Fight fake news and defeat climate deniers, Brazil's Lula tells UN talks

The world must "defeat" climate denialism and fight fake news, Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has told the opening meeting of the UN climate talks.

In a rallying cry to COP30, President Lula again made thinly veiled references to President Donald Trump who branded climate change "a con job" in September.

The two weeks of talks kicked off on Monday in the lush Brazilian city of Belém on the edge of the Amazon rainforest.

They take place against a fraught political backdrop and the US has sent no senior officials.

On Monday thousands of delegates poured into the COP venue in a heavily air-conditioned former aerodrome, some coming from accommodation in shipping containers and cruise ships moored on the riverside.

Members of the Guajajara indigenous group, in traditional dress, performed a welcome song and dance for assembled diplomats.

Addressing the conference, President Lula said "COP30 will be the COP of truth" in an era of "fake news and misrepresentation" and "rejection of scientific evidence".

Without naming President Trump, President Lula continued, "they control the algorithms, sow hatred and spread fear".

"It's time to inflict a new defeat on the deniers," he said.

Since President Trump took office in January, he has promised to invest heavily in fossil fuels, saying that this will secure greater economic prosperity for the US.

His administration has cancelled more than $13bn of funding for renewable energy and is taking steps to open up more areas of the US to oil and gas exploration.

That puts the country at odds with the majority of nations still committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and investing in green energy.

After a fight, nations finally agreed a conference agenda on Monday.

It promises to consider the question of whether countries can still work towards keeping global temperature rise to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Groups on the frontline of climate change, including coalition called Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) that mostly represents Caribbean and Pacific countries, had insisted the talks address the long-held goal.

In recent weeks even the UN has said it accepts that overshooting this temperature is "inevitable".

Last week UN General Secretary General António Guterres told leaders in Belém that the failure to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C was a "moral failure and deadly negligence".

Additional reporting by Esme Stallard