Vulnerable Nations Declare Climate Change a 'Moral Duty' at COP30 Summit

As the COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil enters its second week, vulnerable nations are leading calls for immediate action on climate breakdown. Jamaica's economic growth minister Matthew Samuda recounted how Hurricane Melissa, a category 5 storm that hit just three weeks ago, caused almost $10 billion in damage and displaced hundreds of thousands of Jamaicans, evidence of "the new phase of climate change."

Armando Rodríguez Batista, Cuba's environment and science minister, said his country was also flooded by Melissa, warning "Tomorrow it will be too late to do what we had to do a long time ago." Mauritius's foreign affairs minister Dhananjay Ramful echoed this sentiment, declaring "Our very existence is at stake" and calling climate action a "moral duty."

Brazil's vice-president Geraldo Alckmin also emphasized the urgency, stating "Each additional fraction of a degree of global warming represents lives at risk, greater inequality and greater losses for those who contributed least to the problem." The UN's climate chief Simon Stiell told the summit that the pace of change in the real economy has not matched the pace of progress in the negotiations, as climate disasters continue to wreck millions of lives.