Climate summit adopts agreement without a path to CO2 reductions

The international community has agreed on a deal at the COP30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belém.

It has just been adopted in the plenary hall at the summit.

Negotiations have lasted for two weeks and had to be extended into overtime on Friday because the countries were so divided.

In the agreement, the world’s rich countries are urged to increase financing for climate adaptation in poor countries from the current target of 40 billion to 120 billion dollars by 2035.

But in several places, it is drawing even more attention to what the agreement does not contain.

The EU, the Brazilian hosts, small island states, and the group of the world’s poorest countries have fought for the climate summit to outline a path away from fossil fuels and toward a reduction in greenhouse gases that can keep global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees.

That has not been adopted in the text.

The opposition from oil-producing states and major developing economies has been too strong.

While the EU has wanted to strengthen the world’s commitment to lowering greenhouse gas emissions, it has ended up having to fight simply to preserve the climate pledges of previous agreements.

It has been a struggle to retain references to what the international community agreed on at COP28 in Dubai—that the world must transition away from fossil fuels.

But the EU has chosen to enter into the agreement because it has, at the very least, succeeded in securing legal references that continue the deal from Dubai.

At the same time, countries agreed to hold a new high-level meeting next year, where greenhouse gas reductions will be debated.

From the EU and Denmark, there is an open acknowledgment that the agreement is disappointing.

“We support it because it is at least a step in the right direction,” said Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra when he announced that the EU was ready to accept the latest draft.

Danish climate minister Lars Aagaard (M) has long emphasized that for the EU, it was essential to take the lack of greenhouse gas reductions seriously.

“I would have liked to see this COP—on the tenth anniversary of the Paris Agreement—come together around something more ambitious to show a way forward to reduce emissions. No doubt about that,” said the Danish climate minister as he was on his way to vote for the agreement.

At the climate summit, the EU has been met with demands for financing climate adaptation.

This has been a sticking point in the negotiations because the EU wanted commitments to CO₂ reductions in return.

Lars Aagaard explains that they have chosen to compromise on the weak climate action because they ultimately do not want to obstruct financing for the adaptation efforts of poor countries that are hit hardest by climate change.

“We have sent a signal to the poorest countries that we are willing to help ensure financing for adaptation.”