Countries supporting fossil fuel phase-out at Cop30 climate summit Brazil The Guardian can reveal that they have threatened to block any agreement that does not include such a commitment, leading to a significant escalation of tensions in the crucial negotiations.
Boiling row above A potential roadmap for a “fossil fuel transition” On Thursday evening, a group of at least 29 countries signed a strongly worded letter to Brazil, the president of the CC. The leaked letter demanded that a road map be included in the outcome of negotiations, which are due to end on Friday but are likely to continue into the weekend.
The opportunity to begin the process of drawing up such a roadmap was included in first draft of potential results of two weeks of negotiationspublished on Tuesday.
But the Guardian understands Brazil planned to ditch the potential resolution despite opposition from some oil-producing countries, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, as well as some major fossil fuel consuming countries, including India and China.
Some countries opposed to the road map threatened to pull out of negotiations on Thursday before A fire broke out in part of the conference center near the delegation officesnegotiations were suspended for more than six hours.
The letter to the president, seen by the Guardian, shows that many governments favoring the road map have set it as a “red line” for negotiations.
It says: “We cannot support an outcome that does not include a roadmap for realizing a just, orderly and equitable transition away from fossil fuels. This expectation is shared by the vast majority of Parties, as well as by the science and people who watch our work closely. The world is looking to this cop to demonstrate continuity and progress after the Global Stocktake. Anything less will inevitably be seen as a step backwards.”
Global stocktaking refers to historic decision taken at Cop28 in Dubai in 2023which for the first time sets out a commitment for all countries to “get rid of fossil fuels”, but does not specify a time frame for the transition or measures to achieve it.
Since this commitment was signed, some countries – mainly Saudi Arabia – have tried to cancel it. In 2024, at the Cop29 negotiations in Azerbaijan, an attempt to reaffirm commitments failed due to opposition.
This year, pro-phase-out countries have taken a different tack. Some began to prepare proposals for a forum in which all countries could participate.to discuss a possible transition roadmap. This would not require any country to sign on to clear phase-out dates and would allow all countries to choose their own policies and paths. The roadmap will not be finalized at this COP, but it will require at least a year or more of work at future COPs to fully formulate it.
More than 80 countries have joined the initiative. held a press conference on Tuesday to announce their plans.
But it was too much for countries that still oppose such a commitment, led by a group known as “like-minded developing countries,” a loose group that includes China, India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran and Bolivia.
The Guardian understands that the letter supporting the fossil fuel phase-out was signed by: Austria, Belgium, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, Panama, Palau, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and Vanuatu.
The two-week talks in Belem were due to end on Friday night but were delayed by a fire that caused some damage to the meeting site but left no one injured, and are likely to continue into the weekend.
As negotiations enter their final hours, the dispute over the transition away from fossil fuels is likely to dominate, but other issues also remain to be resolved, including responding to the fact that countries' national climate plans are too weak to limit global warming to 1.5C as called for in the 2015 Paris Agreement, as well as issues of finance, trade and transparency, and how much money developing countries will receive to help them adapt to consequences of the climate crisis.
