The summit, known as COP30, opened its second week with foreign and other ministers stepping in for the lower-level negotiators who handled the first week. They have far more power and leeway to make tough political decisions, and U.N. Climate Executive Secretary Simon Stiell told them to use it.

Higher-ranking government ministers have taken charge of negotiations during the United Nations climate talks.

Government ministers from around the world were preparing for a final few fraught days of talks at the U.N. climate summit as they bid to secure a deal that demonstrates global resolve amid increasing assertiveness from developing nations.

Democracy Now! is broadcasting from the U.N. climate summit in the Brazilian rainforest city of Belém, near the mouth of the Amazon River, where the COP30 summit has entered its second week of negotiations.

The Trump administration declined to send an official US delegation to the UN's major climate conference for the first time in 30 years.

As COP30 brings cruise ships to the rainforest, the tensions between climate ideals and political realities echo far beyond Brazil.

Organizers said more social movements, Indigenous peoples and a focus on justice set the first week of the COP summit apart.

Away from COP30's official talks, African activists in Belem, Brazil, joined the People's Summit to expose climate injustices and push for reparations. DW spoke to some of the people leading this fight.

The UN climate summit in Brazil reached its midpoint with no agreement on how to raise $1.3 trillion a year, settle trade disputes, or verify national promises on emissions cuts.