BELEM, Brazil — Higher-ranking government ministers took charge of negotiations during Monday’s United Nations climate talks, facing pressure to do more — and do it fast.

The summit, known as COP30, opened its second week with foreign and other ministers stepping in for the lower-level negotiators who handled the first week. They have far more power and leeway to make tough political decisions, and U.N. Climate Executive Secretary Simon Stiell told them to use it.

“The spirit is there, but the speed is not,” Stiell said. “The pace of change in the real economy has not been matched by the pace of progress in these negotiating rooms. As climate disasters wrecked millions of lives and hammer every economy, pushing up prices for food and other basic needs, we all know what’s at stake.”

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