UN climate summit nears close as EU accepts diluted deal

AFP/APP

Belém, Brazil:Global climate talks in Brazil edged toward a final agreement on Saturday after the European Union backed a compromise text that contains only an indirect reference to phasing out fossil fuels, following tense negotiations with oil-producing states and major emerging economies.

Nearly 200 countries spent two weeks negotiating in the Amazon city of Belém, with marathon overnight sessions in the final stretch to reach a consensus-based deal.

The EU and several allies had pushed for a stronger outcome, including a clear “roadmap” to end the use of fossil fuels. But the wording did not survive. Instead, the draft urges countries to “voluntarily” accelerate climate action and reaffirms the agreement at COP28 in Dubai, which called for a global transition away from fossil fuels.

Despite earlier warnings that the summit could collapse without ambitious language on fossil fuels, the EU accepted the softer text.

“We would have preferred more — more ambition on everything,” EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said, adding that the compromise “still goes in the right direction.”

More than 30 countries, including European states, emerging economies and small island nations, had previously warned Brazil they would reject any deal lacking a credible plan to move away from oil, gas and coal. But an EU negotiator told AFP that the bloc ultimately found itself “isolated” and portrayed as the “villains” in the talks.

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The push for stronger language stemmed from frustration over the lack of progress since COP28’s pledge to transition away from fossil fuels. French ecological transition minister Monique Barbut accused Saudi Arabia and Russia — along with coal-heavy India and “many” other emerging economies — of resisting any reference to a fossil-fuel phaseout. She called the final text bland but said “there is nothing extraordinarily bad in it.”

The negotiations unfolded amid disruptions, including Indigenous protesters breaching the venue last week and a fire on Thursday that triggered a mass evacuation.

Money and trade issues dominate

For Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who had branded COP30 as the “COP of truth,” failure to deliver a deal would have been a major political setback. The summit was also a test of global cooperation as US President Donald Trump opted not to attend.

“We also have to weigh the broader geopolitical context, and there is no other process we have,” German environment state secretary Jochen Flasbarth told AFP.

Developing countries pressed wealthy nations, particularly the EU, for greater financial support to help them adapt to worsening climate impacts and pursue low-carbon development. Although the EU resisted firm commitments, the draft calls for efforts to “at least triple” adaptation finance by 2035.

A Bangladeshi negotiator described the text as the “minimum common denominator,” saying that while it fell short, “our fight will continue.”

The EU also opposed proposals to include language on trade — a priority for China and several emerging economies — but trade references ultimately remained in the final draft.