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Living Planet on DW.com takes us on a trip through the Amazon to see how the region has changed with climate change. The related changes from settlers and cattle farms, new dams and dikes, are changing the course of rivers as large as the Rhine in the Amazon region of Brazil. Some of these rivers are disappearing or changing course in these changes with the impact of hundreds of thousands of buffalo, and the impact of dams diverting the waters.

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COP30 becomes a disappointment in Brazil with no mention of fossil fuels. With even Brazil divided with Lula and Brazil's Congress supporting agribusiness and the oil industry. There is a clear perception that cost of living and development concerns have to be given recognition and balanced with climate change goals. This is true also for the US, EU, India and China. These countries are still moving ahead with climate change goals but realize that they have to strike a balance. On the other side are Saudi Arabia and Russia, other oil producing countries that want to delay climate change for as long as possible. These fossil fuel producers opposed mention of fossil fuels and making a transition out of fossil fuels a major priority at COP30.  

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The US president calls Brazilian president Lula Inacio Da Silva, "a good person actually," after meetings at the UN in September 2025. Tariffs imposed on Brazil for cocoa, coffee, meat and fruits have been lifted. Lula asserted Brazil's independent institutions and Brazil as a sovereign country. The tariffs were never popular in Brazil and Lula's popularity in Brazil is now up to to 33% after an earlier decline. He is more energized and at 80 is expected to run again for office. COP30 just completed in Belem, Brazil, and Lula has received favorable response in trying to salvage the climate agenda following the shift away from costly climate change decisions to the cost of living crisis.

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Coalition Against Climate Disinformation at the COP30 Belem Brazil Summit. CAAD says about the state of disinformation-

"Big Carbon's spending and Big Tech's algorithms are preventing us from seeing and hearing one another online. Instead, we're exposed to one lie after another."

The frequent fires and floods all over the world which happen suddenly and quickly show the effects and costs of climate change are real. Actions need to be taken on climate change even as the cost of living crisis and struggles of people in China,India and Africa and in the US and EU have to be considered for access to electricity and for cost of living concerns. Fossil only provides a short term transition to a long term plan for the future based on renewable energy, and the fight for climate change action to be renewed by EU, China, Brazil and India as the US sorts out its own problems with the transition.

 

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COP30 Belem, Brazil- in the absence of the US the meeting of Merz, Macron, Lula, Starmer and Chinese leaders is critical to keep the climate change fight alive in 2025. A spectacular setting where the Amazon river meets the Atlantic at Belem on the coast of northern Brazil in the state of Para.

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Brazil president Lula at COP30 Belem, Brazil- mixing oil drilling plans with plans for climate change for Amazon forests. This is not a contradiction in today's world as many nations including China, India are depending on coal and moving forward with solar and wind energy, and the US is also drilling for oil and it's private sector continues moving forward on renewable energy. In 2025 cost of living action for working class families means getting cheaper sources of energy, and at the same time climate change requires new invention and scientific advances in developing solar, wind, nuclear and other renewable energy. US Biden administration accepted this combination approach and it is also practiced under the current US Republican administration with different degrees of emphasis to meet current and future challenges in the best way possible.

