{"id":589273,"date":"2025-11-23T18:52:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T18:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/589273\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T18:52:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T18:52:20","slug":"un-warns-world-losing-climate-battle-but-fragile-cop30-deal-keeps-up-the-fight-cop30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/589273\/","title":{"rendered":"UN warns world losing climate battle but fragile Cop30 deal keeps up the fight | Cop30"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world is not winning the fight against the climate crisis but it is still in that fight, the UN climate chief has said in Bel\u00e9m, Brazil<\/a>, after a bitterly contested Cop30 reached a deal.<\/p>\n

Countries at Cop30 failed to bring the curtain down<\/a> on the fossil fuel age amid opposition from some countries led by Saudi Arabia, and they underdelivered on a flagship hope \u2013 at a conference held in the Amazon \u2013 to chart an end to deforestation.<\/p>\n

But in a fractious era of nationalism, war and distrust, the talks did not collapse as was feared. Multilateralism held \u2013 just.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew this Cop would take place in stormy political waters,\u201d said Simon Stiell, the UN\u2019s climate chief, after a long and occasionally angry final plenary at the climate summit. \u201cDenial, division and geopolitics has dealt international cooperation some heavy blows this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Cop30<\/a> showed that \u201cclimate cooperation is alive and kicking\u201d, Stiell added, making an oblique reference to the US, which under Donald Trump opted not to send anyone to Bel\u00e9m. Trump, who has called the climate crisis a \u201choax\u201d and a \u201ccon job\u201d has come to embody the opposition to progress on dealing with dangerous global heating.<\/p>\n

Stiell said: \u201cI\u2019m not saying we\u2019re winning the climate fight. But we are undeniably still in it, and we are fighting back. Here in Bel\u00e9m, nations chose unity, science and economic common sense. This year there has been a lot of attention on one country stepping back. But amid the gale-force political headwinds, 194 countries stood firm in solidarity \u2013 rock solid in support of climate cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed to one section of the Cop30 agreement: \u201cThe global transition towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development is irreversible and the trend of the future.\u201d He argued: \u201cThis is a political and market signal that cannot be ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n

The summit began more than a fortnight ago with the leaders\u2019 summit. The Brazilian hosts promised with early sunny optimism that it would finish on time, but as the negotiations went on the confusion and obvious divisions between parties grew, and the process looked close to collapse on Friday.<\/p>\n

Overnight negotiations and compromise on all sides meant a deal could be agreed on Saturday. The summit produced decisions on dozens of issues, including a promise to triple adaptation funding to protect communities against climate impacts, an agreement for a just transition mechanism (JTM) and recognition of the rights of Indigenous people.<\/p>\n

Members of the Ethiopian delegation celebrate their selection to host Cop32. Photograph: Pablo Porci\u00fancula\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

However, proposals to start planning roadmaps to transition away from fossil fuels and end deforestation were not agreed and were hived off to processes outside the UN to be pushed forward by coalitions of willing nations. The impacts of the food system \u2013 such as cattle in cleared tracts in the Amazon \u2013 were largely ignored.<\/p>\n

The overall package was largely seen as incremental at best and far less than is needed to tackle the accelerating climate crisis. Jasper Inventor, a deputy programme director at Greenpeace International, said: \u201cCop30 started with a bang of ambition but ended with a whimper of disappointment. This was the moment to move from negotiations to implementation \u2013 and it slipped.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UN secretary general, Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, said progress was made but warned it was becoming more difficult to secure agreements. \u201cCops are consensus-based \u2013 and in a period of geopolitical divides, consensus is ever harder to reach,\u201d he said. \u201cI cannot pretend that Cop30 has delivered everything that is needed. The gap between where we are and what science demands remains dangerously wide.\u201d<\/p>\n

The EU commissioner for the environment, Wopke Hoekstra, echoed the sense of relief. \u201cIt is not perfect, but it is a huge step in the right direction. The EU stood united, fighting for ambition on climate action,\u201d he posted on X<\/a>, even though that unity was sorely tested.<\/p>\n

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Anna \u00c5berg, of the thinktank Chatham House, said just reaching a deal was positive. \u201cA \u2018Cop collapse\u2019 would have been a big and harmful blow at the end of a year already marked by serious challenges for international climate cooperation and multilateralism more broadly,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is positive that a deal was reached in Bel\u00e9m, even if many will \u2013 legitimately \u2013 be disappointed with the level of ambition.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there was also deep frustration that although adaptation finance had been promised, the deadline had been pushed back to 2035. Mamadou Ndong Toure, the thematic lead for climate and resilience at Practical Action in Senegal, said: \u201cAdaptation cannot be built on shrinking commitments; people on the frontline need predictable, accountable support and a clear path to act.\u201d<\/p>\n

Activists from the Make Polluters Pay coalition protest during Cop30. Photograph: Anderson Coelho\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Similarly, although Brazil styled Cop30 as the \u201cIndigenous Cop\u201d and the deal recognised for the first time Indigenous people\u2019s land rights and knowledge as a fundamental climate solution, there were still concerns that participation was limited. \u201cDespite being referred to as an Indigenous Cop \u2026 it became clear that Indigenous peoples continue to be excluded from the negotiations,\u201d said Emil Gualinga, of the Kichwa Peoples of Sarayaku, Ecuador.<\/p>\n

And there was frustration that the final text did not refer directly to fossil fuels. James Dyke, a climate scientist at the University of Exeter, said: \u201cDespite the host\u2019s best efforts, Cop30 will not even be able to get nations to agree to fossil fuel phase-out. This shameful outcome is the result of narrow self-interest and cynical politicking.\u201d<\/p>\n

After several years of these annual UN climate gatherings being held in authoritarian-led countries, there were bursts of colourful protest in Bel\u00e9m as civil society returned in force. A march with tens of thousands of protesters lit up the middle Saturday of the summit and activists made their voices heard in an otherwise, grey, sterile conference centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom Indigenous-led demonstrations at the venue to the more than 70,000 people who marched in the streets, there was a palpable sense of momentum that I haven\u2019t felt for years,\u201d said Jamie Henn, the director of Fossil Free Media.<\/p>\n

At least a path ahead remains, watchers concluded. Prof Michael Grubb, of University College London, said: \u201cThe damp squib of an outcome from Cop30 has underlined that a focus on the negative \u2013 phasing out of fossil fuels \u2013 is fraught with political obstacles. For the road to Cop31, the focus must be balanced by equal attention to the positive \u2013 the huge economic potential of accelerating the energy transition, and ways to help countries around the world benefit from renewables and electrification.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The world is not winning the fight against the climate crisis but it is still in that fight,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-589273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115600526319571695","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}