World leaders have agreed to a deal at the United Nations Climate Conference (COP30) in Brazil that seeks to address the crisis, but the agreement does not include any mention of phasing out the fossil fuels driving climate change. The text was approved after negotiations stretched through the night yesterday, well beyond the expected close of the two-week COP30 summit in the Brazilian city of Belem, amid deep divisions over the fossil fuel phase-out.
The agreement pledges to review climate-related trade barriers and calls on developed nations to at least triple the money given to developing countries to help them withstand extreme weather events. It also urges all actors to work together to significantly accelerate and scale up climate action worldwide to keep the 1.5 degrees Celsius mark for global warming, an internationally agreed-upon target set under the Paris Agreement, within reach.
The deal reached at UN climate talks in Brazil has spurred mixed reactions as climate campaigners say more action is needed. Leaders have welcomed the deal as a step forward but say more ambition is needed to tackle the crisis. Countries had been divided on several issues in Belem, including a push to phase out fossil fuels- the largest drivers of the climate crisis – that drew opposition from oil-producing countries and nations that depend on oil, gas and coal. The United States was conspicuously absent from this year’s talks, known as COP30, after the Trump administration refused to send a delegation to Belém.
