After two weeks of intensive negotiations and sleepless nights, delegates welcomed the end of the UN climate conference – Image: Fernando Llano/AP Photo/picture alliance
Two weeks of climate negotiations in the Brazilian city of Belem have closed with an agreement that calls for renewed commitments to tackle rising temperatures yet omits any mention of fossil fuels.
A fortnight of marathon talks marked by Indigenous protests, the notable absence of the US — the world’s second largest polluter — and a fire that forced a mass evacuation of the venue, have closed with a deal that many feel is weak given the scale of the climate crisis.
A main point of contention has been a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels, the burning of which produces most of the emissions heating the planet and turbocharges extreme weather.
More than 80 countries — including Colombia, Germany, and Kenya — had said a final deal would hinge on a concrete action plan to follow through on a previous hard-won pledge to shift beyond coal, oil and gas.
But the idea, which faced significant pushback from China, the Arab Group of nations, including petrostates such as Saudi Arabia, and others, did not make it into the final document.
Instead, the deal proposes a voluntary initiative to accelerate the implementation of national climate plans and encourage international cooperation to keep the Paris Agreement goal of 1.5 degrees Celsisus (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) alive.
Countries also agreed to an annual dialogue to monitor progress towards keeping temperatures under that threshold, which the world is currently on track to soon overshoot.
Activists protesting during the UN climate conference in Brazil, calling for more urgent action on climate change – Image: Joshua A. Bickel/AP Photo/picture alliance
In the closing session, COP30 President Andre Correa do Lago announced that he would spearhead two voluntary roadmaps — one to transition away from fossil fuels in a just, orderly, and equitable way, and another to halt and reverse deforestation.
While these roadmaps are not part of the formal UN deal, all countries are invited to join. He also announced the first ever conference on ending reliance on oil, gas and coal, to be held in Colombia in April next year.
Panama’s head negotiator Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez said the COP and the UN system are failing people “at a historic scale,” and that negotiators are defending “the very industries that created this crisis: the fossil fuel industry and the forces driving global deforestation.”
EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said Europe would have liked a more ambitious deal, but that it was at least going in “the right direction” because it was “making a very significant step forward” in terms of financing adaptation that will benefit poorer nations feeling the brunt of climate impacts.
More money for climate adaptation
The final deal includes a call for wealthy nations to at least triple funding from $40 billion (€34.7 billion) annually by 2035 to help support vulnerable countries to adapt to worsening extreme weather.
The issue was one of the COP’s main battlegrounds.
“The developing world cannot continue to shoulder the escalating cost of adaptation on its own,” a member of Colombia’s delegation said.
To fund projects such as reinforcing buildings or updating storm infrastructure, developing nations at the forefront of climate change will need about $310 billion per year by 2035, according to a report by the UN Environment Programme.
Some developing countries were angered by the insistence on linking action on fossil fuels with increased adaptation finance, accusing rich countries, including the EU, of holding poorer states to ransom on the issue.
Richard Muyung, envoy to the president of Tanzania, and current chair of the African Group of Nations, said the continent emits 4% of total global greenhouse gases and has done little to contribute to global warming.
“It’s like you are trading our lives with something we never caused. So they were saying, ‘If you do not accept phase out, we cannot give you the triple of adaptation.’ We said, ‘We cannot accept that,'” said Muyung, whose country has significant fossil fuel reserves it wants to develop with the help of Saudia Arabia.
Disagreements over trade
The final text also notes that measures to combat climate change shouldn’t result in covert trade barriers. It includes the establishment of a series of dialogues between countries and international bodies like the World Trade Organization. That will leave more room for countries to battle out disagreements over contentious green trade measures.
Jordan Dilworth, a policy adviser at climate think thank E3G called the inclusion of a forum to discuss trade a major concession by parties such as the EU.
“It has been a historic COP for trade, reflecting how the COP process is adapting to a changing geopolitical landscape by dropping its longstanding barriers to trade discussions,” said Dilworth in a statement.
China is unhappy with the EU’s planned levy on carbon imports, because it says it penalizes countries with different decarbonization pathways – Image: Adriano Machado/REUTERS
China and India have clashed with the European Union over its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. The CBAM adds a levy to carbon-intensive imports that would make products from countries that are slower to transition to renewables less competitive in the EU.
But the EU says CBAM is needed to level the playing field for companies producing within the bloc who will be subject to stricter carbon pricing under its internal emissions trading scheme and to dissuade them from relocating.
Early wins for forests and Indigenous rights
Forests, vital to climate stability and biodiversity, loomed large over the talks set on the edge of the world’s biggest rainforest, which is also a vital CO2 store.
“Without forests, we cannot achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement,” said a spokesperson from the delegation pushing for a roadmap to stop deforestation to be included in a COP deal.
An early win came in the form of the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF), which aims to raise $125 billion using bond investments to reward countries that conserve their forests while paying interest to private investors.
Of this total, about $25 billion will come from public funding in the form of guarantees, designed to leverage and attract an additional $100 billion in private capital.
The new fund for protecting tropical forests and recognition of Indigenous lands is seen as wins for protecting these vital carbon stores – Image: Mauro Pimentel/AFP/Getty Images
Brazil, Indonesia and Germany pledged €1 billion ($1.15 billion) each, while Norway promised about €3 billion. Pledges also came from Portugal, France, the Netherlands and others.
Many praised the “innovative approach” to conservation financing. The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) welcomed the TFFF’s goals but warned the fund “cannot succeed while banks and investors remain free to bankroll deforestation.”
The push for a roadmap to end deforestation by 2030 in the final agreement proved unsuccessful, although it emphasized the “importance of conserving, protecting and restoring nature and ecosystems.”
Brazil also announced it would create 10 new Indigenous territories, after protests for more representation and land rights erupted alongside the COP30 proceedings. This is a first step in recognizing their lands, which must then be ratified by a presidential decree.
This is also the first COP agreement to mention Afro-descendant communities. It comes shortly after President Lula signed 28 decrees recognizing quilombo lands run by descendants of freed slaves across Brazil.
Granting land rights to Indigenous peoples and communities is seen as a key way to fight the climate crisis. Deforestation rates tend to be far lower on lands they call home and manage.
“If the forest disappears, all of us, humanity itself, will disappear,” Israelita Bezerra Garcia, a vendor at the COP Indigenous village and member of the Satere Mawe people, told DW.
Keeping climate on the agenda
Held a decade after the historic Paris Agreement, COP30 also served as a stark reminder how far off track the world remains. Scientists project catastrophic warming between 2.6C and 2.8C by 2100 if policies don’t change.
National climate action plans — known as NDCs, which the UN required countries to submit ahead of COP30 — have been criticized for falling abysmally short of meeting that target agreed in 2015.
Turkey will host the two-week summit next year and will share responsibilities for running the summit with Australia, after the countries reached a compromise in a long-running standoff over where the COP31 would take place.
(DW.com/NAN 23-11-25)
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