After the hurricane: will the human cost finally push Cop30 into action on climate crisis?

As politicians head to Brazil, Melissa offers a stark reminder of the consequences of failure to act. Climate editor

- Jeevan Vasagar reports

As the devastation Hurricane Melissa inflicted on the Caribbean became clear last week, researchers began to analyse how much the climate crisis had amplified the monster storm.

The warming of the planet had boosted the hurricane's wind speeds by 11mph (18km/h) and made a storm on this scale four times more likely, according to scientists at Imperial College London.

The havoc Melissa unleashed - flooding roads, knocking out power supplies and tearing roofs off houses, schools and hospitals in Jamaica - underlined the growing human cost of failed efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as world leaders prepare to travel to Brazil for the UN Cop30 climate conference, which begins on Thursday.

Ten years ago, at the UN climate summit in Paris, countries pledged to keep the increase in global average temperatures "well below 2C" (35.6F) and, crucially for the most vulnerable island countries, pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5C.

It was a breakthrough after decades of deadlock. Then US secretary of state John Kerry said: "It's a victory for all of the planet and for future generations." Kerry added that it would prevent the worst consequences of the climate crisis from ever happening.

A decade on, that consensus has fallen apart. The US, the world's biggest oil producer, has a president who describes the climate emergency as a "con job". Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, has blocked efforts to agree on a phasing out of fossil fuels, while big emitters such as India have been defensive about the need to keep burning coal to power their economic growth.

Three years ago, wealthy countries agreed to create a fund that would help lower-income nations deal with the effects of natural disasters, but so far, only a fraction of the funds needed have been pledged. The UN estimates the world is now on track for between 2.6C and 3.1C of warming over the course of this century.