Several delegations, including the EU and Colombia, protest the adoption of a lackluster text
The president of the 30th United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP30), André Corrêa do Lago, announced on Saturday the adoption of the Global Mutirão agreement—Global Collaboration—a document to reduce the use of fossil fuels, but without clear commitments or targets.
“Science prevails. Multilateralism has won,” declared Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a statement released after the agreement was announced. “In the year in which the planet surpassed, for the first time and perhaps permanently, 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, the international community had to choose: to continue or to surrender. We have chosen the former,” he asserted.
The agreement was reached after a night of intense negotiations that concluded at 8:00 a.m. this Saturday in Belém. It includes progress on adaptation, financing, and transparency rules, but postpones until 2026 the decisions that should have been made at the current meeting.
Following the announcement of the agreement, several delegations openly protested what they consider a lack of dialogue from the presidency, including the delegations from the European Union, Colombia, Panama, and Switzerland.
The president of COP30, Corrêa do Lago, suspended the plenary session due to the rejection of the announced agreement by half a dozen delegations. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see the flags,” remarked the Brazilian representative, who then opened a round of closed-door consultations.
Colombia has been one of the most vocal countries in advocating for the approval of specific targets and a timetable for phasing out fossil fuels. The Colombian delegation expressed its displeasure at the absence of certain points that had been agreed upon by consensus.
“Colombia will not accept a text that denies science, hinders the achievement of the 1.5°C target, and turns its back on people and life,” emphasized Colombia’s Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Irene Vélez-Torres.
DEFORESTATION AND FOSSIL FUELS
“I will create two maps: one to reverse deforestation and another for the transition away from fossil fuels,” Corrêa do Lago stated during the COP30 plenary session held this Saturday.
The framework is voluntary, but during Brazil’s year-long COP presidency, these two issues will be at the top of the agenda. High-level meetings will be organized with a strong scientific component, but will also include the participation of governments, industry, and civil society. Once these meetings are held, the results will be presented back to COP30, Corrêa do Lago emphasized.
The first high-level conference will be held in April in Colombia and will focus on reducing the use of fossil fuels, he explained.
GLOBAL MUTIRÃO
The document “Global Mutirão: Uniting Humanity in a Global Mobilization Against Climate Change” proposes accelerating the implementation of the Paris Agreement and highlights the urgency of rapidly reducing emissions. The proposal emphasizes the importance of equity, human rights, and multilateralism, and warns of significant gaps in the financing of measures to combat climate change.
The document has been adopted by 194 countries, which is in itself considered a triumph given the current geopolitical turbulence. It plans to triple adaptation funding, although the target of reaching $120 billion annually for this purpose has been postponed for five years, until 2035.
Finally, it makes no mention of the issue of fossil fuels with concrete measures as a result of strong opposition from oil-producing countries like Saudi Arabia.
In parallel, a plan for the transition to a fossil fuel-free economy has been approved with the support of 90 countries, but it is not part of the final agreement. This initiative was spearheaded by the host country, Brazil, with crucial support from Colombia.
A second plan to combat deforestation has garnered the support of another 90 countries, although its absence from the final COP30 agreement represents a significant setback, given that the summit was held precisely in Belém, in the heart of the Amazon, to facilitate the inclusion of this issue. Brazil has also promoted the creation of the Tropical Forests Forever Fund, which allocates funds to prevent deforestation.
Another important agreement, highly valued by civil society, has been the creation of the Mechanism for a Just Transition, a plan that promotes a just transition to a green economy and protects the rights of the entire population, with special mention of workers, women, indigenous people and people of African descent.
