. Only a direct threat to invade European territory in Greenland has stirred Europe’s leaders to respond. “This is the bigger picture we’re seeing — European leaders essentially sort of pick their battles in this environment, and unfortunately, the UNFCCC process isn’t their biggest priority right now,” said Susi Dennison, senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.  “The White House doesn’t care about environment, health or suffer[ing] of people,” Teresa Ribera said on social media. | Oscar del Pozo/AFP via Getty Images On top of that, she added, Trump’s attacks on climate action have lost their shock value. Wednesday’s announcement is “consistent with the withdrawal from climate action as a specific goal of the administration,” she said.  Officials in the offices of the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and the European Commission declined requests from POLITICO to comment on the announcement that the U.S. would ditch the UNFCCC and also withdraw from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U.N. climate science body, and the Green Climate Fund.  The response was left to a smattering of lowly environment ministers, who expressed a mixture of exasperation and anger but very little shock at the announcement. (German Climate Minister Carsten Schneider simply noted that it “comes as no surprise.”)  One of the most prominent criticisms came from European Commission Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera, a Spanish socialist who is one of the EU executive’s most outspoken advocates for strong climate action. “The White House doesn’t care about environment, health or suffer[ing] of people,” she said on social media. Meanwhile, in the U.K., the populist right-wing Reform party, currently leading in the polls, said Britain should follow suit and ditch the climate treaty. EUROPE ALONE Schneider, the German minister, also echoed a common view in saying the move would leave the U.S. isolated on the international stage. But Washington’s exit also leaves the Europeans without a key ally in global negotiations.  Europe discovered what it meant for the U.S. to be absent from U.N. climate talks in Brazil last year when the Trump administration decided to send no delegates. A coalition of emerging economies effectively quashed any chance that the conference would make meaningful advances or that the Europeans would pursue their agenda. Legal opinions vary on whether a U.S. reentry to the UNFCCC would be as straightforward as a presidential decree or if it would require the U.S. Senate to ratify the deal, as it did in the early 1990s. The chance of a lockout raises the prospect of a permanent rebalancing of power inside the U.N. climate process. The Trump administration’s withdrawal from the IPCC comes as it drafts its next round of vital climate science reports. While the move doesn’t stop individual U.S. scientists from contributing, Washington will not get to influence the report summaries that end up informing policymakers, which need to be signed off on by all governments.  As with the U.N. climate talks, others may step into the vacuum to take advantage of the U.S. absence. But Dennison thinks it won’t be the Europeans.  “I’m no longer even remotely optimistic that Europe is capable right now of playing that role,” she said, pointing to the growing divisions over climate action among EU governments and the rollbacks of key green legislation over the past year. “I don’t think that Europeans are going to step into any void.” Karl Mathiesen and Charlie Cooper reported from London. Zia Weise reported from Brussels. Josh Groeneveld contributed reporting from Berlin. Nicolas Camut contributed reporting from Paris. Emilio Casaliccio contributed reporting from London.

BRUSSELS — The European Union will “think twice” before considering backing weak agreements at COP climate summits in the future, a Polish negotiator has warned. At this year’s COP30 climate conference in Brazil, the EU struggled to find allies to push for more ambitious climate action, and at one point threatened to walk away without signing a deal. The United States, its historical partner, was notably absent from the meeting. That’s a lesson learned, according to Katarzyna Wrona, Poland’s negotiator in the talks, who was also part of the EU’s delegation at the summit. “This COP happened in a very difficult geopolitical situation … We felt a very strong pressure from emerging economies but also from other parties, on financing, on trade,” she said at POLITICO’s Sustainable Future Summit. And “we had to really think very carefully whether we were in a position to support [the final deal], and we did, for the sake of multilateralism,” she added. “But I’m not sure … that the EU will be ready to take [this position] in the future,” Wrona warned. “Because something has changed, and we will surely think twice before we evaluate a deal that does not really bring much in terms of following up on the commitments that were undertaken,” she said. Also speaking on the panel, Elif Gökçe Öz, environmental counsellor at the permanent delegation of Turkey to the EU, said it would “be important for the EU … to forge alternative alliances in the COP negotiation process,” as global power dynamics shift. Wrona replied that the EU is “ready to work” with those that show ambition to reduce their emissions. “But it has to be very clearly … that the support is not limitless and it’s not unconditional,” she added.

