Deal made at COP30 without EU's demanded roadmap for phase-out of fossil fuels

NATIONS CLINCHED A deal at the UN’s COP30 climate summit in the Amazon today without a roadmap for phasing out fossil fuels as demanded by the European Union and other countries.

Nearly 200 countries approved the deal by consensus after two weeks of fraught negotiations in the Brazilian city of Belem, with the notable absence of the United States as President Donald Trump shunned the event.

Applause rang out in the plenary session after COP30 president and Brazilian diplomat Andre Correa do Lago slammed a gavel signalling its approval.

The EU and other nations had pushed for a deal that would call for a “roadmap” to phase out fossil fuels, but the words do not appear in the text.

Instead, the agreement calls on countries to “voluntarily” accelerate their climate action and recalls the consensus reached at COP28 in Dubai. That 2023 deal called for the world to transition away from fossil fuels.

The EU, which had warned that the summit could end without a deal if fossil fuels were not addressed, accepted the watered-down language.

“We’re not going to hide the fact that we would have preferred to have more, to have more ambition on everything,” EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told reporters.

“We should support it because it is at least going in the right direction,” said Hoekstra.

More than 30 countries including European nations, emerging economies and small island states had signed a letter warning Brazil they would reject any deal without a plan to move away from oil, gas and coal.

But a member of an EU delegation told news agency AFP that the 27-nation bloc was “isolated” and cast as the “villains” at the talks.

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The push to phase out oil, coal and gas – the main drivers of global warming – grew out of frustration over a lack of follow-through on the COP28 agreement to transition away from fossil fuels.

French ecological transition minister Monique Barbut had accused oil-rich Saudi Arabia and Russia, along with coal producer India and “many” other emerging countries, of refusing language on a fossil-fuel phaseout.

She said today the text was bland but that there was “nothing extraordinarily bad in it.”

The deal caps a chaotic two weeks in Belem, with Indigenous protesters breaching the venue and blocking its entrance last week and a fire erupting inside the compound on Thursday, forcing a mass evacuation.

Ireland’s Minister for Climate, Energy and Environment Darragh O’Brien, who did not attend the negotiations, said Ireland supports the EU’s decision to accept the COP30 presidency text.

“This was not a choice made lightly and our support is underpinned by profound concerns: the Presidency text falls short of meaningful ambition on the most critical issue of our time – reducing emissions to mitigate the worst effects of climate change,” O’Briend said.

“In particular, it fails to include a credible roadmap for the phase-out of fossil fuels, a step more than 80 countries, including Ireland, called for earlier this week.

“Nevertheless, we look forward to continuing work, outside of the COP process, with the EU and other international partners on shaping a roadmap for the energy transition and the phase out of fossil fuels.”

Ross Fitzpatrick of Christian Aid Ireland, who attended the conference, said COP30 “was supposed to deliver a clear, unmistakable message that the world is finally moving beyond fossil fuels”.

“Instead, governments failed to step up to the plate at the very moment decisive leadership was needed,” he said.

“A handful of major fossil fuel producing countries placed short-term supposed self-interest above the survival of millions, blocking progress on a clear roadmap for phasing out fossil fuels that was championed by President Lula.”

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