Public sentiment towards COP30 is predominantly negative, expressing strong skepticism about its effectiveness and highlighting concerns over the perceived hypocrisy of political leaders and elite attendees. Many commentators feel that the conference serves as a platform for the privileged rather than a genuine effort to confront climate change, especially given the environmental destruction for summit infrastructure.

Governments attending COP30

Environmental NGOs

Corporate stakeholders

Local communities

Like unprecedented heat dome of over plus 40 in NW Canada? Unprecedented wild fires in Canada? Atmospheric river flooding western Canada? These were all supposed to events far in the future, and we witnessed them all over the last 5 years. Not only that, but after these events our “Liberal” government has rolled back most pro climate policies in favor of job/economy stimulus. I don’t really believe that there will be an event that will change anything. It’s always going to be least cost first. Cost of living is the crisis near and dear to the average westerner, and any thing that threatens the cost of living going up is a problem, including climate change mitigation efforts. Yes, I fully understand the paradox this presents, but the average voter in our democracy doesn’t.

squailtaint

Nope. Big climate related disasters in the Global North will just result in further backsliding. Politicians will amp up the denial, claiming they’re natural disasters, and then use them as an excuse: “we can’t possibly meet these climate targets now we have to deal with these tragedies”.
I mean, do you ever see America making progress on gun laws after a mass shooting?

Away-Meal-9313

rocketstopya

...and by then it likely will be too late. Wheeeeeeeee

DanoPinyon

The rich North is much less vulnerable to climate-related disasters, so this is not going to happen.

Economy-Fee5830

We got the rules based global trade system following the conflict of WW2.


We need a rules based system for climate instead of our ineffective trust based system. 


We won't get that unless we start treating the harm of foreign emissions as an act of aggression that needs to be reduced

Joshau-k

This is pure copium. There is no magical "people of the global south" that people of the global north can just ignore. We just ignore whatever doesn't align with the direction we want to be heading.

These disasters have already occured in the global north, as many point out in these comments, but when things become really bad we'll again divide the planet to the smart and the stupid, AKA the rich and the poor and we'll assume nothing bad will happen to us.

AnotherFuckingSheep

Exactly. I remember the very early days of COVID when combating it was a bipartisan affair. Then health authorities started to stress the way it especially impacted the poor and minorities, so conservatives decided it wasn't a problem.

Suibian_ni

On the contrary I fear that climate change becoming more expensive will just lead to even less political will to pay for solutions. And it’s not even as illogical as it seems. Public funding is limited after all. 

That’s why I always try to focus my advocacy on solutions that save money instead of spending it. Or pointing out how measures can pay for themselves in the short term. 

My biggest success so far was when the local high schools gymnasium was renovated and I managed to get a majority for also installing heat insulation at the same time. It saves like 10kg CO2 per student per year. 

That was only possible because there were grants for doing so and I was willing to make the successful application for the grant a conditional for the project to convince the conservatives to vote for it. The opposition voted against out of a principal opposition to everything we were doing even though they should have been ideologically inclined to support that. Politics can be very hard.

nv87

We dealt with it in carters administration. Some people are smarter than others. I’m afraid now the momentum is against us and this might be the moment it becomes too late to recover.

benmillstein

75,000 people died in Europe from heat related deaths in 2003(?). Not much changed. Define disaster..

I mean if half the population dies then I guess emissions will be halved. I’m not sure that’s what you meant.

Xoxrocks

Uh.... much bigger disasters would be more accurate. like multicountry crop and water failure.

HappycamperNZ

It's so sad how environmental pollution is not the biggest ecological problem anymore. Such a shame because if you fix environmental pollution, you indirectly fix climate change as well...

MukiTensei

Well we're all connected so what happens when the other countries we get our food from start to get drouts that never end or monsoons that won't stop, is a food crisis not a disaster?

JP32793

Environmentalists hoping for a major disaster to bring attention to their cause… 

Sorry guys, the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season turned out to be a fizzle. NOAA predicted above normal hurricane activity, it turned out to be below normal, just five hurricanes instead of the 6-10 predicted (7 is the norm). Despite warmer waters. No hurricane this year made landfall on the United States, for the first time in a decade.

They may have to wait a while for their big disaster, the death and destruction they’re hoping for…

Significant-Ant-2487

We will need much more serious disasters than a few forest fires, to make the public care. Currently, global food production is still rising rapidly, the world population still trundle upwards, the death rate is falling, believe it it not, not rising. 

Even the pandemic barely changed these figures. 