BRUSSELS — The European Union’s environment ministers struck a deal watering down a proposed 2040 target for cutting planet-warming emissions and set a new 2035 climate plan. Following marathon negotiations all day Tuesday and into Wednesday morning, ministers unanimously approved the bloc’s long-overdue climate plan, rescuing the EU from the international embarrassment of showing up empty handed this month’s COP30 summit. The plan, which is a requirement under the Paris Agreement, sets a new goal to slash EU emissions between 66.25 percent and 72.5 percent below 1990 levels until 2035. That plan is not legally binding but sets the direction of EU climate policy for the coming five years. The range is similar to an informal statement that the EU presented at a climate summit in New York in September. Ministers also adopted a legally-binding target for cutting emissions in the EU by 85 percent by 2040. The deal mandates that another 5 percent reduction be achieved by outsourcing pollution cuts abroad through the purchase of international carbon credits. On top of that, governments would be allowed to use credits to outsource another 5 percentage points of their national emissions reduction goals. Ministers also backed a wide-ranging review clause that allows the EU to adjust its 2040 target in the future if climate policy proves to have negative impacts on the EU’s economy. The deal also foresees a one-year delay to the implementation of the EU’s new carbon market for heating and car emissions, which is set to start in 2027. Hungary, Slovakia and Poland did not support the 2040 deal, while Bulgaria and Belgium abstained. The rest of the EU27 countries backed it. Lawmakers in the European Parliament now have to agree on their own position on the 2040 climate target and negotiate with the Council of the EU before the target becomes law. 

The Trump administration is ramping up the pressure on the European Union to repeal or overhaul a regulation on corporations’ greenhouse gas pollution — in the latest example of the United States’ willingness to wield its economic might against an international climate initiative. It comes less than a week after the U.S. scored a surprising victory over a proposed United Nations climate fee on shipping, in what one Trump Cabinet member described Wednesday as an “all hands on deck” lobbying blitz. In its newest effort, the Energy Department joined the government of Qatar in warning the EU that it’s risking higher prices for “critical energy supplies” unless it alters or deletes its Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. “It is our genuine belief, as allies and friends of the EU, that the CSDDD will cause considerable harm to the EU and its citizens, as it will lead to higher energy and other commodity prices, and have a chilling effect on investment and trade,” the department and the Qataris said in an open letter Wednesday to European heads of state and EU members. During a press conference later in the day, European Commission spokesperson Markus Lammert declined to discuss the European Parliament’s negotiations over the climate directive. The new pressure on the EU comes after months of attempts by President Donald Trump and his appointees to blunt climate regulations at home and abroad that threaten to impinge on U.S. “dominance” in fossil fuels. And lately he’s succeeded in drawing some countries to the United States’ side. ‘WIN FOR THE WORLD’ On Friday, U.S. pressure succeeded in thwarting a proposal by U.N.’s International Maritime Organization to impose the first worldwide tax on climate pollution from shipping. The maritime body had been widely expected to adopt the shipping fee at a meeting in London, but instead it postponed the initiative for at least a year. Fellow petro-giants Russia and Saudi Arabia lobbied for the pause, and EU members Greece and Cyprus helped that effort by abstaining from the final vote. The aftermath of that vote continued to affect European climate diplomacy this week, temporarily upending internal EU discussions about the bloc’s negotiating position for next month’s COP30 summit in Brazil. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins were exultant Wednesday in outlining the pressure they had brought to bear to block the maritime fee. Wright said he phoned 20 countries while Rollins handled nations such as Antigua and Jamaica in what she characterized as an “all hands on deck” effort. The effort also included Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Wright said. Wright added that he had personally written a Truth Social message that Trump posted the night before the vote, in which the president warned that the “United States will NOT stand for this Global Green New Scam Tax on Shipping.” (Trump changed “three or four words on it,” the secretary said.) “We’re going to come back to realistic views on energy,” Wright said at an event hosted by America First Policy Institute. “That’s a win not just for America, that’s a win for the world.” EUROPEAN CLIMATE PRESSURE The EU has already said it will not scrap its corporate climate directive, though it may dismantle a civil liability provision in a bid to simplify the law. But revising the directive has been a challenge for Europe because lawmakers are divided on how far to roll back sustainability reporting obligations for companies. The rule, which the EU put into force last year but still needs to be adopted by member states, would require companies to identify and address adverse human rights and environmental impacts of their actions inside and outside Europe. Europe’s move to wean itself off Russian energy supplies since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has forced the continent to increase its reliance on U.S. liquefied natural gas imports. But U.S. gas producers have warned that the climate directive will increase the cost of doing business with customers in the EU. In the letter, DOE and Qatar said the climate directive “poses a significant risk to the affordability and reliability of critical energy supplies for households and businesses across Europe and an existential threat to the future growth, competitiveness, and resilience of the EU’s industrial economy.” The governments also advise the EU to repeal the directive or, barring that, rewrite key provisions dealing with the penalties and civil liabilities for companies that don’t comply with the regulation. The U.S. and Qatar also want the Europeans to change language requiring companies to provide transition plans for climate change mitigation. Marianne Gros contributed to this report from Brussels.

