This year's UN climate conference in Brazil had many unique aspects that could be part of the historic outcome.
COP30, as it is called, took place in Belem, a city on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, a critical climate regulator and home to many indigenous peoples who are both deeply affected by climate change and part of the solution. He carried the weight of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, an influential and charismatic leader on the international stage known for his ability to unite people. Buoyed by Lula's rousing speeches in the early days of the summit, more than 80 countries called for a detailed road map for the world to sharply reduce the use of gas, oil and coal, the main drivers of climate change.
In the end, none of this mattered.
Final decision announced on Saturday which included some tangible things like increasing the amount of relief money developing countries adapt to climate changewas generally toned down compared to many conferences over the past decade and fell far short of the expectations of many delegates. It does not mention the words “fossil fuels,” much less indicate a time frame for reducing their use.
Rather than being remembered as historic, the conference is likely to further undermine confidence in a process that many environmentalists and even some world leaders say is not up to the task of countering global temperature rises that are leading to more frequent and intense extreme weather events such as floods, hurricanes and heat waves.
The criticism was harsh and came from many quarters.
“A climate decision that cannot even say 'fossil fuel' is not neutrality, but complicity,” said Panama's Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez. “Science was excluded from COP30 because it offends polluters.”
Even those who saw some positives were quick to say they were looking to the future.
“The fight against climate change is happening in many areas, so overall it's a mixed picture. They could be doing a lot more,” said Lydie Nakpil, coordinator of the Asian People's Movement on Debt and Development.
“All eyes are already on COP31,” Nacpil added, referring to next year’s conference in Turkey.
Great hopes for COP30
The final resolution adopted Saturday was the culmination of three years of talk, ranging from mild optimism to hype, about a Conference of the Parties, as the summit is known, that could restore confidence in the ability of multilateral negotiations to address climate change. He was even called “KS of Truth.”
From the moment Lula was re-elected in October 2022, he began promoting his vision of holding a climate summit for the first time in the Amazon. By 2023, the UN confirmed Brazil's bid to host the Belem conference. The choice of Belem, a coastal city in northeastern Brazil, raised many questions both in Brazil and in many countries, since Belem does not have the infrastructure of other Brazilian cities such as Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo.
For Lula, that was all that mattered: it was a chance for the world to get a taste of the Amazon, to truly understand what was at stake, and a chance for thousands of indigenous people living in the vast territory shared by many South American countries to take part.
By the time the conference began on November 6 with two days of speeches from world leaders, Lula was able to change the subject from Belem, largely laying out a vision of what the conference could be.
“The earth can no longer support the fossil fuel-intensive development model that has prevailed over the past 200 years,” Lula said on November 7, adding: “The era of fossil fuels is coming to an end.”
Such words, coming from a leader who has both curbed deforestation in the Amazon and unabashedly supported oil exploration there, raised hopes among many delegates, scientists and activists. Here was Lula, the ultimate pragmatist from a major oil-producing country that gets most of its domestic energy from renewables such as hydropower, pushing for major changes.
Previous names of fossil fuels
At the end of 2023, during COP28 in Dubai, the final resolution declared that the world needed to “transition” away from fossil fuels. However, nothing has been done to achieve this goal over the past two years. Indeed, instead of gradually reducing, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise worldwide.
Now at COP30 they are talking about a “road map” for fundamental change in the world's energy systems.
Days before the talks concluded, there were signs that even Lula, perhaps Brazil's most powerful political figure in 25 years, was tempering his expectations. In a speech Wednesday night, he said climate change is a serious threat that all people need to pay attention to. But he was also careful to say that countries should be able to move to renewable energy at their own pace, according to their capabilities, and he had no intention of “imposing anything on anyone.”
Negotiators will lose most of Thursday as a fire at the meeting site forced evacuations.
A result that was criticized by many countries
By Friday, the European Union, along with several Latin American and Pacific island states and others, was categorically rejecting the first draft of the resolution, which did not identify fossil fuels as a cause of climate change and did not include any timeline for abandoning them.
“Ten years later, the process is still failing,” Maina Vakafua Talia, the environment minister for the small Pacific island nation of Tuvalu, said in a speech Friday, referring to the decade since the 2015 Paris agreement that set international targets to limit rising temperatures.
After a sleepless night from Friday to Saturday, the revised resolution, which U.N. officials called “final,” contained no mention of fossil fuels. Environmental activists have denounced the influence of major oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia, which have historically fought proposals that would set timetables for cutting oil production.
When delegates met Saturday afternoon for the final plenary session, COP30 President André Correa do Lago remained silent on the text while vowing to continue discussions on fossil fuels and work with Colombia on a roadmap that could be shared with other countries. Technically, Brazil will chair climate talks until the summit in Turkey next year.
That was little consolation for the dozens of countries that complained, including those like Colombia, which categorically rejected the result.
“Thank you for your statement,” Do Lago said after each speech. “This will be noted in the report.”
___
Associated Press reporters Seth Borenstein, Melina Walling and Anton Delgado contributed to this report.
___
Peter Prengaman, AP's news director for global climate and environment, was previously news director in Brazil.
___
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.