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By taking action in Venezuela in a way that benefits the Venezuelan people (and similar action in the long run interests of the Iranian people to dedicate most of the resources for development and increase share of oil revenues without discounting and removing sanctions ill effects on economy and quality of life) major new changes can improve quality of life in the world.  Venezuelan production which was 3 million barrels a day has declined to 900,000 without US investment and technological upgrades. With US investment this can be increased to put additional oil supplies on the market lost in the war with Iran and smaller traffic through the Straits of Hormuz. Venezuelan crude is best suited to US refineries which frees up shale oil for export to meet needs of India and Europe. China which had hyper growth through massive oil consumption would reduce its growth rate and its impact on climate change as it adjusts to the loss of 3 million barrels a day it no longer gets from Iran. Slower growth rate in China is good for the climate as it is the hyper growth of China that put the most pressure on climate even as Europe and the US had cut  fossil fuels consumption over the last decade. China made 2 coal plants a week and 95% of all new global coal construction in 2023. India needs additional oil supplies as it increases its growth rate from a much lower point of development (and electricity poverty) than China. By simply settling for normal development compared to hyper development targets( China has reached a point of Oil Fairness Percentage where each country gets to use the same percentage of oil as its population is as a percentage of world population- the number being about 17% for China for both, with the number being 18% for India and it having a shortfall of 12% based on its oil consumption being only 6% of the world total). China can reduce oil and coal consumption reducing pressure on oil prices and absorbing most of the impact from the loss of Iranian oil. China and Russia + (old Soviet territory) Canada, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, make up about 40% of the world's territorial landmass, would be large beneficiaries with improved climatic conditions from burning less coal. They are now highly developed countries and do not need hyper growth which requires China to build 2 coal plants a week and consume excessive amounts of crude oil and coal based on artificially set targets that make no sense by destroying the climate when no child in China lacks electricity to read. Marathon Philipps Valero with over half a million barrels of refining capacity for heavy Venezuelan crude can now put this to use using the imports by US of lower priced (by $9 to Brent crude) Venezuelan crude oil. In a few months of 2025 US has imported 280,000 barrels a day of Venezuelan crude in February 2026 alone some of it going to the large Valero refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. American oil refiners make larger margins using the Venezuelan crude than they make on light crude from shale oil producers in the US. What this does is to increase the supply of crude and refined oil products on the market as the light crude get shipped overseas to India and Europe- including countries like Spain which took in 100,000 barrels a day of shale crude from US in February 2026. ...

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EV makers in US offer about $5000 in discounts to replace $7500 lost in government EV tax credits. The hurdle for electric vehicles is the lack of charging infrastructure and the cost of home chargers, in addition to the limited range in miles. The big jump in inflation centered not just on groceries in 2019-2024, there was a 34% increase in the cost of new cars and 50% increase for used cars, and a jump in maintenance costs. Reducing affordability for young people and making car ownership costlier. This turned into a cost of living crisis with groceries up 31%, that affected people's enthusiasm for climate change action when China was building one coal plant a week (adding 95 GW in 2024)- underlying the need to provide immediate relief to American working families and elderly through tax cuts, benefits and shifting tax dollars from climate change action to working families in the next 4 years. This is the approach taken under the DJT One Big Beautiful Act of 2025. Basically what the DJT side of the story is on emissions- US has only 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions, cut this by half to 6% and assuming the EU which has 6% of gas emissions also cuts by half to 3%, the saving just 9%  while the 82% of emitters China, India, Russia and Brazil etc not making the cuts needed the impact on climate change is not significant. If China and India want relief US working families also need relief.  ...

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776 million euros -cost of COP30 Summit in Amazon region's Belem, capital of Para State in Brazil. 159 countries are represented in this unique effort to bring climate change issues to the Amazon river. The Portuguese colonized this region in 1616 because of its location connecting the Amazon river to the Atlantic Ocean. It is known for sale of spices, fruit, fish, rubber, oil, cacao and other local products shipped to Europe and other parts of Brazil.Ver-o-peso one of the biggest open air markets has been renovated, roads repaired and new roads built, new parks, water treatment plants set up.Yet most of the population of 1.4 million lives in shanty areas or slums in Belem which are affected when rain leads to floods overwhelming the tin roof houses. Much of the nearly billion euro investment is going to bring Belem to international standards. Housing 50,000 participants was ahuge task and the Brazilian government of president Lula brought in 2 large cruis ships to accomodate many of the participants. This report in FR24 says prices for accomodation reached $4000 a night which shows that in today's world climate change action which is a problem facing all people, has been embraced by groups that can afford such costly daily rentals creating skepticism from ordinary people affected by the cost of living concerns. ...