BRUSSELS — Sorry, guys. We’ll get back to you. That’s the message the European Union is expected to deliver at a pivotal climate summit of world leaders next week after the bloc’s countries were unable to agree on a plan to reduce planet-warming emissions by 2035. Failure to submit a target to the United Nations this month would undermine the EU’s ability to influence the efforts of other nations and result in diplomatic embarrassment for the bloc, which has long claimed a leadership role in global climate talks — particularly as China is expected to present its plan on time.  But EU governments, who have to unanimously approve the 2035 plan mandated by the Paris Agreement, are at odds over how to arrive at the target.  As a result, Denmark, the country currently chairing negotiations among governments, suggested to other countries on Tuesday that the EU will merely send a “statement of intent” to the U.N. instead of submitting the required formal plan.  The Danes now expect the EU’s 27 environment ministers to finalize and approve the statement of intent at their meeting in Brussels on Thursday. Three diplomats briefed on Tuesday’s talks said that while ministers may discuss a formal plan, there is virtually no chance of approving it.  This means the EU will miss the U.N.’s end-of-September deadline to submit an official 2035 target. Instead, if greenlit by ministers on Thursday, the bloc will show up at a Sept. 24 summit on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly with only a promise to eventually deliver a goal.  A spokesperson for the Danish negotiating team said that Copenhagen “received broad support for our approach of exploring a statement of intent,” as this “would ensure that [the] EU does not go to [the] U.N. climate summit empty-handed.”  But the Danes also said they were “aware of different positions on the exact content,” and the three diplomats said that Thursday’s ministerial summit would involve difficult negotiations to reach a consensus. The statement as drafted by Denmark proposes a temporary emissions-cutting target of between 66.3 percent and 72.5 percent below 1990 levels by 2035. EU countries would have to agree on a definitive target at a later date.  While too late for the U.N. deadline, this approach gives Denmark another chance to secure support for the more ambitious target. To achieve that, they will have to find a landing ground among sharply divergent views held by governments.  The EU had intended to derive a 2035 goal of 72.5 percent from a new 2040 milestone that is currently being negotiated. That plan was derailed by disagreements over the 2040 legislation. On Friday, Denmark postponed a vote scheduled for this week after major countries blocked progress.  Some countries, such as Poland, have advocated for the EU to submit the range as the formal target, which would not be unusual: Brazil, the host of this year’s COP30 climate summit, has done so.  But for the EU, it would nevertheless represent a weaker goal, as it would see the EU effectively commit to a 66.3 percent target, while leaving open the possibility for further improvement.  For that reason, another group of countries is fiercely opposed to disconnecting the 2035 target from the 2040 goal.  Just when the EU will submit its finalized plan to the U.N. remains unclear. The Danish statement insists that the bloc will do so before COP30 starts in early November.  EU countries agreed last week to host a debate among national leaders, scheduled for Oct. 23, before agreeing on a 2040 target. That will leave just two weeks to then strike a deal on both goals ahead of the summit in Brazil.

