COP30 seals climate deal but sidesteps fossil fuels

World leaders have agreed to a Climate 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. Acknowledging that the deal left many frustrated, the head of the U.N. climate secretariat (UNFCCC) praised the delegates for coming together in an year of denial and division. "I'm not saying we're winning the climate fight. But we are undeniably still in it, and we are fighting back," UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said in a statement.
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. Saturday's agreement also launches a process for climate bodies to review how to align international trade with climate action, according to the deal text, amid concerns that rising trade barriers are limiting the adoption of clean technology.
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. Colombia's negotiator had noted that fossil fuels were by far the biggest contributor of planet-warming emissions, and said her country could not go along with a deal that ignored science. "A consensus imposed under climate denialism is a failed agreement," the Colombian negotiator said