Climate summit hears from countries suffering from harms, destruction linked to global warming

BELEM, Brazil (AP) — Officials from countries most vulnerable to global warming offered searing dispatches of life on the front line of a warming planet Friday, as world leaders gathered on the edge of the Amazon rainforest for the annual United Nations climate talks.

Ahead of Monday's official kickoff, officials have sought to build support for initiatives to protect forests and to streamline carbon markets, which seek to reduce the emissions that drive warming. But the meetings also took time to hear impassioned testimony about the harms climate change is dealing around the world.

Haitian diplomat Smith Augustin, whose country was pummeled by Hurricane Melissa, appealed to wealthier countries that produce the greatest share of the world’s emissions to support Haiti in preparing for bigger storms. Developed countries pledged $300 billion to help poor nations cope with climate shocks at last year’s summit, but the money has yet to be distributed.

“The hurricanes and the heavy rain devastated my country,” said Augustin. “Developing countries, and especially the small island states, are the least responsible for climate change."

Kithure Kindiki, Kenya’s vice president, said rescuers in his country are still searching for scores of people missing after a deadly landslide triggered by torrential rain sent muddy water crashing into villages last week.

“A previously once-in-a-century cycle of extreme droughts alternating with devastating floods continues to wipe out lives,” he said. “This has now become common.”

And Kalani Kaneko, the foreign minister of the Pacific Island nation of the Marshall Islands, said his country already is living a nightmare.

“All we have to do is look out our front doors to witness the impact of climate change,” he said. “Now the sea rises, the coral dies and the fish stock leaves our shores for cooler waters.”

Officials warn that it has become almost impossible to keep global warming below the key Paris Agreement benchmark of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit).

Last year was the hottest year on record. Scientists say that every fraction of a degree of atmospheric heating unleashes longer droughts, deadlier heat waves and more intense storms.

Hurricane Melissa has made that painfully clear, said Racquel Moses, director of the Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator, a coalition investing in climate resilience.

“It will be much, much harder to ignore the Caribbean, to talk around the issues that are absolutely real, because we just had this experience,” said Moses, who has family in Jamaica. “The very way that we live is dependent on these negotiations going according to plan."

World leaders who were not in the room on Friday were perhaps as important as those who were.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who calls climate change a hoax and prioritizes fossil fuels, boycotted the summit, leaving a hole that many other world powers sought to fill.

Although China’s leader, Xi Jinping, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India also skipped the conference, the officials sent in their place used the podium to revive lagging enthusiasm about the global energy transition and assure the gathering that multilateralism was not dead just because the U.S. wished it so.

Praising his country's massive installations of wind and solar power, Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang promised to “accelerate the green transition in all areas.” Although China is by far the world's biggest carbon emitter, Ding made clear it was still a leader in switching to cleaner forms of energy.

“China is a country that honors its commitments,” he said.

Indian diplomat Dinesh Bahata on Friday touted his country’s expansion of renewables to half of all energy capacity, portraying the Global South as bending toward the future of affordable, clean power while political calculations trapped wealthier nations in an outdated addiction to fossil fuels.

“While developing countries take decisive climate action,” he said, “developed countries fall short.”

Others criticized that imbalance, with Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, the chairman of the African Union Commission, questioning how developing nations were expected to decarbonize at a time when financial assistance for poor countries is faltering and the U.S., the world's biggest oil producer, is cashing in on heightened demand for hydrocarbons.

“We do not ask for charity, but for climate justice,” he said.

Maina Vakafua Talia, the environmental minister of the island nation of Tuvalu, at one point addressed Trump directly over the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. “Mr. President, this is a shameful disregard for the rest of the world,” he said.

The White House shot back that Trump “will not jeopardize our country’s economic and national security to pursue vague climate goals that are killing other countries.”

Attendees said they made progress on two initiatives over the past two days: Financial incentives to support endangered forests and a shared global carbon market.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was working to win support for a signature new fund that would pay 74 developing countries to better preserve their rainforests.

The fund drew $5.5 billion in pledges on the first day of the U.N. climate summit, as Norway and France joined Brazil and Indonesia in investing. Germany said Friday it would make a “considerable” commitment. The scheme eventually seeks to leverage investments into $125 billion.

Finland's President Alexander Stubb hailed the fund as a model for how to drive climate solutions.

“What we might be seeing now, according to studies, is a turn of the tide on carbon dioxide emissions,” he told The Associated Press. “This is because of financing. This is because of innovation. … That’s why I think (the fund) is a good idea.”

Also on Friday, Brazil and the European Union announced that they were joining forces with China and several other countries to create a coalition aimed at uniting the world's different emission trading systems into a single global carbon market.