LONDON — Britain and France may not have the greatest track record when it comes to peace and amity, but Emmanuel Macron is about to be showered with love from the very top.  Nobody does pomp and circumstance quite like the British. Macron — who arrives in the U.K. for a state visit Tuesday — will be treated to the works: a royal salute before a carriage procession to Windsor Castle. That’s not to mention the regimental band, guard of honor and state banquet being laid on for the French head of state. The lavish royal welcome is being deployed to make a clear point — namely, that U.K.-French relations are back on track after years of Brexit bad blood, while offering the two main protagonists a chance to publicly demonstrate their friendship.  The monarch and the French president have a long-standing and close relationship. Macron visited Charles as prince of Wales, and the pair discussed their shared interest in climate diplomacy. The king is no stranger to sending a well-planned political signal, and can be expected to hail the two countries’ progress toward resetting post-Brexit relations, their continued support for Ukraine and their shared goals on climate change. And with Macron approaching the final years of his time in office, the trip represents a chance for the French president to project his power on the world stage — as well as offer a subtle reminder of what the alternative to him could be. That makes it very much the Charles and Macron show. One former British diplomat, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said it was fortunate U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer “doesn’t really have an ego,” clearing the way for the king and the president to make the big diplomatic moves this week. CROSS-CHANNEL LOVEFEST The king’s love for France is well-known, and the French establishment seems to love the king back.  Charles has continued in the tradition of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who visited France frequently and met every French president from Vincent Auriol to Macron. The king has made more than 35 official visits to the country since the 1970s, speaks French fluently, and received Macron several times when he was prince of Wales. For his part, Macron made one of the most memorable tributes given by any international political figure after the queen’s death, saying: “To you, she was your queen. To us, she was THE queen.”  Flags on official buildings in France were flown at half mast and the French president went to the British Embassy in Paris to sign a book of condolence. While he is staying at Windsor, Macron will pay a private visit to Elizabeth’s tomb. The Macrons threw a star-studded banquet at the Palace of Versailles, and for the Champagne toasts that night served Pol Roger “Sir Winston Churchill” 2013. | Christophe Petit Tesson/EFE via EPA This show of support did not go unnoticed in Buckingham Palace, according to officials in Paris. Both sides were sorely disappointed when Charles was forced to cancel his first state visit as king in March 2023 because of social unrest in France and were determined to make the most of it when he eventually attended that September. The Macrons threw a star-studded banquet at the Palace of Versailles, and for the Champagne toasts that night served Pol Roger “Sir Winston Churchill” 2013.  When Charles addressed the French Senate during that visit, he said: “France has been an essential part of the fabric of my own life for as long as I can remember.” The speech, delivered largely in French, earned him a standing ovation. Peter Ricketts, former U.K. ambassador to the France, said that Macron “gets on very well with the king — there’s really a genuine relationship there, based on lots of talks over the years on climate change.” Menna Rawlings, the serving British ambassador to France, said in advance of the visit that it would be a “significant moment” for the two nations, with the “quite rare” honor “normally reserved for the most important bilateral relationships.” CHARLES’ CHOICES While the full might of the royal household will be activated to show how much Britain and France have in common, Charles’ words will still be closely watched for any hints about where he thinks the two allies have further to go.  The same former diplomat quoted above said officials would be tuned in for any mention of backing for Ukraine or Starmer’s “reset” of relations between the U.K. and the EU. “Look at what the king has done on Canada and on Ukraine without saying a word,” they observed, referring to his recent show of solidarity with the British Commonwealth nation and with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the face of Donald Trump’s disfavor.  Charles’ biographer Robert Hardman pointed out that a state visit would not be the place for “anything specific about particular country’s policies,” but the king’s speeches always contain “a sort of general point about the importance of looking after the planet.” On this point, the two men may be on less comfortable territory than usual. They have bonded over their belief in environmental protection in the past, with Macron seeing himself as the custodian of the Paris climate accord. The French president is now, however, pushing for the rollback of some EU-wide decarbonization targets. The stickier stuff — such as continued wrangling over how to tackle illegal migration, and a host of EU-wide issues such as touring rights and youth mobility — will be left to Macron’s audience with Starmer. They have bonded over their belief in environmental protection in the past, with Macron seeing himself as the custodian of the Paris climate accord. | Pool photo by Ludovic Marin/EFE via EPA The British prime minister, like Macron, may be all too keen to absorb himself in the trappings of an international summit at a difficult moment in his premiership. While the British prime minister struggles to push through planned cuts to public spending and tax rises loom, Macron’s government is struggling to get any legislation passed by a paralyzed parliament. In recent months, the French president has pivoted more and more toward the international stage, holding conversations with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Trump and other world leaders, with conflicts in Ukraine and tensions in the Middle East top of his agenda. Macron used to rule supreme in French politics but now sees his interventions in national politics challenged, even by his allies. When he dressed down a minister last week, one of Macron’s former ministers warned that such a move might expose him. “If his orders don’t produce any effects, it will illustrate his total powerlessness,” the former minister said. Whether for reasons of celebrating friendship or avoiding domestic woes, nobody will be in a rush to leave the banquet table this week. Annabelle Dickson and Anthony Lattier contributed to this report.

