BELEM, Brazil. UN negotiators climate talks will soon rule on a newly negotiated final agreement released Saturday that does not include a plan to wean the world off the coal, oil and gas that warm the planet.
While the fossil fuel phase-out guidelines demanded by 80 countries are not included in the document, titled “Uniting humanity in a global mobilization against climate change,” Brazil's president has pledged that he will join Colombia in developing an independent roadmap that does not require approval by all 190 countries.
“Although the results in Belen are far from what is needed, they represent significant progress,” said former German climate envoy Jennifer Morgan, who is now a research fellow at Tufts University.
Conference leaders plan to meet with all countries this afternoon to approve the agreement. Some countries may try to derail it if they choose no deal over what they see as a weak agreement, but Morgan said she doubts any country will block the agreement. It was created after more than 12 hours of meetings late at night and early in the morning at the office of COP30 President André Correa do Lago.
“This is a weak result,” said former Filipino negotiator Jasper Inventor, now with Greenpeace International.
The fossil fuel transition plan will be presented in a separate proposal released later by Do Lago's team, which will not carry the same weight as the agreement adopted by countries at the conference.
Instead of a plan to transition away from fossil fuels, the text of the agreement “recognizes that the global transition to low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development is irreversible and the trend of the future” and states that “the (2015) Paris Agreement is working and resolves to go further and faster.”
annual talks this year are held in Belem, a Brazilian city on the edge of the Amazon rainforest. They were scheduled to be completed on Friday, but negotiators missed this deadline and worked all night.
Some of the biggest challenges include distributing $300 billion a year (an amount previously agreed upon) in financial aid to vulnerable countries hit hardest by climate change, forcing countries to tighten their national plans to cut Earth-warming emissions and eliminating climate-related trade barriers. Poorer countries have asked for a tripling of financial aid to adapt to extreme weather and other negative impacts of climate change. Although this was provided for in the agreement, the deadline was moved back five years to 2035.
The agreement also included the final outcome of the Program of Action, which was a list of initiatives aimed at achieving progress on past deals. This included: a $1 trillion pledge to improve energy networks and infrastructure; increasing biofuel production; plans for industrial decarbonization in developing countries; $5.5 billion for a fund that would pay countries to preserve their forests; and other promises of funding, including from the private sector, for projects in areas such as agriculture and adaptation.
Whatever deal is proposed will still need consensus approval from those remaining from the nearly 200 countries attending the two-week conference. Some delegates, observers and others had to leave the country Saturday morning when the cruise ships they were staying on sailed.
Earlier this week, Do Lago released what he hoped would be the final proposal. It has come under fire from the European Union, small island states and Latin American countries as being too weak on fossil fuels and pushing countries to tighten up their new climate plans. But other countries, including Saudi Arabia, have opposed the call for a transition away from fossil fuels.
“Oil-producing countries are trying to hold on to really stop the decline of fossil fuel reserves,” Morgan said.
President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva advocated for a stronger plan to phase out fossil fuels, as more than 80 countries have done. But the earlier proposal by Do Lago – Lula's appointee – did not even mention the words “fossil fuels”.
Technically, agreements coming out of COP30 must be approved by consensus. But in the past, the objections of individual countries were ignored by the chairman, who was in a hurry to get things done.
One of the things negotiators will emphasize is language included in the document, which will not present an explicit roadmap to a transition away from fossil fuels but will reference previous agreements to maintain momentum and “live and fight for another day,” said Alden Meyer, a veteran analyst at European think tank E3G.
That's not enough, said the inventor of Greenpeace: “We need to reflect on what was possible and what now seems to be missing: roadmaps to end deforestation and fossil fuels, and the ongoing lack of finance. But we rise up and continue the fight.”
___
Associated Press climate and environment coverage receives financial support from several private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find hotspots standards for working with charities, list of supporters and funded coverage areas on the website AP.org.
___
This article was produced as part of the 2025 Climate Change Media Partnership, a journalism fellowship organized by the Internews Earth Journalism Network and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security.
