opinion

Activists participate in a demonstration outside the COP30 venue in Belem, Brazil, on Thursday.

John Rapley is a contributing columnist for The Globe and Mail. He is an author and academic whose books include Why Empires Fall and Twilight of the Money Gods .

The COP30 climate conference got under way this week in Brazil under something of a cloud. Boycotted by U.S. President Donald Trump , who has called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world,” it’s attracted less than half the attendees of the one two years ago. Whether pressured by Washington, or seizing licence from it, many countries, Canada among them, have backpedalled on their climate policies as politicians who say we can’t afford the luxury of solving climate change gain influence.

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