Brazil’s COP30 presidency pushed through a compromise climate deal on Saturday that would boost finance for poor nations coping with global warming, but that omitted any mention of the fossil fuels driving it.
In securing the accord, Brazil hoped to demonstrate global unity in addressing climate change impacts even after the world’s biggest historic emitter, the United States, declined to send an official delegation.
Acknowledging that the deal left many frustrated, the head of the UN climate secretariat (UNFCCC) praised the delegates for coming together in a year of denial and division.
“I’m not saying we’re winning the climate fight. But we are undeniably still in it, and we are fighting back,” UNFCCC executive secretary Simon Stiell said in a statement.
The agreement, which landed in overtime after two weeks of contentious negotiations in the Amazon city of Belem, exposed deep rifts over how future climate action should be pursued.
After gavelling the deal through, a weary Brazilian COP30 president, Andre Correa do Lago, told delegates he recognised the talks had been tough.
“We know some of you had greater ambitions for some of the issues at hand,” he said.
Colombia’s Irene Velez Torres said her country could not go along with a deal that ignored science. (AP: Fernando Llano)
Several countries objected to the summit ending without stronger plans for reining in greenhouse gases or addressing fossil fuels.
Brazil’s Latin American neighbours, Colombia, Panama and Uruguay, made multiple objections before Mr Correa do Lago suspended the plenary for procedural consultations.
After about an hour, he resumed the plenary and said the decisions as gavelled would stand.
Colombia’s negotiator had noted that fossil fuels were by far the biggest contributor of planet-warming emissions, and said her country could not go along with a deal that ignored science.
“A consensus imposed under climate denialism is a failed agreement,”
the Colombian negotiator said.
The Russian delegate, Sergei Kononuchenko, accused those objecting of “behaving like children who want to get their hands on all the sweets.”
The comment, made through a translator, was called out by many Latin American delegates who said they were deeply offended by Russia’s remarks, and defended their role in advocating for their countries’ best interests.
The three Latin American countries had been objecting not to COP30’s overall political deal, but to one of the other, more technical negotiating texts being approved alongside the headline deal.
The three had joined the European Union in demanding that the deal include language on a transition away from fossil fuels, while a coalition of countries, including top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, said any fossil fuel mention was off-limits.
After tense overnight negotiations, the EU agreed on Saturday morning not to block a final deal, but said it did not agree with the conclusion.
“We should support [the deal] because at least it is going in the right direction,” the European Union’s climate commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra, said before the deal was sealed.
Finance boost
The summit also launches a voluntary initiative to speed up climate action to help nations meet existing pledges to reduce emissions, and calls for rich nations to at least triple the money they provide to others for adapting to a warming world by 2035.
Developing countries say they urgently need funds to adapt to impacts that are already hitting, like rising sea levels and worsening heat waves, droughts, floods, and storms.
Avinash Persaud, special advisor to the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, a multilateral lender focused on Latin America and the Caribbean, said the accord’s focus on finance was important as climate impacts mount.
“But I fear the world still fell short on more rapid-release grants for developing countries responding to loss and damage. That goal is as urgent as it is hard,” he said.
Several countries, including Sierra Leone, also objected at the final plenary to a list of indicators for what they should be measuring in areas such as food security in order to prepare for climate impacts.
Sierra Leone climate minister Jiwoh Emmanuel Abdulai said the list agreed “is not the list crafted by experts”.
“Instead, we leave COP with indicators that are unclear, unmeasurable, and in many cases, unusable,” he said.
Fossil fuel side text
The overnight impasse between the European Union and the Arab group of nations over fossil fuels had pushed the talks past a Friday deadline, triggering all-night negotiations before a compromise could be reached.
Mr Correa do Lago said on Saturday morning that the presidency was issuing a side text on fossil fuels, as well as on protecting forests, keeping it out of the main accord because of the lack of consensus.
But he urged countries to keep discussing the issues.
Saturday’s agreement also launches a process for climate bodies to review how to align international trade with climate action, according to the deal text, amid concerns that rising trade barriers are limiting the adoption of clean technology.
Reuters