BONN, Germany — For two weeks, a single concern dominated corridor chatter at this year’s midyear climate talks on the Rhine.  It wasn’t anything on the negotiating table. It wasn’t the unprecedented absence of the United States. It wasn’t even finance, the perennial hot topic at climate talks. Instead, the question on everyone’s minds in Bonn was whether diplomats would have a roof over their head in November.  Brazil, the hosts of this year’s COP30 United Nations climate summit, plans to hold the massive global conference in the port city of Belém, on the border of the Amazon, to showcase the rainforest’s central role in stabilizing the planetary climate.  But their chosen venue has never organized an event of this scale. And Belém, Bethlehem in Portuguese, just doesn’t have enough room at the inn.  Already, hotels have sold out in record time — and what’s left is astronomically priced, threatening to exclude low-income countries and civil society from the pivotal conference. Delegates might now find themselves staying in converted schools, military barracks or rented cruise ships. There’s a chance they’ll have to share rooms, despite forking over more than $1,000 a night.  Even rich countries are balking at the cost. No European delegation POLITICO spoke to in Bonn had booked their accommodation.  The COP30 logistics now threaten to cast a gloom over Brazil’s conference, having already overshadowed negotiations at the talks in the western German capital, where delegations wrapped up preparations on Thursday for the main summit in November.  “Everything is overwhelmed by logistics, and we’re concerned that might hinder negotiations,” said a senior Latin American diplomat. “We don’t have accommodation, no one has accommodation.”  A senior European negotiator said: “They’ve known for years they would host. We’re very concerned there’s no clarity.”  While most diplomats declined to be quoted on the record about their concerns, and were therefore granted anonymity, some vented their frustrations in public.  “We are worried,” wrote Panama’s climate envoy Juan Carlos Monterrey. “Worried that COP30 might become the most inaccessible COP in recent memory. Worried that developing countries, small island states, Indigenous voices, and civil society will not be adequately represented — if represented at all.”  The question on everyone’s minds at the midyear climate talks in Bonn was whether diplomats would have anywhere to stay in Belém in November. | Christopher Neundorf/EFE via EPA Brazil, meanwhile, said it was listening to countries’ concerns and would address them before the summit.  “We are confident that we will solve this problem about logistics, and everybody will be coming in at a reasonable price,” Ana Toni, the CEO of COP30, told POLITICO. “Because it’s in our interest.”  BUNKING UP Diplomats expressed reservations about Belém from the start.  Brazil has plenty of experience organizing international mega-events, from Olympic Games to international summits, including the Earth Summit that birthed the U.N. climate body. But not in Belém, where authorities are now scrambling to complete the necessary infrastructure by November.  In an April presentation sent to delegations and obtained by POLITICO, the Brazilian COP presidency said it “is working to strengthen accommodation capacities in hotels, vacation rentals, military buildings, schools and cruise ships.”  The past two COPs have set attendance records, with last year’s COP29 attracting more than 65,000 participants.  The Brazilians say only 50,000 people are expected for COP30. That’s roughly the number of beds the Brazilian authorities said they will provide. And yes, beds — not rooms.  “There will be more than 29,000 rooms and 55,000 beds available,” Brazil said last week.  That’s prompting concern among delegations that diplomats will have to bunk up.  Noting that COP negotiations often involve grueling schedules, the European Union told Brazil in a closed-door meeting in Bonn last week that it was “profoundly concerned regarding COP30 logistics,” according to a copy of the speech shared with POLITICO.  “The few hours of sleep that one can get in between are extremely precious, and key to a successful result of the negotiations. This means that negotiators cannot be asked nor expected to share rooms with each other,” the Europeans said.   The EU also raised concerns over commuting times between accommodations and the venue — some diplomats said the travel time could be an hour or longer — but above all, the cost. “We have been [in Bonn] now for almost a week, and in every conversation we’ve had, we hear how everyone’s preparations are overshadowed by rising costs and uncertainty around basic logistics, including transportation,” the EU said.  COST CONCERNS Hotel prices tend to soar in any city named as climate summit host — but Belém is extreme even by COP standards, diplomats said.  At lunch tables in the Bonn conference center, diplomats from all continents, and even members of the U.N. secretariat, were heard worrying about the cost.  One European diplomat said their country had been quoted €1 million to rent rooms for a negotiating team of 20 people.  The April presentation from Brazil said that the cruise ship cabins would range from $700 to $1,300 per night. The diplomat said that in Bonn last week, however, the COP30 presidency promised that cabins would start at $250 and rooms in rental houses at $100 per night.  “But we don’t know how far those are from the venue and how many are available for this price,” the diplomat said. A promised booking platform was set to launch in March, but has been “postponed, postponed, postponed,” they added.  For low-income countries and civil society — as well as the media — the prohibitive costs risk becoming a barrier to attending this year’s COP.  “Accommodation is a big concern for us,” said Tanzanian diplomat Richard Muyungi, chair of the African Group of Negotiators. “I’ve not received any adequate response to our concerns” from the Brazilians, he added. Costs aside, the optics of negotiators renting cruise ships to negotiate over the fate of the planet aren’t exactly great. “This image of cruise ships will just confirm the image we’re not saving the climate here, we’re killing it,” the European diplomat fretted.  BRAZIL’S PROMISE Hotels are far from the only concern. The EU in its speech also mentioned it had received no information about availability and cost for offices and representative pavilions at the conference.  Many diplomats worry about the local airport’s capacity, and whether there will be enough domestic flights available within Brazil, as Belém only has direct connections to Portugal, Florida, French Guiana and Suriname.   Several delegations also raised concerns about the quality and availability of medical care in Belém, the European diplomat said.  Most diplomats in Bonn said that Brazil appeared to take their concerns seriously, with the hosts holding numerous bilateral meetings on the issue.  “Obviously we’re listening to that, and we regret that the logistics of Belém has become such a big topic,” said Toni, the COP30 CEO, saying that Brazil was taking measures to tackle price gouging.  She insisted that all logistics issues other than costs had been addressed and resolved in Bonn — but acknowledged that accommodation prices were a problem.  “We, as the government, are addressing that problem with all the tools that we have,” she said. “We cannot allow Brazilians or foreigners to be paying prices much more than what’s reasonable. So this is a concern, no question.”  Yet Toni also suggested that some delegates might just be uninformed or even prejudiced.  “Obviously they have real concerns, but [they are] also not understanding what a big city of 1.2 million people it is,” she said. “And it’s in the Amazon, and people have a certain idea of the Amazon.” 

