🔗 Share this article

Brazil’s climate chief, Marina Silva, has urged every country to show the courage needed to address the imperative of a worldwide fossil fuel phaseout, describing the development of a roadmap as an “moral” response to the global warming emergency.

The minister stressed, however, that involvement in this process would be optional and “self-determined” for willing governments.

This issue remains one of the most debated subjects at the COP30 in Brazil, with countries split over if and in what way such a strategy can be addressed. As the host, the nation has adopted a carefully neutral position on what can be placed on the formal schedule.

The official expressed support for the possibility of a plan, though not directly pledging Brazil to it. She stated: “In times we have a terrain that is quite grim, it is good that we have a guide. But the guide does not compel us to proceed, or to advance.”

Speaking further, the minister added: “The roadmap is an answer to our scientific knowledge [of the climate emergency]. It is an moral response.”

Scores of countries gathered in the host city for the global climate conference, which is entering its second week, are seeking to establish how a worldwide transition of oil, gas, and coal could work. These nations hope to build on a historic agreement reached two years ago at COP28 to “transition away from fossil fuels.”

The pledge lacked a timetable or specifics on the way it could be achieved, and although it was passed unanimously, several countries have later attempted to disavow the promise. Efforts last year to elaborate on its practical implications were blocked by resistance from petrostates at COP29.

As a result, there was no mention of the shift away from fossil fuels in the final agreement of COP29.

Because of this, the host has been wary of demands by some countries to place the phaseout on the agenda for COP30. But Silva has strived in private to make sure the pledge could be talked about at the summit outside the official agenda.

She convinced Brazil’s leader, and he gave mention repeatedly to the need to “shift from reliance on traditional energy” at the summit of world leaders that came before the conference, and at the opening of the event.

“This is a matter that we know at some point had to be put forward, because it is the only way to face the issue from the source,” Marina Silva explained. “We recognise that it is challenging, and we cannot offer false hopes. Raising the topic is courageous, and I wish [to see] this courage from all, from producers and using countries.”

The nation had not initiated the call for a transition, she said, because that had been initiated at COP28. Instead, it was enabling the discussions to take place in line with what certain countries wished. “We know these subjects are delicate. We will give the opportunity to discuss it,” the minister added.

There is not enough time at COP30 to draw up a roadmap, a task Silva said could take a number of years because many nations confronted complex issues around reliance on carbon-based energy, or aimed to use the proceeds from selling oil and gas to fund their economic growth.

“Brazil brings up the topic, because it is simultaneously a producing nation and user,” the minister noted. “But the nation is different, because it, if it chooses to, does not have to depend on fossil fuels. We have to understand that there are some that depend on carbon energy in their economic systems and lack simple alternatives, and others where oil and gas are the basis of their economic structure.

“To be just is to be just to everyone, but the fundamental, primordial fairness is to avoid being unfair to the planet, because it is our home.”

Should the proposal gains sufficient backing, COP30 could establish a platform in which the work of creating a roadmap to the transition could start.

This process would require discussions with all signatory countries to the UN framework convention on climate change and guidelines for how the initiative would unfold, Silva explained. “After we have standards, a governance structure can be developed; once we have a plan, and establish safeguards to be able to build confidence in the system, I am confident that with these elements we can transform good ideas into actions that are clearer, and more concrete.”

It is uncertain that a suggestion to begin developing a roadmap would be accepted at COP30, even if it may not need the official consent of the conference, which operates by consensus and can be disrupted by particular groups. COP analysts have suggested they believe there could be support for such a idea from about 60 nations, but there are thought to be at least forty against. A total of one hundred ninety-five countries participating at the negotiations.

“In spite of being the primary source of climate change, carbon-based energy are about the most contentious topic there is within the international climate talks, so to see a chunky group of countries publicly supporting a route to realizing global phaseout is in itself pretty groundbreaking.”

“Put simply, there’s no route to a planet where warming stays below 1.5 degrees in which nations aren’t able to discuss fossil fuel phaseout.”

“We require this wording for actual in this discussion. It’s highly illogical that we discuss everything but then when fossil fuels are the actual problem.”

Discussions carried on on Saturday on several unresolved topics that have not yet been incorporated into the official agenda: trade, transparency, finance and how to tackle the gap between the carbon reduction countries have proposed and those needed to keep to the 1.5C temperature limit.

The summit president pledged a “document” that would cover these matters, after discussions – which have been going on since the start of the week – were unresolved. He urged countries to embrace the “mutirão” attitude, meaning one of cooperation and constructive discussion.

Progress on additional substantive issues – including adaptation to the impacts of the climate crisis, the fair shift for those impacted by the transition to a low-carbon economy and how to build institutional capacity in less developed nations – carried on productively, the host reported.

Brazil’s chief negotiator said the detailed phase of the summit proceedings was nearing completion, and the political phase – when government leaders who have the power to alter their nations' positions join – was beginning.