4 d. ago ‘Fossil fuel giants finally in the crosshairs’: Cop30 avoids total failure with last

It took some oblique wording, but Saudi Arabia made a last-minute decision to sign deal that marks departure for CopDawn was breaking over the Amazonian city of Belém on Saturday morning, but in the windowless conference room it could have been day or night. They had been stuck there for more than 12 hours, dozens of ministers representing 17 groups of countries, from the poorest on the planet to the richest, urged by the Brazilian hosts to accept a settlement cooked up the day before.Tempers were short, the air thick as the sweaty and exhausted delegates faced up to reality: there would not be a deal here in Brazil. The 30th UN climate conference would end in abject failure. Continue reading...

Events

4 d. ago The Guardian view on UN climate talks: they reveal how little time is left | Editorial

A fragile Cop30 consensus is a win. But only a real bargain between rich and poor nations can weather the climate shocks that are comingThis year’s UN climate talks in Brazil’s Belém ended without a major breakthrough. The text of the final agreement lacked a deal to shift away from fossil fuels, delayed crucial finance and the “mutirão” decision contained no roadmap to halt and reverse deforestation. But the multilateral system at Cop30 held together at a point when its collapse felt close. This ought to be a warning: next year’s conference of the parties must strike a better bargain between the rich and poor world.Developing countries are far from united on some issues. Over rare earth minerals China sees any move as targeting its dominance, while Africa sees it as essential for governance. Elsewhere petrostates did not support Colombia’s call for a fossil fuel phase-out. Yet the global south broadly coheres around a simple principle: its nations must be equipped to survive a clim...

Politics

4 d. ago Bitter rows and overnight talks: how a fragile Cop30 deal was agreed – podcast

After bitter arguments, threatened walkouts and heated all-night negotiations, delegates eventually reached a deal this weekend at the Cop30 climate summit in Brazil. To unpick what was achieved and what was left out, Madeleine Finlay hears from the Guardian’s environment editor, Fiona Harvey, who has been following every twist and turnEnd of fossil fuel era inches closer as Cop30 deal agreed after bitter standoffSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

Economics

5 d. ago Another Cop wrecked by fossil fuel interests and our leaders’ cowardice – but there is another way | Genevieve Guenther

The fingerprints of Russia and Saudi Arabia are all over the decision text in Brazil. But a group of nations led by Colombia and the Netherlands offer hopeGenevieve Guenther is the founding director of End Climate SilenceThe 30th conference of the parties (Cop30), the annual climate summit of all nations party to the UNFCCC, just ended. Stakeholders are out in the media trying spin the outcome as a win. Simon Stiell, climate change executive secretary for the UN is, for instance, praising Cop30 for showing that “climate cooperation is alive and kicking, keeping humanity in the fight for a liveable planet”. But let us be clear. The conference was a failure. Its outcome, the decision text known as the Global Mutirão or Global Collective Effort, is, in essence, a form of climate denial.In 2023, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) determined that the world had already developed, or planned to develop, too much fossil fuel to be able to halt global heating at 2C. It ackn...

Politics

5 d. ago UN warns world losing climate battle but fragile Cop30 deal keeps up the fight

Reaching agreement in divisive political landscape shows ‘climate cooperation is alive and kicking’, says UN climate chiefThe world is not winning the fight against the climate crisis but it is still in that fight, the UN climate chief has said in Belém, Brazil, after a bitterly contested Cop30 reached a deal.Countries at Cop30 failed to bring the curtain down on the fossil fuel age amid opposition from some countries led by Saudi Arabia, and they underdelivered on a flagship hope – at a conference held in the Amazon – to chart an end to deforestation. Continue reading...

Events

5 d. ago They’re doing to America what they did to Christianity | Bill McKibben

Trump’s wrecking-ball approach to America has a precedent: the Maga evangelical perversion of Jesus’s message of radical love to one of hate and aggressionTrumpism’s most revealing and defining moments – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – came earlier this autumn. In the course of a few weeks, the US president started showing everyone his plans for a gilded ballroom twice the size of the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to build it. Then, after nationwide protests against his rule, he posted on social media an AI video of himself wearing a crown and piloting a fighter jet labeled “King Trump”, which proceeded to bomb American cities and Americans with a graphically vivid load of human poop.He has done things 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of deaths from his cuts to USAID is 600,000 and rising, and this week a study predicted his fossil fuel policies would kill anot...

Politics

6 d. ago Miliband says Cop30 was ‘step forward’ despite lack of explicit fossil fuel plan

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said he ‘would have preferred a more ambitious agreement’ at Cop30 in Brazil.

Events

6 d. ago End of fossil fuel era inches closer as Cop30 deal agreed after bitter standoff

Wealthy countries agree to triple funds for countries to tackle climate impacts, but deforestation and critical minerals blocked from final dealThe world edged a small step closer to the end of the fossil fuel era on Saturday, but not by nearly enough to stave off the ravages of climate breakdown.Countries meeting in Brazil for two weeks could manage only a voluntary agreement to begin discussions on a roadmap to an eventual phase out of fossil fuels, and they achieved this incremental progress only in the teeth of implacable opposition from oil-producing countries. Continue reading...

