Prepare to live without fossil fuels, says Brazilian President Lula

On Tuesday, the Brazilian COP Presidency had said that it wanted to wind up the negotiations on the final political agreement of COP30 by the next day, however, no consensus was reached till late night on Wednesday as negotiations pertaining to the first draft of the document continued among countries amid differences among nations. The United Nations (UN) annual climate summit began on November 10 and is set to get over by November 21, unless the negotiations get further stretched due to difference of opinion among the countries.

After a week of deliberations and negotiations, the Brazilian presidency for COP30 came out with the first draft text of the final consensus agreement. The key highlights of this document were four points that were considered to be long standing concerns of several country groups. One of the central issues that instigated major differences among nations is the fact that phasing out fossil fuel was kept as an option – which meant that it may not find its place in the final draft since its fate depended on the negotiations.

Following which, nearly 80 nations from Africa, Asia and Latin America had called for a permanent roadmap in the final draft for phasing out the usage of fossil fuel within a stipulated timeline. The European Union (EU) on Wednesday also expressed its strong support to these demands.

Meanwhile, Brazilian President Lula who arrived at the COP summit on Wednesday morning met a slew of international delegation throughout the day including an Indian contingent led by union minister Bhupendra Yadav of environment, forest and climate change aiming to finalise a deal on the political document. Sources in the COP stated that Lula also held meetings with senior delegates from the Brazilian COP presidency and he himself has taken the issue of finalising the consensus agreement into his hands.

Later in the evening, while interacting with reporters Lula said that every decision in the ongoing summit needs to be made following thorough discussions. He also maintained that the world also needs to start thinking about a way of thinking to live in a world without fossil fuel.

“We respect the political, ideological, territorial, and cultural sovereignty of each country and we don’t want to impose anything on anyone. Therefore, we say that any conclusive decision has to be made through a consensus, every agenda needs to be thoroughly discussed and if any final decision is to be reached, it will be through common consensus only. Therefore we don’t want to impose anything on any country nor do we need to take any decision for the sake of a deadline,” Lula said on Wednesday.

Previously, during COP 28 – that was held in Dubai in 2023 – a commitment was made to transition away from fossil fuels. However, during COP29 which was held in Baku, discussions couldn’t follow on this topic as several countries led by Saudi Arabia ‘unpicked’ the resolution.

Besides this, the first draft of the consensus document also called for an increase of financial support provided and mobilised by the developed nations for developing countries for ambitious adaptation and mitigation action towards climate change as per the Paris Agreement of 2015.

Furthermore, the Brazilian president also maintained that taking care of the environment also means that rich (developed) nations should support the poor nations wholeheartedly.

“One has to put money in so that people learn that by protecting a forest one can gain more than cutting it down. This is not any abstract demand therefore, we need to convince all the multinational banks who charge exorbitant interest rates to countries in Latin America and Africa to rethink their policies and transform them,” Lula said on Wednesday.