On Wednesday, November 19, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva put the highly sensitive issue of phasing out fossil fuels back on the agenda of the UN climate conference, which will be held in his country, in Belem, until November 21. He insisted on making it one of the Amazon’s first COP achievements, while advocating consensus.
“We have to show society what we want” get out of dependence on fossils, Lula said at a press conference. But he quickly clarified: “Without imposing anything on anyone, without setting deadlines, so that each country can decide what things it can do at its own pace, according to its possibilities”. “Everything must be based on consensus”Lula recalled. “We just want to say it’s possible. It’s possible, let’s try.”
Brazil wants COP30, the Amazon’s first climate conference, to be a success. And Lula invested significant political capital in one goal: “inflicting new defeats on those who deny” climate, in his words at the opening of the conference.
He arrived Wednesday morning in the river city of Belem, at the gateway to the Amazon, and for a day the entire conference was suspended from meetings with various national groups.
Adopted in principle in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) at COP28 in 2023, the phasing out of fossil fuels is not on the official agenda of the difficult negotiations that will end on Friday evening. But Lula, even before COP30, at the leaders’ summit in Belem, a few days earlier, had made a surprise call by calling for “roadmap” For “overcoming dependence on fossil fuels”.
A “roadmap” is needed
At the conference, more than 80 countries also called for a decision that would commit countries to truly implementing a phased-out of fossil fuels. However, their attacks met resistance from oil-producing countries.
Lula “clearly said he wants this conference to produce a roadmap” on fossil fuels, confirmed to Agence France-Presse Marcio Astrini, from the Climate Observatory NGO network in Brazil, who met with the head of state along with other members of civil society. “This optimism should be reflected in the final text”however, insisted the Brazilian branch of Greenpeace.
Brazil’s Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, who is pushing this idea, is very cautious, although some of her country’s diplomacy opposes this idea: “I believe we got a good answer, not a definitive answer, but an answer. » “We still have a long way to go to reach consensus, and I believe in progressive consensus”he added.
Lula returned to Belem on Wednesday to consider negotiations that have entered their territory. But he did not say a word about the content of the negotiations themselves. Surrounded by the President of COP30, André Corrêa do Lago, Marina Silva and First Lady Rosangela “Janja” da Silva, he said on several occasions “very happy” from this COP, giving the impression that the conference was over – and successful.
Regularly turning to his social media team, he praised them in particular “The first COP for people around the world”specifically referring to the demonstration of tens of thousands of people on Saturday in the streets of Belem. For the first time since COP26 in Glasgow (Scotland) in 2021, global civil society was able to express itself without fear of arbitrary arrest.
However, based on negotiations, the planned schedule failed. Brazil wants to have a draft agreement by Wednesday. We will have to wait until Thursday, with no guarantee that it will be in line with the 194 member states of the Paris agreement and the European Union. The conference was supposed to end Friday night.
Listen too COP30 in Brazil: can we save global climate action?