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A group of oil producing countries led by Saudi Arabia and Russia stall progress on climate change goals at the conference in Belem, Brazil. Even deforestation goals are left out. A standoff between European nations and oil producing countries leads to lack of agreement on how to phase out fossil fuels. The US is not present.  

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Less noticed climate change action is coming from Brazil. The Amazon deforestation has been slowed since the new administration of Lula took office in Brazil in 2022. Forest loss has dropped by a third in Brazil and half in Colombia says this report in DW.com. One of the big pledges at the Glasgow Climate Summit said to cut deforestation. Tjink of the impact- a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions from transportation come from deforestation and most of it from the Amazon (two thirds from Brazil, Indonesia and the Congo DRC alone). Ending forest loss by 2030 the goal of Glasgow would lead to 18.9 million megatonnes of carbon being removed from the atmosphere (GtCO2e) says the World Resources Institute.

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This is what our energy wars, our climate change wars are about in summary. Europe has moved faster than the US, India and China in cutting fossil fuels use over 20 years 2005 to 2025. Europe going from 1525 trillion watt hours to 792- cutting use by half. The US from 2900 to  2553 trillion watt hours just 12%. And China...China tripled its use. This has come at a price as the costs of renewables push up electricity prices beyond what homes and industry can support. UK electricity prices 80% higher than US and half of UK energy users plan to ration its use 2025. Half of electricity costs in UK come from cost and delivery, other half of costs from subsidies of renewables and other. In Germany high electricity costs are hobbling industry and reducing economic growth. Lower electricity prices make the US more attractive than Germany as a place to invest. Another way to look at it- US and Europe cut fossil fuel use by about 1100 trillion watt hours and China increased its use by 4200 trillion watt hours or 4 times what the US and Europe cut in 2024 over 2005. Adding India, Brazil this would be 5-6 times what the US and Europe saved in 2024 over 2005. The "And "strategy of combining reduction in fossil with building renewable capacity is working out compared to dumping fossil in one shove and going all out renewable. There is also the question of equity. China and India argue equity means we should be allowed to use some fossil with renewable for 2.5 billion people's needs. The other side of equity is the US saying the same as "no fossil period" strategy puts the needs of the large part of the population for lower costs of energy  pushed aside as wealthy classes say it is OK. Even when the savings through cuts and sacrifices in US and EU are cut down, cut down by 5-6 fold increase in China, India, Brazil alone. In this kind of climate change war it makes sense not to go with labels such as climate change denial DJT vs China climate change affirming, when China is diluting US-EU climate change entire twenty year savings of 2005-2024 by a factor of 4, 1100 trillion watt hours wiped out by China's 4200 trillion watt hours added. And India, Brazil taking this to a factor of 6. This is why a lot of the discussion with self-righteous indignation becomes less purposeful. What is clear is that every action to cut cost of living in US and EU for large parts of the people is an effort in the right direction as it frees up resources for the fight against climate change, the sense that we are all in the same boat and in the same struggle. The fight against cost of living is part of the long run struggle against climate change. ...

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Biden is considering having the US join the $1.3 billion fund for the Amazon.Germany has announced a package for defense of the Amazon. This is part of the climate change prevention effort. At meetings today Biden said- "Both our nations strong democracies were tested of late. But both in the United States and Brazil democracy prevailed." Lula for his part said- "Brazil marginalized itself for four years."

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Preserving forest areas is a key part of the climate change prevention plan. DW.com gives these video images of a vast forest area in South America- the Gran Chaco that is spread over Argentina and Brazil that faces destruction over time. Deforestation is taking place in the Argentine Chaco at an estimated 250,000 acres per year for 2001 to 2007 according to one estimate. The Gran Chaco that runs into the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso de Sul state is one of the last frontiers of forested areas in the world. If the Climate Change resolution passed at the recent conference on preserving forests is taken seriously this area needs to be preserved.

