Miliband urges Cop30 to find ‘creative’ routes to roadmap on phasing out fossil fuel | Cop30

Supporters of a global phase-out of fossil fuels must find “creative” ways to keep the proposal alive, including making it voluntary rather than binding, British Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said during the final stages of UN climate talks.

As the Cop30 summit in Brazil continued beyond the Friday evening deadline, the prospect of countries agreeing on the need for a roadmap for a “global transition away from fossil fuels” looked increasingly dim. An early draft of the summit’s potential final text contained this language, but in the updated draft text produced by the Brazilian presidency on Friday, it was removed.

Miliband told the Guardian that “one way or another” the two-week summit would produce an outcome containing this commitment, but that it could be in a modified form, or could be a voluntary initiative rather than a binding commitment.

“We are fighting for the road map for the transition away from fossil fuels, and we are determined not to lose our momentum one way or another. [towards that outcome] that we built during this Cop,” he declared. “There is a large coalition that wants this, developing countries and developed countries.”

More than 80 countries, developed and developing, have supported the call for a roadmap to “move away from fossil fuels,” but many countries oppose it. The Arab Group, of which Saudi Arabia is the most prominent member, led the opposition, but Russia, Bolivia, some African countries and some major fossil fuel consumers also rejected the language.

Miliband said: “We need to think creatively about possible ways of launching this road map process. What matters to me is the outcome, that this road map is launched, that countries can engage with it and that it is considered by a COP in the future. We have a critical mass of countries who want this to happen. But there are different ways of doing it. We are looking at all the creative ways in which this can happen.”

The EU also urged behind-the-scenes countries to come out publicly in support of the transition away from fossil fuels. Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra on Friday described the non-committal text as “unacceptable”. He added: “Given that we are so far from where we should be, it is unfortunate to say, but we are really facing a no-deal situation. »

Some developing countries have been angered by the insistence on a phase-out. Richard Muyungi, envoy to the President of Tanzania and current chairman of the African Group of Nations, accused rich countries, including the EU, of holding the poor to ransom over the issue. He claimed they opposed Africa’s call to triple the funding available to poor countries to help them adapt to the impacts of the climate crisis, to around $120 billion (£92 billion) a year, because some African countries would not support the fossil fuel road map.

“The phasing out of fossil fuels is not an African problem. We emit only 4% of total global emissions, and we have never discussed a phase-out. We have discussed a gradual reduction,” he said. “Why are we being held to ransom? It’s like you’re trading our lives for something we never caused. So they were saying, ‘If you don’t agree to a phase-out, we can’t give you triple the adaptation.’ We said, “We cannot accept this. »

Juan Carlos Monterrey, Panama’s special representative for climate change, has a different view. “What we have also seen is that the EU is ready to engage constructively on adaptation finance. I have had direct conversations with them and with the UK. But I also understand that we need more ambition. [on cutting fossil fuel emissions] in the text so that they open the checkbook a little more. The two go hand in hand,” he said.

The Guardian understands from delegates from various countries that China is not among the countries blocking a road map for phasing out fossil fuels, while India has taken a harder line in insisting that developed countries take responsibility for past greenhouse gas emissions.

Some developing countries with interests in fossil fuels, including Nigeria and Sierra Leone, have supported a potential road map.

At issue at Cop30 is also the question of how countries respond to the fact that current national climate plans, known as nationally determined contributions, would lead to warming of around 2.5°C above pre-industrial levels, well above the 1.5°C limit target set by the Paris agreement.

A delegate from the Alliance of Small Island States said the issue was crucial for vulnerable countries, but the draft text only contained options to continue talking about the wide gap between countries’ targets and the carbon reductions needed to stay within 1.5°C or as close as is now possible.

Leo Roberts of the E3G think tank said: “Of course, the best outcome is a formal, universally accepted text setting out a country-led process that can chart a path to phasing out fossil fuels. But even if it is not in the final package, the signal from this COP is clear: a large and growing number of countries recognize that a collectively managed and monitored path to phasing out fossil fuels is preferable to the chaotic lack of planning we have now.”