Some Countries Look for a Fossil Fuel Exit Door at COP30
(Bloomberg) -- Two years ago, at COP28 in Dubai, the world agreed to transition away from fossil fuels. At COP30, there’s a nascent movement trying to make that a more concrete reality.
It began with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva making an eye-catching — and for many, a surprising — demand to world leaders to prepare a road map to deliver on the promise made in Dubai. And now some of the most ambitious countries are trying to build a coalition in pursuit of that aim.
Spearheaded by Brazil’s Environment Minister Marina Silva, countries including the UK, Germany, France, Denmark, Colombia and Kenya signaled their support to try to agree on the outlines of a path away from fossil fuels. Colombia is working in parallel on a declaration to be unveiled next week, a draft of which was seen by Bloomberg and is still subject to change. It has been signed by a handful of island states, with hopes of creating a critical mass.
“It makes no sense to invest in the dirty and inefficient models of the 20th century,” Silva said Tuesday at a side event at COP30, held in the Brazilian city of Belém, on the fringes of the Amazon rainforest. “We have challenges, but we need to make an effort for a fair and planned transition to leave the dependency on fossil fuels.”
So far, the idea of a fossil fuel road map is evolving largely outside the maze of negotiating rooms at the summit, according to people familiar with the matter. But one of the possibilities being floated is to include it in the final or cover decision to come out of this COP, so countries can work on it over the next year. A similar plan was put in place last year for scaling up climate finance.
“We will support any decision to create a road map to transition away from fossil fuels here in Belém,” said Jochen Flasbarth, Germany’s state secretary for climate. “It would be a great signal, and I hope we get it.”
Yet agreeing to a more concrete transition away from fossil fuels still faces many hurdles — not least that some of the biggest producers, like Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, have been emboldened by President Donald Trump pulling the US out of the landmark Paris Agreement and doubling down on production of oil, gas and coal.
The key will be not only to convince developing countries to bypass the traditional fossil fuel-based development model, but also to face up to potential US pressure, especially after the Trump administration derailed efforts to introduce the first fixed price carbon levy on shipping last month.
“If we continue having fossil fuel, we will get stuck in the past,” said Ali Mohamed, Kenya’s special envoy for climate change. But “we cannot just transition immediately.”
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