🔗 Share this article

Brazil’s climate chief, Marina Silva, has urged all nations to demonstrate the bravery needed to address the imperative of a worldwide transition away from fossil fuels, labeling the creation of a roadmap as an “moral” answer to the global warming emergency.

She stressed, though, that involvement in this endeavor would be voluntary and “independently decided” for interested nations.

This issue stands as one of the most debated subjects at the UN climate summit in the host country, with nations split over if and how such a roadmap can be discussed. As the host, the nation has maintained a carefully neutral stance on what can be included on the official agenda.

Silva voiced support for the potential of a roadmap, without explicitly pledging Brazil to it. The minister stated: “When we have a terrain that is very challenging, it is good that we have a guide. But the map does not force us to proceed, or to advance.”

In an interview, she added: “The map is an answer to our scientific understanding [of the climate emergency]. It is an moral answer.”

Dozens of nations gathered in the host city for the UN climate summit, which is starting its next phase, are seeking to determine how a worldwide transition of fossil fuels could work. They hope to advance a historic agreement made two years ago at COP28 to “transition away from fossil fuels.”

The commitment lacked a timetable or specifics on the way it could be realized, and although it was passed unanimously, some countries have since attempted to back away from the pledge. Attempts last year to expand on its real-world implications were stymied by opposition from oil-dependent nations at COP29.

As a result, there was no mention of the shift away from carbon fuels in the outcome of COP29.

For these reasons, Brazil has been cautious of calls by some nations to place the phaseout on the agenda for COP30. But the minister has worked hard in private to ensure the topic could be talked about at the summit outside the official program.

She won over the nation's leader, and he gave public reference repeatedly to the need to “shift from dependence on traditional energy” at the global leaders' meeting that came before COP30, and at the start of the summit.

“The issue is a matter that we know at some point had to be raised, because it is the sole way to address the issue from the root,” the minister said. “We acknowledge that it is not easy, and we must not sell false hopes. Bringing up the topic is brave, and I wish [to see] this bravery from all, from producing nations and consumers.”

Brazil had not started the call for a transition, the minister clarified, because that had been initiated at the earlier summit. Rather, it was enabling the discussions to occur in line with what certain nations desired. “We know these topics are sensitive. We will give the chance to discuss it,” the minister added.

Time is insufficient at the summit to draw up a detailed plan, a process Silva called could take a number of years because numerous countries faced complicated challenges around dependence on fossil fuels, or wanted to use the proceeds from exporting oil and gas to finance their economic growth.

“The country brings up the topic, because it is simultaneously a producing nation and user,” she noted. “But Brazil is different, because Brazil, if it chooses to, need not rely on fossil fuels. We have to understand that there are certain nations that depend on fossil fuels in their economic systems and lack simple solutions, and some where fossil fuels are the foundation of their economic structure.

“To be just is to be fair to all, but the fundamental, primordial justice is to avoid being unjust to the planet, because it is our shared home.”

If the pledge gains sufficient support, the summit could set up a forum in which the process of drawing up a roadmap to the transition could begin.

This endeavor would require dialogue with every signatory countries to the UN climate treaty and guidelines for how the process would unfold, the minister explained. “Once we have criteria, a governance structure can be developed; once we have a strategy, and establish safeguards to be able to establish confidence in the process, I believe that with these elements we can transform positive concepts into actions that are more defined, and more concrete.”

There is no guarantee that a suggestion to start drawing up a roadmap would win approval at COP30, even if it may not need the formal consent of the summit, which operates by consensus and can be disrupted by particular groups. COP experts have suggested they think there could be backing for such a proposal from about 60 nations, but there are believed to be at least forty opposed. A total of one hundred ninety-five countries represented at the negotiations.

“Despite being the root cause of global warming, fossil fuels are about the most divisive subject there is within the UN negotiations, so to see a sizable group of nations publicly backing a route to achieving worldwide phaseout is in itself highly significant.”

“In simple terms, there’s no path to a world where temperature rise remains below 1.5 degrees in which countries aren’t able to discuss ending fossil fuel use.”

“We require this language for real in this conversation. It’s highly illogical that we discuss everything but that when fossil fuels are the actual challenge.”

Discussions carried on on the weekend on several unresolved issues that have still not been incorporated into the formal agenda: commerce, transparency, funding and how to address the shortfall between the carbon reduction countries have planned and those needed to keep to the 1.5C warming limit.

A COP30 chair promised a “document” that would address these issues, after discussions – which have been going on since the start of the week – were inconclusive. The official called on nations to embrace the “mutirão” attitude, meaning one of collaboration and constructive dialogue.

Work on other key topics – such as adaptation to the effects of the climate emergency, the fair shift for those impacted by the transition to a low-carbon economy and how to strengthen governance capabilities in developing countries – carried on productively, the presidency reported.

The host nation's lead representative stated the detailed phase of the summit process was approaching completion, and the political stage – when government leaders who have the authority to alter their nations' stances arrive – was starting.