COP30 in Brazil closed with disagreements, especially regarding the use of fossil fuels.
While relatively insignificant on the global stage, Portugal is among the most advanced in promoting renewable sources of energy and eliminating all fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas.
Positive aspects of the latest conference were the establishment of a Loss and Damage Fund aimed at helping developing countries with the impact of climate change. A calmer attitude was also adopted towards the many thousands of Indigenous-led protesters in the streets of the Brazilian capital, Belém, demanding urgent climate change action with the phase-out of fossil fuels.
However, there was a very significant number of fossil fuel lobbyists at the conference, and notable absences particularly from the United States whose president is famously in denial about climate change.
More than 30 years of talks since the supposedly pivotal Paris climate summit, greenhouse gas emissions are still expanding — and thus global temperatures are still rising. The 1.5 °C level has been dangerously passed.
While there was much resistance to progress, there was also “a clamour for change inside the COP30 climate negotiations,” according to the Reuters News Agency.
Forbes has been emphasising how people aged 30 and under are investigating and developing possible climate solutions.
Another COP critic says, “we need to turn away from jamborees around negotiations into really focused efforts to accelerate implementation,” one European negotiator said. “This is probably the last of the old COP and the beginning of the new.
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