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music – Zurückdrehen der Ampel-Politik: Wie die Union die jetzige Klima-Außenpolitik neu aufstellen und damit nicht nur das Wirtschaftsministerium sondern auch das Auswärtige Amt beschneiden könnte, berichtet Hans von der Burchard. – Im 200-Sekunden-Interview dazu: Jennifer Morgen, Staatssekretärin im Auswärtigen Amt und Sonderbeauftragte für internationale Klimapolitik. – Neue Messenger-Vorwürfe gegen Pete Hegseth: Wie lange sich der US-Verteidigungsminister noch halten kann, schätzt Jonathan Martin von POLITICO in Washington ein. – Trauerfeier für Papst Franziskus: Wie sich Olaf Scholz und Friedrich Merz (erneut) gemeinsam in Rom wiederfinden könnten.  Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es morgens um 5 Uhr. Gordon Repinski und das POLITICO-Team bringen euch jeden Morgen auf den neuesten Stand in Sachen Politik — kompakt, europäisch, hintergründig. Und für alle Hauptstadt-Profis: Unser Berlin Playbook-Newsletter liefert jeden Morgen die wichtigsten Themen und Einordnungen. Hier gibt es alle Informationen und das kostenlose Playbook-Abo. Mehr von Berlin Playbook-Host und Executive Editor von POLITICO in Deutschland, Gordon Repinski, gibt es auch hier:   Instagram: @gordon.repinski | X: @GordonRepinski.

LONDON — With the second age of Donald Trump looming, and European allies such as France and Germany hobbled by political instability, the United Kingdom has been on the hunt for new friends on the world stage. And now it seems Prime Minister Keir Starmer has found a somewhat unlikely new BFF: Brazil. It is a relationship founded on a shared commitment to climate goals — with the wheels of diplomacy oiled by some hearty football banter. Since Starmer became prime minister in July, no fewer than 12 British ministers have made the 5,500-mile trip from London to Brazil. That’s partly because the South American nation hosted this year’s G20 summit of world leaders. But it also reflects a growing closeness between the two governments on the pressing need to tackle the global climate crisis. Just since November, London and Brasília have joined forces to launch a multistate clean energy pact, coordinated announcements of major new climate targets, and talked up cooperation ahead of the next big United Nation climate summit, to be held in the Brazilian port city of Belém in 2025. Amid global uncertainty, these are the sorts of “coalitions of the willing” on climate diplomacy that green-conscious leaders will need to forge, said Robin Niblett, a distinguished fellow and former chief executive at the Chatham House think tank. But the new best buddies will also have to navigate disagreements over one of the biggest foreign policy issues of all — Russia and Ukraine. FOOTBALL … AND DIPLOMACY In a bid to lock in the alliance, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — expected back at work after Christmas following a health scare — has invited Starmer for yet another visit next year. It will be a chance to “map the opportunities and economic areas where the countries can work together,” Brazil said. If Starmer and Lula can make it work, they will owe a debt of thanks to a shared love of football — and especially Starmer’s beloved Arsenal, where four Brazilians ply their trade.  A football-centric bromance was on show at the G20, according to one Lula ally. “It helps significantly that they are both football enthusiasts,” Brazil’s ambassador in London, Antonio Patriota, told POLITICO. “The initial minutes of the bilateral were dedicated to football.” In a bid to lock in the alliance, Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — expected back at work after Christmas following a health scare — has invited Keir Starmer for yet another visit next year. | Pool photo by Leon Neal via AFP/Getty Images Beneath the Arsenal chat, though, is a flurry of diplomatic activity more than a year in the making to build up the relationship.  Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who has said climate will be “central” to British foreign policy under Labour, visited Brazil last summer, before the general election.  Starmer, then the opposition leader, first met Lula at COP28 in 2023 and began the conversation, one U.K. official said, which last month resulted in the Clean Power Alliance energy deal, an 11-country bloc (plus the African Union) that has promised to work together on trebling renewable energy by 2030. Patriota praised the diplomatic signals sent out by a Lammy speech in September, with its “very explicit recognition of the asymmetries that penalize developing countries, and especially countries that are highly vulnerable to climate.”  