So we need serious apocalypse. I'm taking a million Torontonians bursting into flames on Fox News. Mass cannibalism, the purge, total war. If you have eaten anything in the past week, other than boot leather, then we have not reached sufficient doom yet.

ravenjohnt

What will it take for China to take action?

ObjectPretty

Well Phoenix is in the global north and had 113 consecutive over 100F days last year.  So hot the cactuses starting dying off as they could do their usual C4 photosynthesis trick at night. 

over 600 died of heat in Maricopa county/ year. Don’t see things changing in this car centric, AC powered city. 

BloodWorried7446

Nope, when that happens we will fall back on the easiest, cheapest energy and triple down on it as its an emergency and we will take the quick stupid answer.

Isaiah_The_Bun

The only “disasters” that will deter them is jail time or asset seizure.  A massive civilian death toll will get a few thoughts and prayers.

NearABE

I'm sorry I can't hear you over all the GPUs we're deploying for AGI.

siberianmi

They will pick the cheapest solution, seeding the atmosphere with sulphates. Bye bye blue skies. 

thetraintomars

That’s been obvious to me since the mid 1990s

AlexFromOgish

I saw an article recently that said coffee, wine and chocolate plants are at risk of dying off because the temperature of our planet is now too hot. 

I think the loss of coffee and wine would be bad for the global north as many people drink both.

Anderpug

So they'll all take the slow boat back Home instead of a private jet? This whole COP30 thing is a sham.

tukker51

ahem, much of the 'Global North' has seen substantial emissions declines in the last decade. But don't let facts get in the way of your little story

AccomplishedLynx6054

Fun quiz: what % of total current emissions are from the BRICS countries? Does the West control these countries? Where will future emissions come from?

at what point did the rich countries have "enthusiasm"?

Bruh_zil

There never was any 'enthusiasm'. 

They are ending the kayfabe, and going mask off.

BaronNahNah

It is the only topic on the globe that truly matters, but since the solution requires personal sacrifice, and the outcome is long-term, no one cares. We all live on Easter Island now.

roblewk

China being one of the richest nations on Earth makes the title kinda silly...

But yes. And the thing, China is surging in deployment of renewables because it is trying to drive production, consumption, and economic growth even higher, not because it is trying to solve climate change.

Any nation with at least one scientist briefing the leadership has moved on from the possibility of climate change being solvable. Right now, they are just gearing up for the inevitable resource wars to try and maintain power and growth over the competition for as long as possible.

And, just like every human being that has ever attained power, all they care about is the maintenance of that power for their remaining lifetimes. What happens after doesn't affect them...

Vegetaman916

Nearly every country has its own version of The Caligula Crime Family in charge of things, currently, for who knows why, given our godforsaken circumstances of existence.


Globally, the bullies have shoved the nerdy scientist geeks into the corner while they coal roll their whip. 



Everyone wtih future and climate anxieties along with depressions are simply the canaries in the coal mine for a species that doesn't care if all the birds are dying.


There will come a more serene time in the future where survival will be so challenging that nobody will really have time or energy to spare on bickering about who's science and facts are more accurate.


The screeching of humanity is deafening.


Venus by Tuesday 

Mostest_Importantest

I didnt know we had to be fucking ethusiastic about it. How about you just fucking do it. Im so done with this bullshit.

Malone_Matches

I’ve never lost my enthusiasm. But I’m too poor to actually affect change on the world. Sooo I have to hope the egotistical children we call rich people to have feelings and maybe attempt to toss a cola can in the recycling

AHRA1225

There was only enthusiasm for shifting  the blame to the people--you know, telling us to track our carbon footprint while big companies just kept on doing what they do.

saopaulodreaming

00001000U

Maybe it has something to do with there having been THIRTY COP meetings and not a SINGLE tangible improvement?

The last one was hosted in \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*ing SAUDI ARABIA. Everybody FLIES into the conference. It has NEVER in its existence provided a meaningful way out of the upcoming catastrophe. It has, instead, seemingly satirised itself in every possible way.

gargravarr2112

Ah yes, environmentally friendly China, [the country responsible for half of the world’s coal consumption](https://www.worldometers.info/coal/coal-consumption-by-country/).

BertTKitten

bastardofdisaster

They never had real enthusiasm. At best they had delusion. No one of consequence has said we need to adjust our standard of living.

MySixHourErection

Thier current obsession with AI and data centres is not compatible with cutting carbon emissions.

Still-Improvement-32

futuriztic

mrchacalito

China beat everyone to electric cars and America took their customers and went back to Carbon. 

We could’ve fixed it. But our local rich people demanded more money.

