By Ben Spencer
Exxcerpt: A deal for a “road map” away from fossil fuels has been scuppered at Cop30 in Brazil after Saudi Arabia, Russia and China successfully blocked the proposal. …
Instead, Brazil’s proposed transition road map — which it called the the Belém Transition Compass, and which was supported by the UK, EU and nearly 100 other countries — will be pursued via a voluntary agreement to discuss it through diplomatic channels over the next two years, with a goal of reporting back at Cop31 in Turkey next year and Cop32 in Ethiopia in 2027.
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Experts warned that the conference — which was boycotted by the US after President Trump pulled out of the UN climate process — has seen the emergence of an “axis of obstruction” opposed to climate action.
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Professor Michael Jacobs of the think tank ODI Global and the University of Sheffield said: “The implacable opposition of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Russia and India to any language here on transitioning away from fossil fuels reveals an increasingly bitter conflict at the heart of global climate politics: between those who accept the scientific fact that to deal with climate change the world must wean itself off fossil fuels over the coming decades; and those who are actively resisting this in pursuit of their short-term energy interests.
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“Geopolitically, this is the creation of a new axis of obstruction — actively promoting fossil fuels and opposed to climate action.”
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The most striking example of the clash of environmental idealism and economic reality is provided by the Cop30 hosts. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, was determined to push through the roadmap away from fossil fuels: it was presented to delegates as his idea, his legacy in the battle against a warming world.
Yet just three weeks before Cop30 started, Brazil approved new oil exploration off its coast, close to the mouth of the Amazon. “I am totally in favour of a world one day that will not need any more fossil fuels, but this moment has not come yet,” Lula said in defence of the plans.