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Mr. Lula Da Silva returns as president after 12 years after a closely contested win securing 51% of the vote.  It is a crucial time for saving the Amazon rain forest to tackle climate change, and for economic revival. About 33 million went hungry in Brazil in 2022 compared to 19 million in 2020 showing the difficulties Brazil faces. About 700,000 people died during the pandemic. The Worker's party pushed through a constitutional amendment last month to lift a spending cap so that about $28 billion in extra spending  can help alleviate these problems. 

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World leaders meet at the UN for action on climate change, especially Obama and Hu Jintao of China who represent countries that generate 40% of carbon emissions worldwide. Hu set the target for nuclear power at 15% of energy for 2020 from 8% now, and India set atarget of 20% for renewable sources of energy for 2020. President Obama said he saw the need for the developing industrial nations, by which he meant China, India and Brazil, to adopt targets for curbing emissions in any agreement, but Hu Jintao was vague about any specific targets. So the gap remains as the US goes to the Copenhagen talks on climate change in late 2009.

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Canadian steel and lumber industries get government aid, as talks to end US tariffs are halted over an ad on Reagan misrepresenting him on tariffs by Ontario state.  Canada's steel and lumber industries will get the aid in the form of railway costs cut in half with rail subsidies, and tariffs on US steel imports into Canada to reduce domestic steel costs for other industries. Stellantis shifts car production for a new Jeep from suburban Toronto to Illinois, GM cut a shift at a pickup plant and closed a electric van plant in Ontario. Not all imports to the US from Canada face tariffs. Other products enter the US from Canada under a free trade agreement USMCA that went into effect July 1 2020. Canada is also shifting policy under Carney's Liberals on climate change, as it seeks to reorient its economy to export oil to China and India- a new pipeline is now approved for oil and gas to be shipped across the country from Alberta. Since it's independence with Dominion status in 1867 Canada's economy has struggled with the idea of building a economy separate from the US so that trade between the northeastern Canada and Northeastern US which is next to each other is foregone for trade with distant provinces in the western states such as Alberta and British Columbia. In Brazil Lula's Worker's Party is also slowing efforts on climate change for the economy as it approves oil and gas projects in the Amazon, at the same time as it holds COP30 at Belem port in the Amazon. Even Biden had shown flexibility on the economy to support cost of living measures that are in conflict with climate change action. In DJT's second term climate change action has taken a back seat to cost of living concerns when a large majority of people are living paycheck to paycheck. ...

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Issues of war an peace, food supplies, climate change and renewable energy transition, world health, and other issues that relate to the wellbeing of people in the world can only be met by broadening the membership of the UN Security Council. US president Biden favors broadening the membership of the UN Security Council. Ministers of the G4 countries, Germany, India, Japan and Brazil met this week to push for reform of a UN Security Council that is now not working or dysfunctional. 

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The Guardian looks back at 2023 and covers the work of scientists from US, Germany and Brazil showing the damage. NASA scientist James Hansen tells The Guardian that with the current stage of politics and inaction on climate change young people in the world need to take over. Scientists at the Japan Meteorological Agency measured temperatures at 0.53 degrees centigrade higher than the global average 1990 -2021. This was higher than the previous high reached in 2016 of 0.35 degrees centigrade. Over the long term the world is considered to be 1.2 degrees hotter than preindustrial times, by experts. Included is the report "Hothouse Earth" by the Potsdam Institute of Climate research and other experts on the speed of the global warming.

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China, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, countries that are part of the G-20 are not part of the G-8. Without the developing countries no real progress can be made on climate change or on emissions control. Climate change was a key focus of this summit in Itlay for the G-8 but with India and China only on the sidelines and acting more as an opposition excluded from the main deliberations the whole climate change agenda had to be shelved. The European countries lose influence in an enlarged summit so the G-8 keeps going along. Sweden holds the rotating Presidency of the EU, so the Swedes are there also. And so is Portugal in away with Manuel Barroso representing the European Commisssion. Except Japan, Asia is not represented, and no country from Africa or Latin America is represented. The European club looks like an anachronism and it is. Merkel and Sarkozy say they know this, but there is too much resistance in Europe to giving up this privilege. When the Guardian reported that Italy may be left out in future meetings of an expanded summit. the Italian press and the Italian prime minister Berlusconi denounced the report. Other countries that lose influence in an expanded arrangement are Canada and Japan. ...

