- The EU says it supports the agreement because it goes in the right direction.
- Insufficient efforts to maintain the temperature at 1.5°C: scientist.
- Climate bodies will review the alignment of trade with climate action.
World governments agreed Saturday to a compromise climate deal at the COP30 conference in Brazil that would increase financing for poor nations facing global warming, but omits any mention of the fossil fuels that drive it.
In securing the agreement, the countries sought to demonstrate global unity to address the impacts of climate change even after the world's largest historical emitter, the United States, refused to send an official delegation.
But the agreement, which came in overtime after two weeks of contentious negotiations in the Amazon city of Belem, also exposed divisions between rich and developing nations, as well as between those governments with opposing views on oil, gas and coal. After approving the agreement, COP30 President André Correa do Lago acknowledged that the talks had been difficult.
“We know that some of you had greater ambitions for some of the issues at hand,” he said.
The European Union had been the main obstacle to language on a transition away from fossil fuels, but eventually agreed to abandon it after a coalition of countries, including top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, said it was off limits.
“We should support (the deal) because at least it goes in the right direction,” European Union climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told reporters before the deal was approved.
Some countries had harsher words.
“A climate decision that cannot even mention fossil fuels is not neutrality, it is complicity. And what is happening here transcends incompetence,” said Panama's climate negotiator, Juan Carlos Monterrey.
Financial boost
The agreement launches a voluntary initiative to accelerate climate action to help nations meet their existing pledges to reduce emissions, and calls for rich nations to at least triple the amount of money they provide to help developing countries adapt to a warming world by 2035.
Scientists have said existing national commitments to reduce emissions have significantly reduced projected warming, but are not enough to prevent global temperatures from rising above 1.5°C above industrial levels, a threshold that could trigger the worst impacts of climate change.
Meanwhile, developing countries have argued that they urgently need funds to adapt to impacts that are already affecting them, such as rising sea levels and worsening heat waves, droughts, floods and storms.
Avinash Persaud, special adviser to the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, a multilateral lender focused on Latin America and the Caribbean, said the deal's focus on finance was important as climate impacts mount.
“But I fear the world still lacks more rapid-release grants for developing countries to respond to loss and damage. That goal is as urgent as it is difficult,” he said.
Side text on fossil fuels
The impasse between the European Union and the Arab Group of nations over fossil fuels pushed talks past a Friday deadline, prompting all-night negotiations before a compromise could be reached.
Correa do Lago said on Saturday morning that the presidency was issuing a parallel text on fossil fuels – as well as on the protection of forests –, keeping it out of the main agreement due to a lack of consensus.
But he urged countries to continue discussing these issues.
“I know that most of you are tired, but as president of this conference, it is my duty to recognize some very important discussions that took place in Belem and that must continue during the Brazilian presidency, until the next COP, even if they are not reflected in this text that we have just approved,” he said.
Saturday's agreement also begins a process for climate bodies to review how to align international trade with climate action, according to the agreement's text, amid concerns that rising trade barriers are limiting the adoption of clean technology.