Parking_Revenue5583

We need to understand that it’s lobbyists who control these countries and they care about their own interests and climate change and the environment is not one of them.

PrimalSaturn

Was that "enthusiasm" ever in the room with us?

Epsilon_Meletis

I love how insane you have to be to get put in charge of COP these days. Wealthy countries were super enthusiastic to tackle climate change before, but now they’re not. More countries need to become ecologically conscious like China, with a massive industrial base powered by coal.

I assume the head of COP50 is going to be so delusional they spend the entire conference catatonic with brief periods of muttering ‘carbon credits’ and ‘direct air capture’ just loud enough to make out.

Less_Subtle_Approach

Hey uhh, dumb fucking countries.

The planet remaining habitable isnt a "enthusiasm dependent" kind of problem.

Riokaii

More like rich countries have stopped pretending to care.

Rare-Leg-6013

What do you mean, lost? There was never any enthusiasm. They were just shamed into at least handwaving and going through some motions. 

We've been fucked for 50 years and we remain fucked.

cr0ft

&gt;China is surging ahead in producing and using clean energy equipment

Well okay, but at some point we have to actually cut emissions, and by colossal amounts too. Any movement on that ?

shatners_bassoon123

Sweden hasn’t even sent a minister this year, and we used to be a driving force at many of these negotiations.

SubstanceStrong

you mean rich people want the rest of the poor world to eat their shit?  Wow...shocking.

Straight-Razor666

I think they’re tacitly acknowledging it’s far too late to do anything.

No_Albatross7213

Meanwhile, the US and Europe emissions continue to decline. 


It's not as fast as I would like, but it's in the right direction.

Additional-Sky-7436

There's nothing we can do. This same shit happens every couple thousand years.

InfamousAd6349

Let's just say that with fascists and warmongers rising everywhere it's hard to keep track of what part of the fire we should throw water at first.

loulan

Well the planet doesn't care about your feelings

stormhawk427

The oligarchy. Most people I know are dedicated to climate change action but the bought and paid for politicians won’t move the needle.

katatoria

I'm pretty convinced Russia is stoking anti environmental flames as their entire existence is based on all of us buying thier coal, oil and gas for generations to come.

KoBoWC

Big Oil and other groups have spent decades attacking scientists that study climate  in the way big tobacco did . 

Using cyber attacks, conspiracy theories,  stalking both online and off , ect....

FreedomsPower

Lost enthusiasm?? They can't lose something they never fucking had in the first place.

Voodoo_Masta

The rising climate momentum, and subsequent drop off remind me of that Hunter S Thompson quote about the wave:

“And that, I think, was the handle - that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of old and evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back” 

There was a brief point in time where I thought we would actually change our lifestyles and build a new resilient society. But I hadn’t yet been beaten down with the idea that the global elite will never do anything for the good of the world at the cost of their bottom line. So here we are, barreling towards doom with people slowly accepting we had a chance that isn’t there anymore.

maoterracottasoldier

I’ve said it in the past.  As the US goes, so goes the world (at least Europe).  The US elected a money-grubbing, selfish president with little care for the environment. And shocker, now other countries are following suit.

dirtdaubersdosting

Rich countries know it's going to affect the poorest people in other nations first so zero fucks are given.

anticomet

It's time to start punishing free riders. 


Foreign emissions cause immense harm and should be treated as an act of aggression if not ended in a reasonable timeframe 

Regarding the epstein files AND Climate Change: **Don't have kids, it's the only power we have in this corrupt-pedophile world** 

November 2025: You're getting it now, right? 🚩🌎👀

keyser1981

And I would agree (without reading the article). It is hard to keep people focused on making sustainable choices and doing what is best for the climate, while wars are raging with rampant destruction of people, land and buildings. 

People in developed nations say 'why bother' when other nations are building massive fossil fuel burning power plants and there hasn't been the educational drive needed to show people that China and India and other developing nations need to build these to supply us with our unending need for plastic crap and a new piece of clothing every week.

autistictranspan

Ridiculous. 2 Trillion was spent last year on the energy transition. Action against climate change is at it's peak right now.

Spider_pig448

It's hard to be enthusiastic when you view the world through the surveillance camera of your luxury bunker.

Cognoggin

Oh well. The Earth was nice while it lasted.

reddit_user13

DVMirchev

DrSendy

As over half of total global emissions are now produced by the BRICS countries, there's not that much the 'rich' countries can actually do about global warming any way. The UK now produces less than 1% - what can they do? I know a lot of people will claim the "white knight" can show others how to act, but that's clearly nonsense. 

