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World governments agreed to a climate compromise at the COP30 conference in Brazil on Saturday that would increase funding for poor countries facing global warming – but omitted any mention of the fossil fuels causing it.
In securing the agreement, the countries attempted to demonstrate global unity in tackling the impacts of climate change, even after the United States, the planet’s largest historical emitter, refused to send an official delegation.
“We should support it because at least it goes in the right direction,” EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told reporters before the deal was reached.
The Belém Agreement launches a voluntary initiative to accelerate climate action to help countries meet their existing commitments to reduce emissions, and calls on rich countries to at least triple the amount of money they provide to help developing countries adapt to a warming world by 2035.
Scientists said existing national commitments to reduce emissions have significantly reduced projected warming, but are not enough to prevent global temperatures from rising above 1.5C above industrial levels, a threshold that could trigger the worst impacts of climate change.
Meanwhile, developing countries have argued that they urgently need funds to adapt to already visible impacts, such as rising sea levels and worsening heatwaves, droughts, floods and storms.
Saturday’s agreement also launches a process for climate bodies to examine how to align international trade with climate action, according to the text of the agreement, amid concerns that rising trade barriers will limit the adoption of clean technologies.
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Avinash Persaud, special adviser to the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, a multilateral lender focused on Latin America and the Caribbean, said the deal’s focus on financing was important as climate impacts deepen.
“But I fear that the world has still failed to provide faster subsidies to developing countries to respond to losses and damage. This goal is as urgent as it is difficult,” he said.
The European Union had pushed for the formal agreement to include a move away from fossil fuels, but faced strong resistance from the Arab group of nations, notably Saudi Arabia, the top oil exporter.
The impasse was resolved after negotiations that lasted all night on Friday and resulted in an agreement that the issue could be excluded from the deal and included in a parallel text proposed by COP30 host Brazil.