A shared carbon pricing framework would motivate countries and companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by allowing those that pollute less than their assigned emission caps to sell credits to counterparts that exceed theirs. It has long been notoriously difficult to get nations on the same page about emission limits and prices.

Brazil has billed this summit in the Amazonian city of Belem as uniquely inclusive of Indigenous leaders who have long been sidelined from decision-making in past climate talks despite feeling the most adverse effects of global warming.

Lula's government, which includes Brazil's first-ever Indigenous Peoples' Ministry, expects over 3,000 Indigenous delegates to participate this month as both members of civil society and negotiators. For comparison, last year's summit in Azerbaijan drew just 170 Indigenous people.

“This time, world leaders are coming Belem, to the heart of the Amazon, closer to our homes, our rivers, our territories," said Olivia Bisa, leader of the Chapra nation in Peru. Although Indigenous people cannot represent tribal nations in the talks, Bisa and others will have a greater role as delegates negotiating on behalf of their nation-states.

“We need to be in the room, not right outside of it," she said.

Their protests have also shined a light on the contradictions of host Brazil promoting itself as a defender of the Amazon rainforest. Lula's recent approval of an oil drilling project at the mouth of the Amazon river has set off demonstrations and outrage.

On Friday, outside Belem in the wider state of Para, hundreds of Indigenous people scaled cargo boats on the strategic Tapajos River to denounce separate plans for a new railway that would slice through their lands.

“This is our message to the leaders of the world,” Marília Sena, a leader of the Tupinamba nation, told reporters. "We want people to see us who have been here for centuries, caring for the forest and the river.”

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Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva flashes two thumbs-up during the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit in Belem, Brazil, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

People stay inside a shelter for families displaced by gang violence, flooded by rain brought by Hurricane Melissa, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

FILE - People gather among debris near a bridge in Black River, Jamaica, Oct. 30, 2025, in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)

A worker rolls chairs in preparation for the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025, in Belem, Brazil. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Germany Chancellor Friedrich Merz speaks during a press conference at the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit in Belem, Brazil, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

From left, Chile President Gabriel Boric, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Para's Gov. Helder Barbalho and Somalia Deputy Prime Minister Salah Ahmed Jama hold hands during the group photo of the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit in Belem, Brazil, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Top row from left, Cuba Vice Prime Minister Eduardo Martinez Diaz, COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev, COP30 President Andre Correa do Lago, New Development Bank president Dilma Rousseff and Equatorial Guinea Deputy Prime Minister Gaudencio Mohaba Messu attending the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit pose for a group photo in Belem, Brazil, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gives thumbs-up during the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit in Belem, Brazil, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, right, and Germany Chancellor Friedrich Merz join hands after meeting during the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit in Belem, Brazil, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva looks on as leaders take their places for the group photo at the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit in Belem, Brazil, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Chile President Gabriel Boric, left, United Nation Secretary General Antionio Guterres and Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, right, talk during the group photo of the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit in Belem, Brazil, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Leaders attending the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit pose for a group photo in Belem, Brazil, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

From left, Chile President Gabriel Boric Font, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Governor of the state of Para Helder Barbalho attending the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit pose for a group photo in Belem, Brazil, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Finland's President Alexander Stubb waves during the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit in Belem, Brazil, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Brazil's Environment Minister Marina Silva, center, Minister of Climate and the Environment of Norway Andreas Bjelland Eriksen, left, and Brazil's Economy Minister Fernando Haddad arrive to hold a press conference during the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, in Belem, Brazil, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva speaks during a roundtable with leaders of tropical forest countries and nations committed to investing in the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) during the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit in Belem, Brazil, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

An aerial view of fishing boats from the Caju Una community fishing in the Porto stream, Marajo Island, Para state, Brazil, Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, center, talks to Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, left, and Britain's Prince William during the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit in Belem, Brazil, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Target is investing another $2 billion in its business this year to spruce up and remodel stores among other projects as it tries to turn around a persistent sales malaise and reclaim its authority on style.

The investment, announced Tuesday at its annual investor meeting in at its headquarters in Minneapolis, comes as the discounter reported another quarter of declining sales and profits amid its struggles to regain its footing with customers who are going elsewhere for fashion, home and other needs.

Tuesday's report offered some hope for the business. The company delivered a solid annual profit outlook that was better than Wall Street had been projecting. It also said it believes net sales will grow every quarter this year.

Target said comparable-store sales rose to start the current quarter.

“This is a new chapter, and it's all about growth,” said CEO Michael Fiddelke, a 20-year company veteran who succeeded longtime CEO Brian Cornell last month.

