End of fossil fuel era inches closer as Cop30 deal agreed after bitter standoff | Cop30

The world took a small step closer to the end of the fossil fuel era on Saturday, but not enough to stop the ravages of climate collapse.

Countries meeting for two weeks in Brazil were only able to reach a voluntary agreement to begin discussions on a road map for the eventual phase-out of fossil fuels, and they achieved this incremental progress only despite relentless opposition from oil-producing countries.

Talks were pulled back from the brink of collapse in an all-night session by Saturday morning after a bitter dispute between a coalition of more than 80 developed and developing countries and a group led by Saudi Arabia and its allies plus Russia.

Campaigners were disappointed but relieved that the talks had made at least some progress. Developing countries have achieved some of their goals in global talks that have tripled financial support from rich countries to help them adapt to the effects of the climate crisis. To comply, developed countries need to receive $120bn (£92bn) a year from the $300bn pledged to them last year, but not until 2035 rather than the 2030 deadline they had requested. Many had hoped for the increase to be over $300 billion.

The omission of a road map to stop deforestation from the final agreement was a bitter disappointment for nature advocates at this “rainforest Police” event in Belém, near the mouth of the Amazon River.

The agreement between 194 countries, excluding the USA, which did not send a delegation, was reached in the early hours of the morning, after 12 hours of extra meeting between ministers in empty conference halls, and was completed in the closing meeting at 13.35 on Friday evening, after the negotiations came back from the brink of collapse.

At the plenary, many country delegations, including Colombia, complained loudly that they were not allowed to speak before the agreement was completed, even though Brazil said it would “police the Truth”. The session was briefly paused, but Police chief André Corrêa do Lago confirmed that the decisions made earlier had been taken.

Former police officer and former German climate ambassador Jennifer Morgan said: “Although far from what is needed, the result in Belém is meaningful progress. The Paris agreement is working, the move away from fossil fuels has been agreed in Dubai.” [at the Cop28 talks in 2023] it’s accelerating. “Despite efforts by major oil producing states to slow down the green transition, multilateralism continues to support the interests of the whole world in tackling the climate crisis.”

Mohamed Adow, director of the Power Shift Africa think tank, said: “With an increasingly fragmented geopolitical backdrop, Cop30 has given us some small steps in the right direction, but given the scale of the climate crisis, it has failed to rise to the occasion. Despite calling themselves climate leaders, developed countries have betrayed vulnerable nations by failing to deliver national emissions reduction plans in line with science.”

Aisha Humaira, head of the Pakistani delegation, accused developed countries of hypocrisy: “Countries that have used all energy resources in the last 200 years, reached the peak of industrial growth and yet have not stopped using all these energy resources are telling us ‘stop growing’,” she said. “The right to growth and security is fundamental for every country.”

Efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement were also addressed in the final text, but these efforts were less robust than vulnerable countries had hoped. Before the conference, countries were required to submit new national plans to reduce emissions, but they failed to meet the commitments needed to maintain the 1.5C limit, which has already been breached but which analysts say can be reversed.

Rather than condemning this failure, the conference decided to create an “accelerator” program to address shortcomings in nationally determined contributions (NDCs), reporting to Cop next year in Türkiye but chaired by Australia. The text encouraged countries to “fully implement the NDCs as we strive to do better.”

The final agreement also recognized the “just transition” demanded by social justice campaigners; This means helping workers affected by the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. However, key provisions on the exploitation of “critical minerals” have been blocked by China and Russia, accompanied by increasing human rights violations in some countries.

Insiders said the talks collapsed on Friday after a busy few weeks in Brazil, starting with a summit of world leaders organized by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and attended by about 50 presidents or vice presidents.

But after the leaders left and COP30 officially started on Monday (November 10), discussions between ministers and senior officials turned into an acrimonious standoff. A fire broke out near the delegation offices on Thursday afternoon, with no one seriously injured, forcing the evacuation of the conference center and disrupting negotiations at a critical stage.

When they resumed late Thursday evening, the divide was clear: More than 80 countries had declared themselves in favor of including a commitment to “move away from fossil fuels” in the final outcome, but a large number of countries – led by the Arab group that includes Saudi Arabia – opposed it.

That opposition has forced the “move away from fossil fuels,” which scientists say is necessary to stave off the worst effects of climate collapse, to be made a voluntary commitment rather than the legally binding decision many had hoped for.

Teresa Anderson, ActionAid International’s global lead on climate justice, said: “The lack of climate finance throws a spanner in the works on climate progress. Countries of the global south are [which] They are already bearing the costs of a climate crisis they did not cause, and they desperately need the support of rich countries if they want to undertake further commitments. “Nowhere has this been more stark than on the issue of fossil fuels, where a particular text once again went unfunded and ended up on the cutting room floor.”

Nikki Reisch of the Center for International Environmental Law said: “This is a hollow agreement. Cop30 is a stark reminder that answers to the climate crisis are not found in climate talks, but depend on the people and movements paving the way for a fair, equitable, fossil-free future.”