Pressure blow. Some thirty countries wrote to the president of the UN climate conference (COP30) in Brazil on Thursday, November 20, asking him to review the copy and include a roadmap for phasing out fossil fuels. “We owe you honesty: in its current form, the proposal does not meet the minimum requirements for a credible outcome at this COP, wrote the signatories, including France, Colombia, Britain, Germany and Belgium. We cannot support text that does not include a roadmap to a just, orderly and equitable transition away from fossil fuels.”
Although COP30 ends on Friday evening, its president, diplomat André Correa do Lago, is expected to attend along with nearly 200 countries gathered in Belém last week to form a text capable of consolidating consensus, according to COP rules. The latest draft of the text does not mention fossil fuels. “We are very concerned about the current proposal, whether it will be accepted or not,” still condemning the countries behind this letter to the president.
The exit of oil, coal and gas, which is largely responsible for global warming, is once again hotly debated in Belem as the issue seems unlikely to be revived since the first call at COP28 in Dubai two years ago.
President Lula himself recommended a “roadmap” to speed up this exit from the start of the summit. However, according to a negotiator who did not want to be named, China, India, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Russia have rejected it.