And with the United States unlikely to be a reliable partner under Trump — whose pick for energy secretary, businessperson Chris Wright, has accused the U.K. of “impoverishing people” through its green policies — post-Brexit Britain needs new friends (at least if it wants to get anything done). “There are not many successful social democrats in the world at the moment,” said Richard Lapper, a foreign policy consultant. “Arguably Starmer and Lula are two of them. They are swimming against the tide in a way.” In Brazil, Starmer sees an ally that can bridge divides between developed countries — the U.K.’s usual allies in the G7 or NATO — and developing countries in the G20 and beyond being courted by an emboldened China and Russia. The buddy-up “exemplifies collaboration between the Global North and South,” said a second U.K. government official, granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record. The personal connections go deeper still. When Energy Secretary Ed Miliband visited Brazil earlier this year — his first international trip in post — he met Lula’s top diplomatic adviser Celso Amorim, “someone he’s known for many years,” Patriota said. Amorim is a leading figure on the Brazilian left and a former student of Miliband’s Marxist academic father, Ralph Miliband. THE SHADOW OF PUTIN But the blossoming friendship carries risk for Starmer.  The two governments are far apart over a key foreign policy question — Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. The U.K. has maintained its place as a key military supplier to Ukraine under Starmer. The prime minister’s position has started to bend slightly, as the reality of Trump’s victory forces a rethink, but Lula has long called for a negotiated settlement (while condemning Russia’s invasion). Last year he accused the U.S. of “encouraging” the conflict, and was rebuked by the Americans in turn for “parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda.”  Brazil is also close to China, its biggest trading partner, and relies on Russia for fertilizer to supply its vast agricultural sector. | Claudio Reis/Getty Images Brazil is also close to China, its biggest trading partner, and relies on Russia for fertilizer to supply its vast agricultural sector.  Patriota said that such differences need not stand in the way of climate collaboration with the U.K. But he added: “It strikes Brazil — and this is a point that President Lula often makes, he made it at the G20 — that we find it so difficult to raise a level of financial support to combat climate change … [but] nations around the world applaud when military budgets go up.” The stark difference in tone between Brasília and London on military matters comes at a time when the U.K. plans to increase defense spending to 2.5 percent in the face of Russian aggression in Eastern Europe. In a “multipolar, complex and unpredictable world,” the U.K. could nonetheless use new friends, said Chatham House’s Niblett. “We’re about to enter really choppy waters. We’re going to have to be a coalition-builder — because America is not going to be.” NEXT STOP, BELÉM It is already possible to make out the contours of the U.K.-Brazil relationship next year.  Brazil hosts the U.N.’s global climate summit COP30 in 2025, at the same time the two countries celebrate 200 years of formal diplomatic relations. For much of that period, the two — now the world’s sixth and tenth biggest economies — haven’t felt the need to create much of an alliance. COP30 is another chance to change that. Brazil has a target of ending illegal deforestation by 2030, with stewardship of the world’s greatest rainforest a pillar of its international climate responsibilities. The U.K.’s Labour government has positioned itself as a global leader on climate and has its own 2030 ambition: cutting fossil fuels almost entirely from its electricity supply. Patriota, Lula’s man in London, stuck to diplomatic language and did not name Trump when discussing the relationship. Instead, he stressed that Brazil and Britain wanted to set “examples of active and responsible behavior” on climate, “independently of what other players may decide to do or not.” Niblett said: “If the U.K. is seen as the more predictable player on the green agenda, then we may get more of the foreign investment into our efforts to drive green transition.” That would help Starmer with his clean energy mission at home, he added — “because we’ve got very little domestic dosh to put into that process.” Trade and investment would be on the agenda for any visit next year, Patriota added. “Trade between Brazil and the U.K. could be [at] much higher levels than it is today,” he said. But some experts played down the trade relationship. The U.K., relatively speaking, is a “bit player” in economic importance to Brazil, said Lapper. Brazil is the U.K.’s 28th largest trading partner, accounting for 0.6 percent of total U.K. trade, according to the latest Whitehall data. And Starmer will need to tread carefully. Free-trade negotiations between the European Union and Mercosur, the South American trade bloc of which Brazil is part, took 25 years and still face opposition from farmers in France and elsewhere, over fears they will be undercut by cheap imports. The agreement “risks having dramatic consequences for agriculture,” said Arnaud Rousseau, head of the country’s powerful French FNSEA association. Starmer, already facing the fury of U.K. farmers, can ill afford to anger rural voters even more. But with such an unpromising geopolitical backdrop, both countries seem determined not to let potential pitfalls stand in the way of action on a shared priority — climate. Both can play “a significant role in today’s world affairs,” Patriota said. “In the case of Brazil, you could describe it as an emerging role. It is the first time in our history. “In the case of Britain — perhaps a moment where Britain is trying to redefine its position in international affairs.”

