World leaders, at Cop30 you can define how the future will judge you

With the pillars of the old world order crumbling and the US stepping away from action on climate crisis, it falls to others to assume global environmental leadership.

- Gordon Brown

Leaders who understand the urgency should seize the opportunity afforded by Brazil hosting Cop30 this month to build a coalition of committed countries determined to turn back the climate deniers.

Many now see China - the most successful manufacturer of solar, wind, battery and electric vehicle technologies - as the global low-carbon powerhouse. But its national emission goals, recently submitted to the UN, are underwhelming and it is unclear whether China is willing to take up the mantle of climate leadership.

It is the EU, Norway and the UK that have led the west in sustaining green industrial policies through thick and thin, and which are, along with Japan, the main providers of climate finance to the global south. Yet today the EU looks uncertain of itself, under pressure from major sectors lobbying to weaken climate targets and from farright parties seeking to move the continent away from the once solid cross-party consensus on net zero goals.

The severity of the storms that hit Jamaica last week will add to the rising frustration felt by the climatevulnerable states. So Keir Starmer's decision to attend Cop30 and to adopt a fresh leadership role is significant.

It is time to lead in a new way, by increasing public and private investment to prevent ever-rising floods, fires and droughts, and by focusing mitigation and adaptation policies on saving and improving lives now. This ranges from increasing the capacity to grow food on thousands of hectares of parched land to preventing the 500,000 annual deaths that excessively hot weather now causes.