Ten years ago, almost every country in the world agreed to sign the Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty, committing all nations to make every effort to limit the rise in global warming to 1.5C.
At that stage in 2015, the world was on course for a catastrophic 4C of warming by the end of the century.
Now, if all climate actions and greenhouse gas reduction measures promised by Governments are delivered on time, global warming by the end of this century could be limited to 2.8C.
This is a testament to the pressure applied at all COP climate summits in the intervening ten years.
It is enormously difficult and complex to get more than 190 disparate countries with competing interests to agree about greenhouse gas emissions, climate adaptation, energy transformation, climate finance, and the phasing out of fossil fuels.
But progress has clearly been made.
Slow progress of course, and so much more needs to be done.
The climate action promises and pledges signed up to by governments must still be delivered and time is running out.
Scientists say that at the current rate of warming, global temperatures will have surpassed that first key Paris Climate target of 1.5C by 2030 and will have exceeded 2C of warming by 2048.
But managing to reduce the global warming trajectory from 4C to 2.8C shows the importance and value of the climate negotiations that are about to take place at COP30 in Brazil over the next two weeks.
The Brazilian government chose the city of Belém, located in the Amazon region beside the world's most important rainforest, as the location for this year’s marathon climate talks.
Geopolitical considerations and global divisions, combined to the decision of the Trump Administration to pull the United States out of the climate agreement, will make it very difficult to form a new consensus.
The focus instead will be on delivering the pledges governments have already signed up to and the climate commitments already promised.
Dr Cara Augustenborg is head of Environment Policy at University College Dublin. She says COP30 will be the ultimate test on whether tackling climate change is still a shared global mission.
"I think we need to see COP30 to save multilateralism at a time when the world is more divided than ever, more distracted than ever, and we're running out of time to address climate chaos.
"I don't know if what's happening in the United States right now and in Russia, the Ukraine and Gaza, has just consumed everybody's bandwidth. Can the world put the focus back on climate change in the way it needs to be? That is what this COP is going to be about.
"Will Trump's approach to climate distract people? Will people continue to bend the knee to him? Or will they be willing to get to work and really focus on the climate problem and put implementation right at the forefront of their plans," she said.
Almost every part of the world is being impacted by more intense heat, storms, floods, drought, and wildfires.
Last year was the hottest year on record and global temperatures are rising by 0.27C per decade.
The recently published Annual State of the Climate report, by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and others, highlighted that wildfires in tropical primary forest are up 370% since 2023, fuelling rising greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss.
In recent years, surface temperatures, ocean temperatures, and sea ice extent records have all been broken by extraordinary margins indicating that the pace of global warming is accelerating.
Read more: Latest climate changes stories
Last year saw the largest coral bleaching event ever recorded, affecting 84% of global coral reef area, all due to record ocean heat.
The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are at record lows.
Sea level rise is accelerating.
There are fears the ice sheets may have passed tipping points, potentially locking in very significant rises in global sea levels in the decades to come.
In the 124 years since 1901, the rise in global sea levels has averaged 22.8cm. However, one fifth of that increase has occurred in the past ten years alone.
The cost of climate-related damages since the year 2000 has reached more than $18 trillion and is rising.
All these changes are being driven by rising greenhouse gas levels, resulting from human activity, particularly the burning of fossil fuels.
The weakest and poorest nations are least responsible for the greenhouse gas emission that causes all this. Yet they are the most exposed to the impacts of climate change and suffer the most.
"Ireland and the EU's credibility will be on the line if they fail to step up to their responsibilities at COP30"
Trócaire’s Climate Justice and Advocacy Adviser Sinéad Loughran says there is a lack of ambition coming to COP30, especially from the countries that historically have emitted the highest greenhouse gas emissions and bear the greatest responsibility to act.
"It will be completely unacceptable for EU, and Ireland, to go to COP30 unprepared to take their fair share of action and step up to their responsibilities. We need to see an urgent commitment to a fossil fuel phase out. Crucially, there must be no new fossil fuel infrastructure, including no LNG terminal in Ireland.
"Ireland’s carbon budgets need to start reflecting equity and fairness and making a meaningful commitment to the 1.5C warming limit. Climate vulnerable countries must not be further burdened to counteract our climate failures. Ireland and the EU's credibility will be on the line if they fail to step up to their responsibilities at COP30," she says.
Watch: Minister expecting 'robust' climate talks at COP30
Minister for Climate Darragh O’Brien will have a special ringside seat at the COP30 negotiations and a key observer role.
Ireland is due to take over the Presidency of the EU for a six-month period starting in July next year. So, by the time COP31 comes around in 2026, Ireland will be leading the EU delegation.
To ensure proper continuity for the EU stance, it is important that the minister is included at a high level as an observer in Belém.
He says Europe will be looking for a major focus on implementation of existing climate commitments at COP30.
"I'm expecting quite a robust negotiation. Europe has done well in relation to emissions reductions. Ireland too, where greenhouse gas emissions have fallen over the last three years. We are now back to 1990 levels of emissions, despite strong population and economic growth."
The minister says Ireland has a good story to tell at COP30 particularly around renewable energy.
"We are the most successful in Europe at integrating renewable energy with more than 40% renewable electricity last year, and more this year. We have a responsibility in Ireland to double down on the efforts we are making, but also to bring people along with us too," Mr O’Brien said.
