Results of the UN COP30 climate summit in Brazil
This was the first international climate conference since President Trump in January abandoned international cooperation on climate change.
Host Brazil pushed through a compromise climate deal on Saturday that would increase funding for poor countries coping with the impacts of global warming but that omitted any mention of the fossil fuels driving it,” Reuters reports.
The countries agreed to triple the amount of money promised to help vulnerable countries adapt to climate change but will take five more years to do it, says The Associated Press.
“Given what we expected, what we came out with, we were happy,” says Ilana Seid, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States.
About 80 countries, or a little under half of those present, had demanded a concrete plan to move away from fossil fuels. But other than Europe, they didn’t include any of the world’s major economies, says The New York Times.
Oil-producing countries like Saudi Arabia had insisted that their key export not be singled out. They were joined by many African and Asian countries that said, as they have in earlier talks, that Western countries bear responsibility to pay for climate change because they’re historically responsible for the most greenhouse gas emissions, the Times says.
After the talks ended, André Corrêa do Lago, Brazil’s diplomat leading the talks, said his country would lead an independent effort to rally nations to develop specific plans for transitioning away from fossil fuels and for protecting tropical forests. But that won’t have the force of international law, says the Times.
For the first time, global trade became one of the key issues at the talks, says the BBC. The European Union is planning to introduce a border tax on high-carbon products like steel, fertilizer, cement and aluminum, and its trading partners such as China, India and Saudi Arabia aren’t happy about it.
That issue “was resolved here in Brazil with a classic COP compromise — pushing the discussions into future talks,” the BBC says.
At the talks, China was quiet and concentrated on doing deals, the BBC says.
And ultimately, experts say, the business China is doing will outdo the United States and its efforts to sell fossil fuels.
“Solar is the cheapest source of energy, and the long term direction is very clear, China dominates in this sector and that puts the U.S. in a very difficult position,” says Li Shuo of the Asia Society.
In his closing speech, UN climate chief Simon Stiell said, “COP30 showed that climate cooperation is alive and kicking, keeping humanity in the fight for a livable planet.”
Here is “A really simple guide to climate change,” from the BBC.
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