Brazil releases draft text and letter to accelerate COP30 climate negotiations

BELEM, Brazil — With a direct letter sent to nations and a draft text released Tuesday, host country Brazil is moving the United Nations climate conference into high gear.

The letter sent Monday evening comes during the final week of the first climate summit in the Amazon rainforest, a key climate regulator because trees absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that warms the planet. COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago then released a proposal with 21 options for negotiators to choose from on four delicate and interrelated issues.

“It’s Tuesday’s text and we’re kind of off to the races,” said David Waskow of the World Resources Institute, who said the nine-page proposal “addresses some of the central issues that have been part of the presidency’s consultations.”

The four key policy questions are: should countries be asked to do better in their new climate plans? details on the distribution of $300 billion in promised climate aid; addressing climate-related trade barriers; and improving transparency, which Waskow says is really about reporting on climate progress.

Although the options proposed in the draft text “are a first step, what is needed now is to eliminate options that add to delays and ignore the urgency for action,” said Jasper Inventor, deputy program director at Greenpeace International.

Tuesday was also a day for speeches by high-level ministers.

“Right now, people in a number of countries around the world, including my own, want to deny the crisis exists or delay the urgent action we need to tackle it,” British Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said.

Sophie Hermans, Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands, said that “the transition is no longer about setting targets. It’s about executing them. And execution requires realism, planning, and the ability to adapt when circumstances change. »

The documents ask leaders to iron out many aspects of a potential deal by Wednesday so that many things are ironed out before the final set of decisions on Friday, when the conference is expected to end. Climate summits regularly reach their final day as nations must balance domestic concerns with the major changes needed to protect the environment and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was due to return to Belém on Wednesday and a deadline could be set for him to bring the parties together or celebrate some sort of draft agreement, observers said. But many don’t think countries will actually be ready to respond to everything Brazilian leaders have asked for by Wednesday. That timeline is “pretty ambitious,” said Alden Meyer, senior associate at climate think tank E3G.

Brazil’s guidance for the summit, called COP30, raises hopes for significant steps to combat global warming, which could range from a road map for abandoning fossil fuels like oil and coal to more money to help countries develop clean energy like wind and solar power.

“We expect significant concessions from all parties,” do Lago said Monday evening. “They say you have to give to receive.”

Some have expressed concern that the agreements will not meet needs. “The draft text may have the right ingredients, but it has been concocted in a way that leaves a bitter aftertaste,” said Andreas Sieber of 350.org, which works to end the use of fossil fuels. Without a transition to fossil fuels at its core, the documents are “weak and empty, a dish with the main element left out.”

But on Monday evening, E3G’s Meyer said the host nation’s optimistic spirit is “starting to become a little contagious” and that it’s part of building trust and goodwill between nations.

“I sense ambition here. I sense determination,” former German climate envoy Jennifer Morgan said Monday morning.

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This article was produced as part of the 2025 Climate Change Media Partnership, a journalism fellowship hosted by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security.