Host Brazil pushes for progress on big issues at COP30
As United Nations climate talks approach a critical point, negotiators are under pressure to ensure that oil, along with fossil fuels, coal and natural gas, are not burned in the future.
Although the COP30 conference is scheduled to continue until Friday, the Brazilian presidency is pressing for an interconnected decision to be taken as soon as possible on four issues that were not initially on the agenda.
Meanwhile, dozens of countries, rich and poor, joined in a joint call on Tuesday to offer a detailed roadmap for the world to phase out or transition away from fossil fuels.
Former Irish President Mary Robinson compared the talks in Belem on the edge of the Amazon to the climate talks that led to the 2015 Paris climate agreement, which set a target to limit the warming of the world.
“This COP reminds me a lot of Paris,” Robinson told the Associated Press.
“I hope to get as good an outcome as possible out of this difficult environment. We can do it, you know, we can do it.”
Much of this will come to a head on Wednesday, the deadline set by COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago for a decision on four issues initially left off the official agenda: whether countries should be told to strengthen new climate plans; details on the distribution of US$300bn ($A461bn) of committed climate aid; Tackling trade barriers on climate and improving transparency and reporting on climate progress.
The issue talked about by more than 80 countries is that the world should divest from fossil fuels. Two years ago, after much debate, UN climate talks in Dubai agreed on language to “move away from fossil fuels”.
But the following year the issue faded away. Many countries are now pushing for a detailed road map that would provide instructions on how to phase out fossil fuels.
“People around the world are mobilizing on a massive scale to demand concrete action for climate justice, especially against the expansion of fossil fuels,” said Colombian Environment Minister Irene Vélez Torres.
“Our firm decision, supported by science and people, was to phase out fossil fuels. Although we are an oil and coal producing country, we chose not to award new oil exploration contracts or new coal mining rights.”
“We have to leave here with the call for a road map, there is no other way,” he said.
Ed Miliband, the UK’s senior official responsible for energy and climate change, stated that the issue unites the Global South and North and said “with a single voice that this is an issue that cannot be ignored, cannot be swept under the rug, and that is where the momentum lies.”
This is doubtful. Powerful oil-producing countries have opposed the phase-out, and the United States, where President Donald Trump has frequently called climate change a “hoax,” is skipping the talks.
COP30 President do Lago kicked off Tuesday’s action with a proposal for negotiators that included 21 options on four challenging and interconnected issues.
While the options in the draft text “are a first step, what is needed now is to eliminate options that cause delay and ignore the urgency of action,” said Jasper Inventor, Greenpeace International’s deputy program director.
The documents ask leaders to consider many aspects of a potential deal by Wednesday, so much will be left before final decisions will be made on Friday, when the conference is scheduled to end. Climate summits routinely run out on their last day as countries have to balance domestic concerns with the major changes needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is scheduled to return to Belem on Wednesday, and a deadline could be set for him to bring the parties together or celebrate some kind of draft.
