That’s a wrap for day one of the 30th annual climate negotiations, here’s what happened:
The formal Cop30 agenda was adopted on Monday afternoon amid concerns by some advocates and states that key issues such as climate finance could be relegated, again.
The veteran Brazilian climate diplomat and Cop30 president André Corrêa do Lago formally opened the conference, promising that Belém would be the “Cop of Truth”.
At the opening plenary, Tuvalu climate minister Maina Vakafua Talia said the US withdrawal from the Paris agreement and Trump’s denial of climate science showed “a shameful disregard for the rest of the world.” While Pakistan’s climate secretary, Aisha Humera, said the climate crisis was the biggest human rights violation of our time.
The US, the world’s biggest historic emitter, was notably absent on the first day, with no government officials and few media outlets attending.
A group of 25 UN special rapporteurs released a joint statement calling for “full compliance” with international law or else risk losing the credibility of the whole UN Cop process
We’ll see you tomorrow for day two.
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The agenda for Cop30 was adopted on Monday, without the protracted so-called “agenda fights” over what should be discussed that have marred recent UN climate meetings. The Brazilian hosts convened negotiators on Sunday afternoon, and made clear their wishes to have a full agenda adopted before President Lula opened the summit on Monday morning, reports Guardian environment editor and Cop veteran Fiona Harvey.
The formal adoption means the talks in earnest can begin without delay, which in some ways is a relief given the packed nature of this conference. However, the way in which the agenda was adopted – with some key items being combined, or moved to sit under new work streams within the negotiations – means that clarification is needed on some key issues including finance and how to stay within the 1.5C limit.
Discussions on the “transition away from fossil fuels” that was agreed at Cop28 in Dubai in 2023 and regarded an obligation under international law, according to the International court of Justice landmark climate ruling in July, could be difficult to house under the formal agenda, and be moved into the “action agenda”. This is a separate grouping of issues that Brazil has instituted that, unlike items under the formal Cop agenda, can be progressed without consensus.
The rush to get the agenda out should not sideline action on finance and fossil fuels, according to Mohamed Adow, director of the think tank Power Shift.
It’s good to see the agenda formally adopted and the start of the Cop underway… But saving the multilateral UN process doesn’t mean we’re guaranteed to save the planet. We need to see actual steps to boost climate finance to help vulnerable countries adapt to the impacts of the climate crisis, and for countries to commit to the just energy transition by moving away from polluting fossil fuels and investing much more in clean renewables.
The world has spent the last 10 years agreeing to the rules of the international climate regime. We now need to see countries acting on the regime they have signed up to – not just speaking warm words.
Debbie Hillier, climate policy lead for Mercy Corps Global, a humanitarian nonprofit, said the term ‘agenda fight’ trivialized the importance for developing countries on making progress on climate finance.
It is a legitimate concern of developing countries that the NCQG (New Collective Quantified Goal) did not fully reflect the legal obligations of developed countries to provide climate finance. There is currently no space for this discussion, and no way of holding developed countries to account to achieve the $300bn mobilisation goal… we are looking to the presidency to allocate a space to ensure that all relevant parties are held accountable to achieve the NCQG.
My colleague Fiona Harvey predicts intense “presidency consultations” until Wednesday, at which point Brazil will have to set out how the agenda will work in practice over the remainder of the conference.
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