On eve of UN climate talks in Brazil, a call for less talking and more doing

By SETH BORENSTEIN and MAURICIO SAVARESE, Associated Press

BELEM, Brazil (AP) — For 30 years, world leaders and diplomats have gathered at United Nations negotiating sessions to try to curb climate change, but Earth’s temperature continues to rise and extreme weather worsens .

So this month, they’re hoping for fewer promises and more action.

Past pledges from nearly 200 nations have fallen far short and new plans submitted this year barely speed up pollution-fighting efforts , experts say. And if the numbers aren’t sobering enough for world leaders when they kick off the action Thursday, there’s the setting: Belem, a relatively poor city on the edge of a weakened Amazon.

Unlike past climate negotiations — and especially the one 10 years ago that forged the landmark Paris clima