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Everything you might want to know about coffee, where it comes from, how cultivation is changing with climate change and higher temperatures, and the effort to map the coffee genome. With higher temperatures the farming of coffee moves to higher altitudes in coffee growing countries in the tropics, but it is easier to cross breed the 124 varieties to produce a plant that can withstand the change in temperatures and one that can resist fungus.  A coffee fungus and higher altitude rains destroyed much of the crop in Central America including Guatemala. This led to increased migration to Mexico and U.S. of farmers leading up to Mr. Trump's plan to have the National Guard of Mexico police Mexico's border with Guatemala.  Coffee is a sensitive plant and needs cooler weather and water which is found more in the tropics. Growing it in California or in Italy makes it very costly leading to Frinj coffee being sold in California at $16 a cup. Climate change could reduce the area where coffee can be grown by about 50% in the tropical countries from South east Asia to African countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia, and in south America Colombia and Brazil, says Climate Institute, Washington DC based climate change experts.   ...

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Climate change is leading to floods in Bengaluru, Chennai and in the state of Andhra Pradesh in recent months. DW.com looks at the situation there. Studies show India' climate vulnerability. Southern regions are most vulnerable according to these studies, yet about 80% of India's population live in districts highly vulnerable to drought, flooding and cyclones. Bonn based Germanwatch says a surge in extreme events is noticeable since 2005 in India, and is triggered primarily by landscape disruptions.  Indian experts say land restoration and rehabilitation is one approach. Another is letting the water flow and redoing irrigation structures to capture rain- linking rivers to ponds, lakes and ditches so that water is free to flow.  Weather experts point out that surface temperature of Arabian sea has risen from 27 degrees Celsius (80 degrees Fahrenheit) to 29 degrees causing more frequent formation of low pressure areas and resulting in heavy rains. This DW.com report looks at weather patterns and extreme events around the world including in Madagascar and Brazil, Greece and British Columbia. ...

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Scientific American says 8-11% impact larger emissions under the One Big Beautiful Act than the 61%-66% emissions cut under Biden IRA in 2035 over 2005. What is the reasoning behind DJT Republicans approach? 

Remember that the wealthiest House districts are now in the Democratic party and the working class, rural and poorer districts are now in the Republican party as shown in the recent WSJ analysis.  In this situation after  30-40 increase in the price of groceries, new and used cars, and housing costs 2019-2024 the argument is that American working families need relief. Another factor was the grasp of the fact that for climate change action to work China could not be allowed to build one coal plant a week (95GW of coal electricity capacity in 2024). In 2024 US represented only 12% of global emissions and EU only 6%, China, Russia, India, Brazil etc emitting the rest of 82%. 

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The British Energy Institute shows how countries are doing in fighting climate change by reducing fossil fuel use. 

Poland is poor at 88% fossil fuels in energy mix. Algeria, Singapore, Bangladesh, Oman at 98%.

In Europe Norway leads at 72% for renewqble energy in the mix. Brazil at 50% keads SOuth America, Nw Zealand 43% and Vietnam at 23% in Asia Pacific. 

Of 6525 coal fired power plants China has 3168, India 845 plants and US 408. Older plants are being retired.

Planned construction of new coal power plants 707 in China, 165 in India, 2 in the US, 23 in eastern Europe, 0 in Northern Europe and 4 in Southern Europe, 0 in Western Europe, Latin America is 6.

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Climate changes are affecting cocoa growing in West Africa, coffee growing in Brazil, leading to surging prices. Orange growers in Florida are affected by hurricanes leading to the lowest orange crop since 1930 of 12 million boxes.