Virtual Summit Seeks to Galvanize Climate Change Adaptation

Wind turbines are seen on a dike near Urk, Netherlands, Friday, Jan. 22, 2021. A group of scientists, including five Nobel laureates, called Friday for more action to adapt the world to the effects of climate change, drawing comparisons with the faltering response to the coronavirus crisis, ahead of a major online conference on climate adaptation starting Monday and hosted by the Netherlands. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Wind turbines are seen on a dike near Urk, Netherlands, Friday, Jan. 22, 2021. A group of scientists, including five Nobel laureates, called Friday for more action to adapt the world to the effects of climate change, drawing comparisons with the faltering response to the coronavirus crisis, ahead of a major online conference on climate adaptation starting Monday and hosted by the Netherlands. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
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Virtual Summit Seeks to Galvanize Climate Change Adaptation

Wind turbines are seen on a dike near Urk, Netherlands, Friday, Jan. 22, 2021. A group of scientists, including five Nobel laureates, called Friday for more action to adapt the world to the effects of climate change, drawing comparisons with the faltering response to the coronavirus crisis, ahead of a major online conference on climate adaptation starting Monday and hosted by the Netherlands. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Wind turbines are seen on a dike near Urk, Netherlands, Friday, Jan. 22, 2021. A group of scientists, including five Nobel laureates, called Friday for more action to adapt the world to the effects of climate change, drawing comparisons with the faltering response to the coronavirus crisis, ahead of a major online conference on climate adaptation starting Monday and hosted by the Netherlands. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

World leaders are converging - virtually - on the Netherlands Monday for a summit that will seek to galvanize more action and funding to adapt the planet and vulnerable communities to the effects of climate change.

The Netherlands-based Global Center on Adaptation last week called on governments and financiers around the globe to include funding for adaptation projects in their COVID-19 recovery spending.

Dutch Overseas Trade and Development Cooperation Minister Sigrid Kaag got the ball rolling by announcing that the summit's host nation will pump 20 million euros ($24 million) into an adaptation fund for the world's least-developed nations and 100 million euros ($121 million) into a program for sustainable farming in Africa's Sahel region.

Kaag said that by using new and existing adaptation techniques, "we can build a climate-proof future together and promote sustainable economic growth in all parts of Africa."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will use the Climate Adaptation Summit to announce a new Adaptation Action Coalition that brings together more than 120 countries along with the European Union and nearly 90 other organizations to double down on climate adaptation efforts.

Other world leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also are taking part in the 24-hour summit, along with new US President Joe Biden's climate envoy, John Kerry.

Last Thursday, Kerry spoke remotely to an Italian business conference and lamented "wasted years" under the Trump administration to slow climate change and urged faster work to curb fossil fuel emissions.

Biden, in his first hours in office Wednesday, signed an executive order returning the United States to the Paris climate accord. It reversed the withdrawal by President Donald Trump, who ridiculed the science of human-caused climate change.

Host nation the Netherlands has centuries of experience in adapting to the threat of water, from major rivers that run through the low-lying nation to its long North Sea coast. It shares and exports the know-how around the world, for example to flood-prone Mozambique, where Dutch experts have helped strengthen drainage systems and coastal defenses.



Trump Holds Situation Room Meeting on Iran, Officials Say 

People walk at the Tehran Bazaar in Tehran, Iran, April 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
People walk at the Tehran Bazaar in Tehran, Iran, April 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
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Trump Holds Situation Room Meeting on Iran, Officials Say 

People walk at the Tehran Bazaar in Tehran, Iran, April 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
People walk at the Tehran Bazaar in Tehran, Iran, April 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

President Donald Trump met with his top national security aides on Tuesday to discuss Iran's nuclear program ahead of a second meeting between US and Iranian officials on Saturday, sources said.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff is to meet his Iranian counterpart on Saturday, a session currently scheduled to be held in Oman. Trump spoke to the sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, about Oman's mediation role between Washington and Tehran.

A White House official confirmed the White House Situation Room meeting on Iran and said the location was not unusual since Trump gets briefed there regularly to take advantage of the chamber's secure setting.

A second source briefed on the meeting said Trump and his top aides discussed the Iran talks and next steps. US officials have been working on a framework for a potential nuclear deal.

Trump has threatened military action against Iran if it does not give up its nuclear program while also stressing the need for diplomacy and negotiations.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Trump's bottom line in the talks, which included an initial session last Saturday, is he wanted to use negotiations to ensure Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.

Trump and the Omani leader also discussed ongoing US operations against Yemen's Houthis, she said.

"The maximum pressure campaign on Iran continues," Leavitt said at a press briefing. "The president has made it clear he wants to see dialogue and discussion with Iran, while making his directive about Iran never being able to obtain a nuclear weapon quite clear."

She added that he had "emphasized" this directive during the call with Sultan Haitham.

Both sides described last weekend's US-Iran talks in Oman as positive.

Trump has restored a "maximum pressure" campaign on Tehran since February, after he ditched a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers during his first term and reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran.

Iran's nuclear program has leaped forward since then. The two countries held indirect talks during former President Joe Biden's term but made little, if any progress.

Iran's clerical rulers have publicly said that demands such as dismantling the country's peaceful nuclear program or its conventional missile capabilities were off the table.