COP30 Ended With A Deal That Doesn't Even Mention Fossil Fuels, The Main Drivers Of Climate Change
Early drafts of the deal had included direct language about transitioning away from fossil fuels, but negotiators removed it in the final hours after strong opposition from major oil-exporting countries such as Saudi Arabia and Russia.
The UN’s COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, has ended with a deal that did not include any mention or commitment to phasing out fossil fuels, frustrating countries and leading people to call the COP process a failure.
Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had launched the annual summit calling for countries to agree on a "roadmap" for advancing a pledge made two years ago at COP28 to shift away from fossil fuels that are heating up the planet.
More than 80 countries then tried to introduce a detailed guide to phase out fossil fuels, according to AP.
Early drafts of the deal had included direct language about transitioning away from fossil fuels, but negotiators removed it in the final hours after strong opposition from major oil-exporting countries such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, according to The Guardian.
On Friday, Nov. 21, COP30 ended with a deal that promised more money to help countries adapt to climate change, but excluded plans to reduce or transition away from fossil fuels, such as oil, gas and coal, the main drivers of climate change. The deal instead included a pledge to scale up climate finance, a just transition mechanism for workers affected by the energy transition and recognition of trade as an important factor in climate policies, meaning rich countries would commit to triple their spending to help others adapt to global warming, according to Reuters.
However, the deal does not specify how the money will be delivered or monitored.350.org, a youth-driven climate network, said the final COP30 deal fell short of what communities had been calling for.
“The lack of concrete commitments in the final text of COP30 shows us who is still benefiting from the delay: the fossil fuel industry and the ultra-rich, not those living the climate crisis every day.” The director for Latin America and the Caribbean at 350.org, Ilan Zugman wrote.
Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva, who presided over the summit, confirmed the omission and said countries were not ready to reach a consensus.
The final text did contain a reference to the “UAE consensus”, the deal from COP28 in Dubai in 2023 that contained the first pledge to move away from fossil fuels.
But a COP expert at the University of Cambridge told the Guardian the language used around the UAE consensus in particular has been ‘deliberately diluted’.
“A climate decision that cannot even say ‘fossil fuels’ is not neutrality, it is complicity,” Panama’s negotiator Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez said.“Science has been deleted from COP30 because it offends the polluters,” he added.
Brazil’s COP president André Correa do Lago said there will be a separate process to ensure a “roadmap” for the eventual transition of fossil fuels.
“I will create two roadmaps; one on halting and reversing deforestation and the other to transition away from fossil fuels in a just, orderly and equitable manner,” he said.
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