Much more important are the actions of the Chinese, who both produce the most emissions, but are also the most active in distributing affordable green technologies. No one ever mentions China in these threads.

Could be worth trying to work out ***why*** this is happening. As one comment says, a prime reason is that people have "*a million other things to worry about*".

**What things?** Well very probably, getting and securing a decent adequately paid job, access to good health care and education services, etc. Unfortunately in a good many of the 'rich countries', these things have stagnated or got worse over the last 45 years, as the decent manufacturing jobs that existed post WW2 have been automated out of existence or have moved to countries where workers get paid much less, have worse conditions and fewer rights.

Action on the above social injustices, and on climate change, **both** require government intervention and greater management of the economy (exactly as we had in WW2 and the early post war years), but very wealthy individuals &amp; the politicians they support, fight that tooth-and-nail, arguing instead for *cutting* government services (education, health, etc) and actually *blaming* 'net zero' policies and expenditure (ironic really, since they'll tell you that increasing  government-spending on nuclear bombs etc. 'creates jobs', while spending on wind turbines or healthcare, somehow doesn't  ... You couldn't make it up... and you don't have to since they do that for us!). Plus of course quite a few of these people are heavily invested in oil, gas &amp; coal, and put their money ahead of their grandchildren (and ours).

All of which adds up to a big task, and a **desperate need for a new economics**.

Gold-Loan3142

The leaders have the people haven't since they're the ones effected by it. Businesses are given and take, they'll go with what makes them money.

thinkB4WeSpeak

Brother, we have a million other things to deal with right now why are you surprised.

PbJax

Which is effectively everyone. Not many non-rich countries have the capability to do anything either. They still have enthusiasm for getting projects done and financed by someone else.

Well, apart from a few countries in Europe, who will, if they go alone, be totally screwed over and lose many jobs.

helm

asillyuser9090909

ItyBityGreenieWeenie

How meaningful can it be, when the biggest economy in the world refuses to attend? Americans screwed over the whole world by re-electing the orange pedophile.

mushroomsarefriends

The narrative now for dealing with climate change is basically we're going to overshoot past 1.5C and use magical technology to bring temperatures back down by the end of the century. 

Sounds very convenient for letting BAU continue on. Drill baby drill.

Cutting emissions, previous COPs, the Paris Climate Agreement, talks of 'green growth' and carbon capture and all that was just bullshit. 

These conferences are performative and basically theatre. A reminder to the public that nations come together to discuss these issues and are trying to find some kind of deal. I'm sure there are representatives from countries that are feelings the effects of climate change and will see catastrophe in the near future, hoping to find political solutions. But as is often said, there is little to no political will to do something, *anything,* substantial regarding climate change.

BlackMassSmoker

Green-washing circle-jerk lubed with hopium and greasy corporate propaganda

Garuda34

Should be renamed to COPE30, amiright?

I'll see myself out.

lor_louis

Anyone with the cash to spare is prepping for climate collapse. No one would go to work if they told us we were fucked.

Rick-burp-Sanchez

The political reality is that climate change remains fairly low on the list of concerns of most of the people of the world. And hence the politicians don't really care either. If a politician raises taxes to provide climate finance then they will lose the next election, it is that simple. 

So the only way to achieve real action now is to invent and deliver tech that supports greener solutions at an economical cost. This is what China is doing, and it is the only worthwhile action. The West can help enormously by inventing new solutions, as the West is where most new inventions continue to be made. COP30 should be about delivering new tech at a lower cost, not handouts to cover current excessive costs.

They’ve all been flying their private jets into these fucking things so no. lol 
It’s almost comical!

Archeolops

The moment oil corps lobbies are included you know it's a farce. Expecting the same shit set to be doing one thing to suddenly change its behavior to something opposite is peak insanity.

If they actually cared they wouldn't go physically with jets, they would make a mega virtual conference.

ChromaticStrike

People should have already become disillusioned with politics at this point and started preparing for whatever change they think is actually coming. At a certain point, whining about the fact that politicians are not changing things the way you want is completely delusional. This isn't meant to be a slight, just an observation about what is actually useful and rational behavior.

OmManiPadmeHuumm

The capitalists run it and action is bad for business so nothing will happen.

nugstar

“Impossible to ignore” just means we have to ignore harder.

vinegar

BadgerKomodo

35120red

As COP30 unfolds in Brazil, discussions highlight urgent climate action, focusing on transitioning away from fossil fuels and emphasizing local communities in driving initiatives.

COP30 Climate Negotiations

Why This Matters

Public Sentiment Summary

Highlighted Comments

Parties Involved

What the people want