The world's governments approved a new climate deal at the COP30 summit in Belém, Brazil, adopting the so‑called Belém Package, a bundle of decisions that calls for tripling outlays to help vulnerable countries adapt to intensifying climate impacts.

President Donald Trump praised Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as "incredible in terms of human rights" during an Oval Office meeting Nov. 18, preemptively deflecting questions about the kingdom's extensive record of abuses as the crown prince pledged $1 trillion in US investments.

Indigenous groups held protests Nov. 14 in Belém, blocking the main entrance to the restricted area at the UN Climate Summit (COP30) to demand that the Brazilian government halt extractive projects that jeopardize their cultures and livelihoods.

Following another year of record temperatures and powerful storms, world leaders are gathering in Belém, Brazil, ahead of the official opening of the COP30 climate talks. But the leaders attending—notably, they do not include US President Donald Trump—will be confronted by the fraying global consensus on climate change, amid difficult geopolitical headwinds. A major risk to multilateral climate action is the presidency of Trump, who has described global warming as the world's "greatest con job." Reuters reported that some European officials have been bracing for a possible intervention by the Trump administration—despite the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. Washington recently torpedoed a carbon levy on shipping, and the European officials are worried that the Trump administration could make threats with tariffs or visa restrictions to influence the COP talks too. "If they pull the same tactics, I think there's zero chance of having any sort of rallying around the Paris Agreement in response," one official told Reuters.

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum on Oct. 23 announced that he will open the entire 1.56 million acres of the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and gas leasing. These lands are sacred to the Gwich'in Nation, home to irreplaceable wildlife, and have never seen industrialization.

In an action taken during a government shutdown, the Department of Interior (DoI) held a press conference to announce a series of resource development decisions aimed at opening up Alaska for the benefit of corporate interests. A key announcement was the rescission of the Biden administration's restrictive drilling program for the refuge. The DoI is now essentially replacing that program with the previous Trump-era plan to fully open the Coastal Plain of the ANWR to oil and gas development.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced Sept. 30 that he is ready to declare a state of emergency in response to aggression by the United States. Such a declaration would give the army control over public services and the country's oil industry, which Venezuelan leaders say the US is preparing to grab. The US has increased its naval presence in the Caribbean over the past weeks and launched repeated deadly strikes on civilian vessels in international waters off Venezuela. President Trump has claimed, without evidence, that the vessels were carrying drug traffickers. In a confidential notice sent to several Congressional committees and obtained by the New York Times, the White House said that the US is engaged in a formal "armed conflict" with drug cartels that his team has labeled terrorist organizations, and that suspected smugglers for such groups are "unlawful combatants." 

The international process to tackle climate change is still alive—but the vital target of restricting warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels under the 2015 Paris Agreement might not be. More than 100 countries submitted their national climate plans to the UN General Assembly meeting in New York. The "nationally determined contribution" policies (NDCs) are crucial for collective global progress to reduce greenhouse emissions. The fact that officials turned up with documents in hand is itself notable in a year fraught with international tension and growing climate-denialist narratives (Donald Trump in his speech to the General Assembly dismissed climate change as "the greatest con job ever.") But the NDCs, including from major polluter China, are nothing close to sufficient to meet the 1.5°C "survival limit," said Romain Ioualalen, policy chief at Oil Change International.

Three days of drone attacks on oil-fields in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region have brought operations at several facilities to a halt and slashed crude output. The targeted sites include fields at Zakho, operated by Norway's DNO; the Sarsang field, operated by US-based HKN Energy; and the Ain Sifni field, operated by Hunt Oil, all in Dohuk governorate. Kurdistan authorities also said a drone was downed near Erbil airport, which hosts US troops. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Kurdish authorities blamed the Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Units, a paramilitary network aligned with the Baghdad government and backed by Iran. The attacks come amid renewed dispute between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government over whether the KRG may enter into hydrocarbon contracts with foreign firms. In May, the central government filed a complaint against the KRG for signing gas contracts with two US companies, including HKN Energy, asserting that all oil and gas deals must go through Baghdad. (Daily Sabah, Arab Weekly)