UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell has said the two-week long COP30 climate negotiations that begin in Belém must send a clear signal that nations are fully on board for climate co-operation.
It follows the strong affirmation from the political leaders COP30 summit last week of the need for collective multilateral climate action.
Having all countries working together, cooperating, and coordinating their climate efforts is essential.
That was one of the strong messages repeatedly echoed in political speeches at the summit on Thursday and Friday last week.
The fact that this was consistently echoed in many of the speeches, is seen as a response to the Trump administration taking the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement, and claiming climate change is "a hoax".
Speaking in advance of the opening of the formal COP30 negotiations later, the most senior UN executive in charge of climate change said the negotiators must now achieve three things.
They must agree strong outcomes on all key issues to underscore that all nations are fully on board for climate cooperation.
They must speed up implementation of climate action pledges across all sectors of all economies.
They also must connect climate action to people's real lives - to help spread its benefits including stronger growth, more jobs, less pollution and better health, and more affordable, secure energy.
The UN climate chief said it is clear that the Paris Agreement is delivering real progress, but the pace of progress needs to be accelerated by the COP30 talks.
He added that devastating climate damages are happening already, from Hurricane Melissa hitting the Caribbean, super typhoons smashing Vietnam and the Philippines, to a tornado ripping through southern Brazil.
The World Meteorological Organisation confirmed last week that 2025 will be either the second or third warmest year on record.
Each of the 10 hottest years ever recorded occurred over the past decade.
Watch: George Lee looks at what to expect in Belém this week
UN Secretary General António Guterres said in his speech last week that global temperatures will temporarily go above 1.5 degrees Celsius in the early part of the next decade.
He said 1.5 degrees is a red line for a livable planet and that allowing it to be exceeded is a moral failure and a deadly negligence.
He called for a paradigm shift in terms of the efforts and the focus of nations to do everything possible to minimise the amount of time that global temperatures stay above 1.5 degrees.
Mr Guterres said every year above 1.5 degrees can lead to catastrophic and irreversible damage.
Even a temporary overshoot would cause dramatic consequences and can push ecosystems, such as the already endangered coral reefs, past their tipping point for survival.
Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called for COP30 to be "the COP of truth", one that takes seriously the warnings of science.
He majored on the notion that there can be no solution to climate crisis without tackling inequality within countries, and between countries.
He has also ensured that the role of forests and biodiversity will be given prime billing.
Read more: 'Virtually impossible' to achieve 1.5C climate target, says UN
Watch: What is a climate tipping point?
Traditionally, all the focus at COP negotiations has been on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
More recently, there has been some more focus on adaptation and the changes needed to lives, livelihoods, and infrastructure to ensure that people can live with the challenges of climate change.
But this was the first time in 30 years of talking at COP negotiations that the so-called lungs of the planet, the rainforests that absorb so much of the carbon dioxide humanity pumps into the atmosphere, is getting a top billing.
President Lula launched a major new initiative, the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, to raise $25 billion (€22bn) from governments towards protecting rainforests like the Amazon.
Once that money is raised, the plan is to go to financial markets and raise another $100 billion for the fund.
This would enable massive amounts of money to be channeled to supports for countries that ensure rainforests remain standing and are not exploited.
This is to ensure an acre of rainforest left standing and protected will always be more valuable than an acre of forest land cleared for farming.
The world is currently losing an area equivalent to 18 football pitches worth of rain forests every single minute.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin called the Tropical Forest Forever Facility "interesting".
He said the Government will assess it, but he pointed out that the Government has already pledged $15 million over three years to the Amazon Investment Fund, a different vehicle altogether.
Wealthy Norway, one of the biggest oil producers in the world, gave the tropical rain forest forever facility a big boost, with a promise of $3 billion over 10 years.
China said it would invest too, but it did not say how much.
European countries including France and Germany, but not the UK, indicated that they, too would provide money.
There will also be a strong focus in the coming negotiations on linking climate action to social and economic conditions, and an emphasis that climate action must be fair and inclusive and must respect indigenous and local communities.
The pressures and the arguments over climate finance will again be a key issue at these COP talks.
An official document, "the Call of Belém for Climate" published at the end of the leaders' summit emphasised the urgency of restoring mutual trust and collective mobilisation among nations.
The biggest mistrust has always been the failure, and slowness of rich industrial countries, to provide access to climate finance for poorer countries, access that has been promised for so long.
Expect this issue to feature in a big way in the negotiations ahead at COP30.