BRUSSELS — The planet is heating up, but the geopolitical landscape is freezing over, European Union climate chief Wopke Hoekstra warned in an interview with POLITICO. Donald Trump, a fossil fuel evangelist and climate heretic, is back. Across Europe, far-right, anti-green crusaders are rising. And in Brussels, Hoekstra’s own center-right political family is questioning the EU’s climate ambitions. “We clearly have entered a geopolitical winter,” Hoekstra said in his office in the European Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters describing “tremendously challenging geopolitical times” that “will get worse before it gets better in the years that we have ahead of us.” Hoekstra is not a new figure to Brussels, having taken over as EU climate chief in 2023. But he was recently reconfirmed for his role at the Commission, the EU’s executive branch, starting a new term on Dec. 1.  For the Dutch commissioner, who oversees international climate negotiations for the EU as part of his job, the next few years are likely to be a bumpy ride as he tries to convince the rest of the world to accelerate efforts to cut planet-warming emissions.  “We’re truly making progress in tackling climate change and implementing measures here, but Europe alone cannot save the day,” he said. “The way the heating of the Earth works is that climate change is indiscriminate. It doesn’t matter where CO2 is being pumped into the air. It affects the whole planet.” Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump promised to dismember President Joe Biden’s climate legislation, pump out more planet-warming fossil fuels and yank the United States from the Paris climate agreement once again. Given the U.S. is the world’s second-largest source of carbon emissions, the stakes are massive. Hoekstra refused to get drawn into commenting on the future U.S. administration, as Brussels is first trying to extend olive branches to the incoming president instead of facing him head-on.  But when it comes to tackling climate change, Hoekstra is well aware that Europe cannot go it alone, as the bloc’s emissions account for only 6 percent of global pollution.  “Even if you reduce everything back home, but you don’t manage to take the others along, you still face all the problems that we’re currently facing. So diplomacy and applying carrots and sticks and incentivizing others to do more is essential,” Hoekstra said, without specifying the potential sticks.  One stick the EU is about to impose on the world is a carbon border tax, which will charge importers a levy on emissions-intensive goods starting in 2026. The move has drawn fierce criticism from countries such as Brazil, India, China and South Africa, which also sought to discuss the issue at last month’s COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan. Regarding global climate diplomacy, Hoekstra insisted that the EU would have to “engage” with all major emitters, whether that’s China, the Saudis or the U.S. under Trump. Donald Trump, a fossil fuel evangelist and climate heretic, is back. | Magali Cohen/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images Noting that the G20 economies are responsible for the vast majority of planet-warming emissions, Hoekstra said it was essential that they boost their climate ambitions ahead of next year’s pivotal COP30 summit in Brazil.  “It makes sense that this whole group — by the way, including the Europeans — does make a step up,” he said. “We’re not going to move the needle if we try to offload this problem on other countries who have way below average per-capita emissions. … So everyone needs to play ball.” At the same time, the former finance and foreign minister also wants to square the circle between the EU’s ambitious climate goals and industry’s needs to stay competitive in the face of Chinese and American competition.  Hoekstra said Brussels in the next five years has to be “much more explicit about combining green transition with a viable business climate.” According to him, the EU has to make sure that “heavy industry cannot only survive, but actually can strive on European soil, that we give way more room for clean tech, and we make this into a positive business case. So there we truly bridge between climate and business.” Precisely because of that, Brussels has to stay on course on its climate targets, he stressed. “Many companies are asking for predictability and staying the course rather than changing the rules of the game simply because they cannot cope,” he said. “Particularly heavy industry have very long investment cycles, sometimes decades ahead, and you are then not helped by politicians who are in the habit of constantly changing their minds.”