COP30: The UN climate summits are no longer fit for purpose
PABLO PORCIUNCULA/AFP via Getty Images
Imagine you are suffering from a life-threatening illness. All available scientific tests point to a clear diagnosis and a fatal prognosis. But when you see your doctor, he or she makes no direct mention of the disease. After some brief pleasantries, they shake your hand and ask you to make another appointment in 12 months.
None of us would consider this an acceptable standard of health care, and yet this is the approach we take to the Earth’s climate. The United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) summits, the 30th of which concluded in Belém, Brazil, last week, have undoubtedly delivered important progress in the fight against climate change, including the 2015 Paris Agreement aimed at limiting warming below 1.5°C. Although this goal has all but failed, we are certainly on track for much less warming than we would be without it.
But it is also clear that the COP process is no longer fit for purpose. As we report on page 6, COP30 ended without even a mention of fossil fuels, the main cause of climate change, in the final agreement. Although more than 80 countries have called for a road map to “shift away from fossil fuels” – a phrase that was included in the COP28 agreement signed in Dubai in 2023 – oil states, including former COP host Saudi Arabia, have worked to block any such deal. Because the COP requires consensus, we are left with only the promise of additional negotiations at COP31 in Türkiye next year.
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Countries pro-climate action should put all their power into solar power and batteries
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This state of affairs cannot continue, but reforming the COP process will not be an easy task. Instead, if the argument for ending the fossil fuel era cannot be made through science or politics, then we must look to technology and economics.
Countries in favor of climate action should put all their might into solar power and batteries, flooding the world with cheap energy that would surpass oil and gas. Nations that want a livable future could impose economic sanctions on those who don’t seem to care. Whatever we do, a simple “see you next year” is no longer an acceptable option.