Fiddelke and other executives detailed plans to turn around Target as investors have been hungry for a return to Target’s former dominance in affordable chic for which it earned it the nickname “Tarzhay” in years past.

Target said that its stores will get the biggest refresh this year than they have had in roughly a decade. The company will invest hundreds of millions of dollars for additional store labor and training. And it plans to open 30 new stores and aims to remodel 130 of its existing stores.

In particular, Target is launching a new beauty area called Target Beauty Studio in 600 stores this fall, which will offer upscale beauty products and beauty services. The new area will partly replace its shops with Ulta, which is ending its partnership in August, the company said.

Fiddelke takes over with Target’s hometown of Minneapolis a front line of sorts in President Donald Trump’s campaign to curb illegal immigration. Some of the company’s stores have become a flashpoint in a pushback against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The company has faced pressure to take a public stand against the immigration crackdown.

Even before the immigration clashes, Target had been facing protests and boycotts over the company’s decision to roll back its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Critics believe it's a betrayal of Target’s philanthropic commitment to fighting racial disparities and promoting progressive values in liberal Minneapolis and beyond.

That is outside of a volatile economic and political environment that has been intensified by an aggressive trade campaign under Trump. The White House is now seeking a global tariff of 15%, after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down many of the far-reaching taxes on imports that he had imposed over the last year.

While the pace of inflation has cooled, consumer prices have soared about 25% over the past five years. U.S. companies are facing a hazy outlook with American households hurting, and the Trump administration is trying to work around the Supreme Court ruling to keep his duties in place.

And Target customers have soured on what they see as untended and messy stores with lackluster merchandise.

As the company’s nearly 2,000 store locations have become shipping hubs for online operations, customers say the in-store shopping experience has suffered with staff fulfilling digital orders rather than tending to store aisles.

Target is also facing stiffer competition from Walmart, which has stepped up its focus on fashion and other goods. As many Americans trade down because of inflation, Walmart has gained market share, particularly among households with annual income above $100,000.

Fiddelke has already reshuffled the leadership team at Target, boosted spending on in-store store staffing and made cuts at distribution facilities and regional offices, according to a memo sent to employees in February.

Target said it's focusing merchandise category by category and infusing its assortment with new differentiated items to set itself from its competitors. For example, in the home area, 75% of the company's home decorative assortment will be new.

The company is also reworking its store label brands such as its home goods brand called Threshold. It announced a merchandise collaboration with Roller Rabbit, a brand known for its 1960s-inspired silhouettes and colorful playful prints. The collection of clothing, pajamas and accessories is expected to make its debut at Target this month for a limited time.

The company said it's adding more fashion drops this year and using an artificial intelligence tool to better spot trends. In some examples, it's cutting the time frame from a design concept to store shelves to a matter of weeks from over a year, according to Cara Sylvester, Target’s chief merchandising officer.

And in food, the company is hoping to drive more trips by expanding its fresh produce while also offering innovative items. This year, it plans to increase the amount of newness across the assortment by nearly 50%, it said.

The company earned $2.30 per share, or $1.05 billion, for the three-month period ended Jan. 31. That compares with $2.41 per share, or $1.10 billion, during the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings per share for the most recent quarter was $2.44.

Sales fell 1.5% to $30.45 billion during the latest period. For the full year, sales fell nearly 2% to $104.78 billion.

Analysts were expecting $2.16 per share on sales of $30.46 billion, according to a survey by FactSet.

Comparable sales — sales at established stores and online channels — fell 2.5%, followed by a 2.7% dip in the fiscal third quarter. The latest figure marks 11 quarters out of the past 13 that Target has posted either declines or flattish growth for this measure.

Tuesday’s report offered some hopeful signs for the business. Target said that sales and customer traffic accelerated in the final two months of the quarter. And it saw sales growth in food and beverage, beauty and toys for the latest quarter.

Target said that it expects net sales for the year to increase by 2%, which would mean it expects sales to reach $106.88 billion. That’s a bit above analysts’ expectations of $106.7 billion. Target also anticipates earnings per share to be in the range of $7.50 to $8.50. Analysts are expecting $7.30 per share for the year, according to analysts polled by FactSet.

Products sit on display at a Target store, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Edina, Minn. (AP Photo/Anne D'Innocenzio)

Products sit on display at a Target store, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Edina, Minn. (AP Photo/Anne D'Innocenzio)

FILE - The Target logo displayed on a sign outside a store, Nov. 18, 2025, in Salem, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

Products sit on display at a Target store, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Edina, Minn. (AP Photo/Anne D'Innocenzio)