A deal for a “road map” away from fossil fuels has been scuppered at Cop30 in Brazil after Saudi Arabia, Russia and China successfully blocked the proposal.
The conference in Belém, a city in the Amazon, had been dominated by a move for a concrete plan to shift away from oil, gas and coal and to stop deforestation. But the Brazilian hosts failed to find a way through the stand-off at the talks, which have ended with a watered-down deal 24 hours after they were due to finish.
Instead, Brazil’s proposed transition road map — which it called the the Belém Transition Compass, and which was supported by the UK, EU and nearly 100 other countries — will be pursued via a voluntary agreement to discuss it through diplomatic channels over the next two years, with a goal of reporting back at Cop31 in Turkey next year and Cop32 in Ethiopia in 2027. Experts warned that the conference — which was boycotted by the US after President Trump pulled out of the UN climate process — has seen the emergence of an “axis of obstruction” opposed to climate action.
A decade after every nation in the world signed the Paris agreement and pledged to unite to limit global warming, climate diplomacy ground on at glacial pace in Belém.
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Professor Michael Jacobs of the think tank ODI Global and the University of Sheffield said: “Geopolitically, this is the creation of a new axis of obstruction — actively promoting fossil fuels and opposed to climate action.”
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Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, who was in Belém for the talks, said: “This deal isn’t perfect and is far from what science requires. But at a time when multilateralism is being tested, it is significant that countries continue to move forward together.”
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The most striking example of the clash of environmental idealism and economic reality is provided by the Cop30 hosts. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, was determined to push through the roadmap away from fossil fuels: it was presented to delegates as his idea, his legacy in the battle against a warming world.
Yet just three weeks before Cop30 started, Brazil approved new oil exploration off its coast, close to the mouth of the Amazon. “I am totally in favour of a world one day that will not need any more fossil fuels, but this moment has not come yet,” Lula said in defence of the plans.
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One illustrates the huge boom in renewable power that is on the cards if countries follow through on their stated energy policies. Renewable power, the IEA [International Energy Agency] forecasts, will grow fourfold by 2050.
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But […] the same IEA report reveals that the demand for oil and gas is still rising, and if nations do not change tack, will not peak for another 25 years.
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I you are concerned about stopping climate change, renewables only do their job if they displace fossil fuels.
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