🔗 Share this article

Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva, has called on every country to show the courage needed to confront the necessity of a global transition away from fossil fuels, describing the development of a detailed plan as an “ethical” response to the global warming emergency.

The minister stressed, though, that involvement in this process would be optional and “independently decided” for interested governments.

The topic remains one of the most contentious subjects at the COP30 in the host country, with nations divided over whether and how such a strategy can be discussed. As the host, the nation has maintained a balanced stance on which items can be included on the official agenda.

Silva expressed approval for the possibility of a plan, though not directly pledging Brazil to it. The minister remarked: “When we have a situation that is quite grim, it is good that we have a map. But the map does not force us to travel, or to advance.”

In an interview, the minister added: “The roadmap is an response to our scientific knowledge [of the climate emergency]. It is an ethical response.”

Dozens of countries meeting in the host city for the UN climate summit, which is starting its second week, are aiming to establish how a global phaseout of fossil fuels could be implemented. They hope to build on a landmark resolution reached two years ago at COP28 to “transition away from fossil fuels.”

That commitment lacked a schedule or details on the way it could be realized, and although it was adopted unanimously, some nations have since attempted to disavow the pledge. Efforts last year to expand on its real-world meaning were blocked by resistance from oil-dependent nations at COP29.

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

For these reasons, the host has been cautious of calls by certain countries to include the phaseout on the schedule for the current summit. But the minister has worked hard behind the scenes to make sure the pledge could be talked about at the summit apart from the official program.

The minister convinced Brazil’s president, and he gave public reference three times to the need to “move away from dependence on fossil fuels” at the summit of world leaders that came before the conference, and at the opening of the summit.

“This is a matter that we understand at some point had to be raised, because it is the only way to face the issue from the root,” Marina Silva said. “We recognise that it is challenging, and we cannot sell unrealistic expectations. Bringing up the subject is courageous, and I hope [to see] this courage from all, from producing nations and consumers.”

Brazil had not initiated the push for a transition, the minister said, because that had been done at COP28. Rather, it was enabling the discussions to occur in line with what certain nations wished. “We understand these topics are sensitive. We will give the opportunity to discuss it,” the minister added.

Time is insufficient at COP30 to create a roadmap, a task Silva called could take a number of years because numerous nations faced complicated challenges around dependence on carbon-based energy, or aimed to use the proceeds from exporting oil and gas to finance their development.

“The country brings up the subject, because Brazil is simultaneously a producing nation and user,” she noted. “But the nation is unique, because it, if it chooses to, need not rely on non-renewables. We have to understand that there are some that depend on fossil fuels in their economic systems and lack simple alternatives, and others where oil and gas are the foundation of their economy.

“To be fair is to be just to everyone, but the essential, basic justice is not being unjust to the Earth, because it is our shared home.”

If the proposal receives enough backing, COP30 could set up a forum in which the process of drawing up a strategy to the transition could begin.

This endeavor would involve discussions with all participating nations to the UN climate treaty and criteria for how the initiative would unfold, the minister explained. “After we have standards, a governance structure can be drawn up; after we have a plan, and create protections to be able to establish confidence in the process, I am confident that with these elements we can transform good ideas into actions that are more defined, and more concrete.”

There is no guarantee that a suggestion to begin developing a roadmap would win approval at COP30, although it does not require the formal consent of the conference, which proceeds by unanimous agreement and can be disrupted by particular groups. COP analysts have suggested they think there could be support for such a proposal from about sixty countries, but there are believed to be at least 40 opposed. A total of one hundred ninety-five countries represented at the negotiations.

“In spite of being the primary source of global warming, fossil fuels are about the most divisive subject there is within the international climate talks, so to see a chunky group of countries openly backing a route to achieving worldwide phaseout is in itself pretty groundbreaking.”

“In simple terms, there’s no route to a world where temperature rise stays below 1.5C in which nations cannot to talk about fossil fuel phaseout.”

“We need this wording for real in this conversation. It’s highly illogical that we talk about all topics but that when the main issue are the real problem.”

Negotiations continued on the weekend on several outstanding issues that have not yet been included into the official agenda: commerce, transparency, funding and how to tackle the shortfall between the emissions cuts countries have planned and those required to keep to the 1.5-degree warming target.

A COP30 chair promised a “document” that would address these issues, after consultations – which have been going on since Monday – were unresolved. The official called on countries to adopt the “mutirão” attitude, meaning one of cooperation and positive dialogue.

Progress on additional substantive issues – including adjustment to the effects of the climate emergency, the just transition for those affected by the move to a green economic system and how to strengthen governance capabilities in developing countries – carried on constructively, the host reported.

The host nation's chief negotiator stated the detailed phase of the summit process was nearing the end, and the political stage – when ministers who have the power to change their countries’ stances arrive – was beginning.