Economics

7 d. ago Miliband urges Cop30 to find ‘creative’ routes to roadmap on phasing out fossil fuel

UK energy secretary says UN climate talks must find way to keep proposals alive despite significant resistanceSupporters of a global phaseout of fossil fuels must find “creative” ways to keep the proposal alive, including making it voluntary rather than binding, the UK energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has said in the closing stages of the UN climate talks.As the Cop30 summit in Brazil carried on past the Friday night deadline, the prospect of countries agreeing on the need for a roadmap to a global “transition away from fossil fuels” looked increasingly dim. A first draft of the potential outcome text from the summit had contained the formulation, but in the updated draft text produced on Friday by the Brazilian presidency it had been excised. Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago Cop30 live: summit president says ‘everybody will lose’ as fears rise that conference will end without a deal

André Corrêa do Lago issues plea to preserve Paris agreement with countries far from reaching agreement on scheduled final dayAn informal stocktake plenary is now underway [see live feed at the top of the blog]. Here the presidency will update parties on the state of the negotiations.My colleague Damian Carrington will be keeping across the main developments. Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago Cop30 live: summit president warns ‘everybody will lose’ if countries fail to cooperate

André Corrêa do Lago issues plea to preserve Paris agreement with countries far from reaching agreement on scheduled final dayAn informal stocktake plenary is now underway [see live feed at the top of the blog]. Here the presidency will update parties on the state of the negotiations.My colleague Damian Carrington will be keeping across the main developments. Continue reading...

Events

8 d. ago Cop30 draft omits any mention of fossil fuel transition plan as talks enter final hours

Negotiators face narrowing window to resolve some of summit’s most politically charged questions before scheduled close this weekend

Politics

8 d. ago Cop30: dozens of countries threaten to block resolution unless it contains roadmap to fossil fuel phase

Exclusive: The Guardian understands Brazil had been planning to drop a roadmap to a transition away from fossil fuels amid opposition from petro statesCountries supporting a phase-out of fossil fuels at the Cop30 climate summit in Brazil have threatened to block any agreement that does not include such a commitment, in a significant escalation of tensions at the crunch talks, the Guardian can reveal.The simmering row over a potential roadmap for the “transition away from fossil fuels” boiled over on Thursday night when a group of at least 29 countries signed a strongly worded letter to Brazil, the Cop presidency. The leaked letter demanded that the roadmap be included in the outcome of the talks, which are due to end on Friday but likely to carry on into the weekend. Continue reading...

Events

8 d. ago Cop30 climate summit in Brazil disrupted after fire breaks out in venue

Event thrown into confusion after conference centre evacuated but UN says no one hurtBrazilian president will take fossil fuel phase-out plan to G20 summitTalks at the Cop30 climate summit in Brazil were disrupted on Thursday after a fire broke out in the venue, triggering an evacuation just as negotiators were hunkering down to try to land a deal to strengthen international efforts to address climate change.António Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, had appealed earlier in the day for a deal from the summit, welcoming calls from some for clarity on the hotly disputed subject of weaning the world off fossil fuels. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Chinese scientists find way to make rubber and plastic without having to rely on fossil fuel

Iron-based catalyst found to enhance efficiency of alternate, more sustainable reaction

Politics

1 week ago More than 80 countries at Cop30 join call for roadmap to fossil fuel phase

Countries from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Pacific and Europe plead for transition to be central outcome of talksCop30 live – latest updatesMore than 80 countries have joined a call for a roadmap to phasing out fossil fuels, in a dramatic intervention into stuck negotiations at the UN Cop30 climate summit.Countries from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific joined with EU member states and the UK to make an impassioned plea for the “transition away from fossil fuels” to be a central outcome of the talks, despite stiff opposition from petrostates and some other major economies. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Cop30 live: Ministers from global north and south unite in call for a roadmap away from fossil fuels

Representatives from Germany, the UK, the Marshall Islands and a number of other countries came together to issue a call for a fossil fuel roadmapWe should not fear the forces of denial and delay, UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has warned, because “they are losing this fight”.Speaking to delegates at Cop30, the Labour politician acknowledged the existence of climate deniers and delayers across the world – including in the UK – and described them as “well funded, well organised, and determined”. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Have courage to create fossil fuel phaseout roadmap at Cop30, Brazilian minister urges

Marina Silva says contentious plan would be ‘ethical answer’ to climate crisis but does not commit Brazil to itBrazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva, has urged all countries to have the courage to address the need for a fossil fuel phaseout, calling the drawing up of a roadmap for it an “ethical” response to the climate crisis.She emphasised, however, that the process would be voluntary for those governments that wished to participate, and “self-determined”. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Czech Republic plans $19 billion nuclear expansion to double output and end fossil fuel reliance

The Czech Republic plans to build two new reactors at its Dukovany plant to expand the country's nuclear energy capacity

Economics

2 w. ago Cop30 live: ‘If we continue destroying everything on this earth there will be chaos,’ warns Indigenous chief

Earlier on day five of the climate summit, activists blockaded the main entrance demanding to speak to the Brazilian presidentNorway and the United Arab Emirates - both significant fossil fuel producers - are among the ministerial pairings announced by the Brazilian Cop30 Presidency. The task of the pairings is to consult with countries on specific issues and report their views back to the presidency, to help the negotiations progress.The ministers from Norway and the UAE will work on the “global stocktake”, the strand of the talks about the big gap between the carbon emissions cuts needed and the real world. At its heart is cutting fossil fuel emissions, which makes it a target for obstruction by petrostates. The UAE hosted Cop28 in 2023, which delivered the first ever mention of fossil fuels in a Cop outcome.Gambia and Germany, working on adaptationEgypt and Spain, working on mitigation, i.e. cutting emissionsMexico and Poland, working on just transition, i.e. making the switch to...

Events