COP30 delegates dig into toughest issues in final week
Government ministers from around the world are preparing for the final few days of tough talks at the UN climate summit to secure a deal that demonstrates global resolve in the face of growing assertions from developing countries.
The job won’t be easy. Countries are now delving into some of the most challenging issues; most of these issues were left off the official agenda to enable talks to continue even if an issue was suspended.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is also expected to arrive on Wednesday to help reach consensus between the parties at the summit in the Amazonian city of Belem ahead of the final session scheduled for Friday.
New dynamics in climate diplomacy have seen China, India and other developing countries make greater shows of force this year, while the European Union falters as support at home weakens and the once-dominant United States bypasses it altogether.
Asked if there were any issues guiding the negotiations, COP30 President Andre Correa Do Lago replied: “Everything, everything. It’s very complicated.”
Brazil’s biggest goal for COP30 is to deliver an agreement that reaffirms the 2015 Paris Agreement while also acknowledging its shortcomings by laying out clear plans for future climate action.
Britain’s energy minister Ed Miliband said the summit’s work was “dry, complicated, painful, exhausting and absolutely necessary”.
Last week negotiators had the chance to air their differences on three key issues: climate finance, unilateral trade measures and planned emissions cuts that don’t go far enough.
The key goal of the Paris Agreement, to prevent warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, will be missed.
Current emissions trends have the world warming by at least 2.3 degrees Celsius; Norway’s climate minister said the parties agreed this needed to be addressed.
“It is imperative to be able to talk about how we will close the gap going forward,” Minister Andreas Bjelland Eriksen told Reuters.
A bloc of developing countries is also seeking a payment plan to ensure rich countries meet promises made at last year’s COP29 to provide US$300 billion ($461 billion) in climate finance annually by 2035. The USA, which did not take part in COP30, did not fulfill its past commitments.
China’s growing role at the UN climate talks comes after Beijing has grown its own green tech sector while representing the interests of developing countries at the talks for decades.
“China didn’t start out with a shiny new strategy; it just happened,” said Li Xing, a professor at the Guangdong Institute of International Strategies.
“With the US stepping back – Trump has no interest in this sector – China sees an opening and says, ‘We are interested; we are ready to go,'” Li told Reuters in Beijing.
Given the need to accelerate the world’s transition to clean energy, some developing countries have complained about imposing carbon border taxes or tariffs on Chinese-made green products.
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