Dozens of ministers and several heads of state and government, including those of Spain, Germany, and Namibia, are meeting in Belem, Brazil for a second day of meetings on Friday just before the United Nations' annual two-week conference, COP30, which starts on Monday.
UN chief Antonio Guterres and a series of national leaders said on Thursday that the world will fail to keep global warming below 1.5C, the Paris Agreement's primary target set a decade ago, but said they have not yet given up on its fallback goal of 2C.
The absence of leaders from the world's biggest polluters, including the United States, where President Donald Trump has dismissed climate science as a "con job," cast a shadow over talks, but also catalysed calls for greater mobilisation.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's call in his opening address for a "roadmap" to halt deforestation, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and mobilise the financial resources needed to achieve those goals was met with applause.
The coalition backing Lula's call includes numerous small island states whose very survival is threatened by stronger cyclones and rising sea levels.
Here is what leaders from several low and middle-income countries said in the lead-up to the conference.
Syria calls for investment in renewable energy
Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa called for international investment in renewable energy and sustainable urban development in Syria, emphasising his country’s commitment to reconstruction aligned with global climate goals.
Speaking at the COP30 leaders’ summit, Sharaa said Syria has faced “complex environmental challenges in recent years, whose effects have accumulated on both people and resources,” worsened by conflict and large-scale displacement that placed “additional pressure on already strained resources.”
He noted that Syria suffered its worst drought in more than six decades this year, describing it as proof of the “peak” of climate crisis impacts on the country.
“Our ambitious vision is reflected in our reconstruction and recovery plans, which we have begun implementing and translating into practical policies, programmes, and projects,” the president said.
“That is why we invite you to invest in Syria — in sectors such as renewable energy, sustainable green cities, and pioneering investment projects that are protected, supported, and guaranteed by the state.”
Small island states: ‘Coalition of the Willing’
At the summit, Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados, one of the many small island nations that are most vulnerable to sea level rise and extreme events such as hurricanes and typhoons, said: "The world, my friends, has never been changed by spectators and naysayers."
Motley was commenting on Trump’s undermining of the climate crisis.
"Do we need everybody acting at the same time? That would be ideal. But if we don't, then we must construct a coalition of the willing and show everyone what they stand to benefit," Mottley added.
She also called on the world to “pull the methane brake”, a "super pollutant" and the main component of natural gas, prone to leaking from pipelines and installations.
Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of the Caribbean state Antigua and Barbuda, also a small, low-lying island nation, railed against the "large polluters (who) continue to deliberately destroy our marine and terrestrial environments with their poisonous fossil fuel gases."
