 "Daniela Duran (on screen), head of the International Affairs Office at Colombia's Environment Ministry, speaks during the plenary session at the COP30 UN Climate Change Conference in Belem, Para state, Brazil, on November 22, 2025. Image- AFP")
The world moved only marginally closer to phasing out fossil fuels on Saturday, falling far short of what is needed to avert the escalating impacts of climate breakdown.
After two weeks of negotiations in Brazil, countries settled on a voluntary agreement to start talks on a roadmap for an eventual fossil fuel phase-out, a modest step secured despite strong resistance from major oil-producing nations.
The discussions nearly collapsed but were pulled back in an all-night session into Saturday morning, following a tense standoff between a coalition of more than 80 developed and developing nations and a bloc led by Saudi Arabia, its allies and Russia.
UN chief praises COP30 efforts but says ‘higher ambition’ still needed
The head of the United Nations commended Saturday’s modest deal at global climate talks but acknowledged that “many may feel disappointed” with the results, including Indigenous and young people.
“I cannot pretend that COP30 has delivered everything that is needed,” read a statement from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said “the gap between where we are and what science demands remains dangerously wide."
“I will continue pushing for higher ambition and greater solidarity,” he said.
Brazil’s COP30 presidency pushed through a compromise climate deal on Saturday that would boost finance for poor nations coping with global warming but that omitted any mention of the fossil fuels driving it.
In securing the accord, Brazil had attempted to demonstrate global unity in addressing climate change impacts even after the world’s biggest historic emitter, the United States, declined to send an official delegation.
But the agreement, which landed in overtime after two weeks of contentious negotiations in the Amazon city of Belem, exposed deep rifts over how future climate action should be pursued.
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View AllAfter gavelling the deal through, COP30 President Andre Correa do Lago acknowledged the talks had been tough.
“We know some of you had greater ambitions for some of the issues at hand,” he said.
Several countries objected to the summit ending without stronger plans for reining in greenhouse gases or addressing fossil fuels.
Some of the criticism came from Brazil’s neighbours in Latin America, with multiple objections made by Colombia, Panama and Uruguay before Correa do Lago suspended the plenary for further consultations.
Noting that fossil fuels were by far the biggest contributor of planet-warming emissions, Colombia’s negotiator said her country could not go along with a deal that ignored science.
“A consensus imposed under climate denialism is a failed agreement,” the Colombian negotiator said.
The three countries said they objected not to COP30’s overall political deal, but to one of the other more technical negotiating texts that countries had been due to approve at the summit’s end, alongside the headline deal.
The three had joined the European Union demanding the deal include language on a transition away from fossil fuels - while a coalition of countries including top oil exporter Saudi Arabia said any fossil fuel mention was off-limits.
After tense overnight negotiations, the EU agreed on Saturday morning not to block a final deal, but said it did not agree with the conclusion.
“We should support (the deal) because at least it is going in the right direction,” the European Union’s climate commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra, told reporters before the deal was sealed.
Panama’s climate negotiator Juan Carlos Monterrey said before the final plenary that his country was not happy with the summit result.
“A climate decision that cannot even say ‘fossil fuels’ is not neutrality, it is complicity. And what is happening here transcends incompetence,” Monterrey said.
With inputs from agencies