COP30 stalls due to resistance to ending fossil fuels

BarcelonaThe UN climate summit, COP30, being held in the Brazilian Amazon, is entering its final day with the prospect of extending, as always, hours or days beyond its scheduled end. Negotiations for the final text are once again tense after the latest draft, released this morning, removed any mention of a possible "roadmap" for phasing out fossil fuelsA total of 36 countries, including Spain, have sent a letter to the Brazilian presidency of the summit warning that the new text "does not meet the minimum conditions." All of these governments, and others that signed an appeal to adopt this roadmap, are threatening to block the final decision until the mention of this roadmap is reinstated in the text. The initial draft of the final agreement, presented last Tuesday, offered several possible options on this point, including asking all states to establish "just, orderly, and equitable transition roadmaps, including progressively overcoming their dependence on fossil fuels." The other two options were much less ambitious, but in the new text published this Friday, the entire point (without multiple options) simply repeats the objective set by the Paris Agreement and "encourages" states to strive for "clean-zero emissions by mid-century." This new text for the Mutirão (what does it mean community effort The final declaration (in Portuguese), as they have called it, is "very disappointing," according to European Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra, who also signed the letter sent to the presidency. In this letter, the countries demanding an end to fossil fuels warned that they will not support a COP30 outcome that does not include this roadmap, criticizing certain "emerging narratives" that portray them as obstacles to the agreement. "The problem arises when a package of final documents is presented that omits essential elements with the expectation that it will be accepted unconditionally, reflecting only what is acceptable to a few," they criticized. In addition to Spain, the letter was also signed by Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Iceland, Luxembourg, Ireland, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Tuvalu, the United Kingdom, and Vanuatu.