It’s the month of November, which means that the eyes of everyone working in climate will be turning to whichever city is hosting the annual UN Conference of Parties, or Cop. This year, it’s being hosted in the northern Brazilian city of Belem, with Brazil’s President Lula hoping that its location close to the Amazon will help place the world’s largest rainforest at the heart of the discussions.
It can be easy to have a sense of deja vu about it all: talk is once again of how to “turn words into action”; Donald Trump is for the second time pulling the US out of the key international climate treaty, the Paris Agreement; and emissions are continuing to rise year on year, despite this being the 30th time that countries have met with the intention of turning the tide on just that.
