Brazil’s environment minister, the minister, has urged all nations to show the courage needed to confront the imperative of a global transition away from fossil fuels, describing the creation of a detailed plan as an “moral” answer to the global warming emergency.
The minister stressed, however, that participation in this endeavor would be voluntary and “self-determined” for interested nations.
This issue stands as one of the most debated subjects at the UN climate summit in the host country, with nations divided over whether and how such a strategy can be addressed. Hosting the event, Brazil has maintained a carefully neutral stance on what can be included on the official agenda.
The official voiced approval for the possibility of a roadmap, without directly committing Brazil to it. She remarked: “When we have a situation that is quite grim, it is helpful that we have a map. But the map does not force us to travel, or to advance.”
Speaking further, she added: “The roadmap is an answer to our scientific knowledge [of the climate emergency]. It is an moral answer.”
Scores of countries meeting in Belém for the global climate conference, which is entering its second week, are seeking to establish how a worldwide phaseout of fossil fuels could work. They aim to advance a historic resolution made two years ago at COP28 to “transition away from fossil fuels.”
The commitment lacked a schedule or specifics on how it could be realized, and even though it was passed unanimously, several countries have since attempted to back away from the promise. Efforts last year to expand on its real-world meaning were stymied by opposition from oil-dependent nations at another UN summit.
Consequently, there was no reference of the shift away from carbon fuels in the final agreement of COP29.
Because of this, Brazil has been wary of demands by certain nations to place the phaseout on the schedule for the current summit. But the minister has worked hard in private to ensure the topic could be discussed at the conference outside the formal agenda.
The minister convinced the nation's president, and he gave public reference repeatedly to the need to “shift from reliance on fossil fuels” at the global leaders' meeting that preceded COP30, and at the start of the event.
“The issue is something that we know at a certain time had to be raised, because it is the sole way to face the issue from the source,” Marina Silva explained. “We acknowledge that it is challenging, and we must not offer false hopes. Bringing up the subject is courageous, and I hope [to see] this courage from everyone, from producers and using countries.”
The nation had not initiated the call for a transition, she clarified, because that had been initiated at COP28. Rather, it was enabling the talks to occur in line with what some nations desired. “We know these topics are sensitive. We will give the chance to discuss it,” the minister said.
Time is insufficient at COP30 to create a detailed plan, a task Silva called could take a number of years because numerous countries faced complex challenges around reliance on carbon-based energy, or aimed to use the proceeds from exporting oil and gas to finance their development.
“The country raises the subject, because Brazil is simultaneously a producing nation and consumer,” the minister said. “But the nation is unique, because it, if it chooses to, does not have to depend on fossil fuels. We have to recognise that there are some that depend on fossil fuels in their economic systems and lack simple alternatives, and others where oil and gas are the foundation of their economy.
“To be just is to be just to everyone, but the essential, primordial fairness is not being unjust to the Earth, because it is our shared home.”
Should the pledge receives enough support, the summit could set up a platform in which the work of drawing up a strategy to the phaseout could start.
This process would involve discussions with all participating nations to the UN climate treaty and criteria for how the initiative would proceed, Silva explained. “After we have standards, a governance structure can be drawn up; once we have a strategy, and create protections to be able to establish trust in the process, I am confident that with these components we can transform good ideas into steps that are clearer, and more concrete.”
It is uncertain that a suggestion to begin developing a plan would be accepted at COP30, although it may not need the official approval of the summit, which operates by unanimous agreement and can be hijacked by special interests. Climate experts have indicated they think there could be backing for such a proposal from about sixty nations, but there are believed to be at least forty opposed. There are 195 nations represented at the negotiations.
“In spite of being the primary source of climate change, carbon-based energy are about the most contentious subject there is within the international climate talks, so to see a sizable coalition of nations openly supporting a path to achieving worldwide transition is in itself highly significant.”
“Put simply, there’s no route to a world where warming remains below 1.5 degrees in which countries cannot to talk about ending fossil fuel use.”
“We need this language for actual in this conversation. It’s quite stupid that we talk about everything but then when the main issue are the real challenge.”
Discussions carried on on Saturday on several outstanding topics that have not yet been incorporated into the official agenda: trade, transparency, funding and how to tackle the gap between the emissions cuts nations have planned and those needed to keep to the 1.5-degree temperature limit.
A summit chair pledged a “document” that would address these matters, after discussions – which have been going on since Monday – were unresolved. He urged nations to embrace the “mutirão” attitude, referring to one of collaboration and positive dialogue.
Progress on additional substantive topics – including adaptation to the effects of the climate crisis, the fair shift for those impacted by the move to a green economic system and how to build governance capabilities in less developed nations – carried on constructively, the presidency reported.
The host nation's chief negotiator stated the technical part of the COP proceedings was approaching completion, and the political phase – when ministers who have the power to change their nations' stances join – was starting.
