Fossil fuel fight threatens to sink COP30 as EU rejects Brazil’s draft

AFP/APP

Belém, Brazil: A bitter standoff over whether to reference fossil fuels in the final agreement threatened to derail UN climate talks in Brazil on Friday, as time ran out on the scheduled last day of COP30.

At stake is an accord that would chart a path for faster cuts to planet-warming emissions driving increasingly extreme weather — and demonstrate that international cooperation remains possible in a fractured world.

After nearly two weeks of negotiations in the Amazonian city of Belém, Brazil unveiled a new draft text that omitted both the term “fossil fuels” and the word “roadmap,” despite earlier public commitments by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to champion such language.

EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra called the draft “unacceptable” and warned the summit could conclude without an agreement. “I am saying it with a heavy heart, but what is now on the table is clearly no deal,” he told reporters.

A European delegate, speaking anonymously, said the bloc was being cast as “villains” for refusing to endorse the draft. Some EU states were considering walking out, the official added, while others feared being blamed if the talks collapsed.

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The conference — disrupted for hours on Thursday after a fierce blaze tore a hole in the venue’s roof, and earlier by two Indigenous-led protests — was due to end at 6:00 pm (2100 GMT). But long past that hour, delegations were leaving for their hotels as it became increasingly likely negotiations would spill into the weekend.

Consensus required

Thirty-six countries — including wealthy nations, emerging economies and small island states — warned in a letter to Brazil that they would reject any deal lacking a plan to move away from oil, coal and gas.

France’s ecological transition minister, Monique Barbut, told AFP that Russia and Saudi Arabia, along with coal-rich India and “many” emerging economies, were blocking such language.

Arunabha Ghosh, a special envoy for South Asia, rejected what he called “finger pointing.”

“To assume that one side cares about the planet and the other side… does not care about the planet does grievous harm to the spirit of negotiations,” he said, defending the removal of a “roadmap” on grounds that developing countries must safeguard energy security and ensure a just transition for workers in fossil fuel sectors.

Consensus among nearly 200 nations is required to finalize any UN climate agreement. This year’s conference is being held without the United States, as President Donald Trump opted not to attend.

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COP30 president Andre Correa do Lago said those who doubt the value of cooperation will be “delighted” to see countries struggling to reach agreement.

Money fight

Momentum for a fossil fuel phaseout grew from frustration over the lack of progress following the COP28 pledge in Dubai in 2023 to “transition away” from oil, coal and gas.

Disagreements persist over trade rules and climate finance for poorer nations grappling with worsening floods, droughts and other fallout from global warming.

Brazil’s rejected draft called for a “manifold increase” in financing for developing countries and urged efforts to triple adaptation finance by 2030 compared to 2025 levels.

“The EU is stuck with a much earlier tripling of adaptation finance than they’re comfortable with, and in exchange they got nothing,” said Jake Schmidt of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “It’s a tough pill to swallow.”

For the first time, trade featured as a pillar of the draft text, reflecting developing countries’ concerns that new carbon-related trade measures — such as Europe’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism — could cut into export earnings. The EU had opposed including this pillar in the agreement.