COP30 in Belém Ends with Modest Gains as Fossil-Fuel Divisions Stifle Ambition

Nearly 200 countries meeting in Belém, Brazil, concluded COP30 by acknowledging that global efforts to avoid catastrophic warming are lagging — but geopolitical divisions and opposition from fossil-fuel producing nations prevented a stronger, faster outcome.

The final, nonbinding agreement asks countries to accelerate efforts to reduce emissions and pledges financial support for vulnerable, poorer nations coping with climate impacts. However, timelines for some funding commitments were pushed back after resistance from wealthier states, leaving developing countries frustrated.

Late in the negotiations Colombia urged firmer language on fossil fuels. In response, a Russian delegate — speaking in Spanish — scolded Latin American delegates:

“My comrades from Latin America … stop behaving like children who want to get your hands on all the sweets, and are not prepared to share them with everyone. You want to stuff the sweets down your throat until you make us all sick.”

Argentina protested the remark, and the Brazilian hosts moved to defuse tensions and promised to take Colombia’s concerns to a follow-up meeting.

The talks were complicated by the absence of U.S. delegates — an unprecedented gap for the annual negotiations — following President Donald Trump’s announcement that the United States would withdraw from the 2015 Paris Agreement. Without a strong U.S. negotiating push, a coalition of emerging economies and oil and gas producers succeeded in removing explicit references to phasing out fossil fuels from the final text.

Still, the agreement was stronger than the last-minute proposal Brazil had floated in the closing days. The text acknowledges a movement by 82 countries, including many in Europe, calling for a concrete process to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels, but that push failed to secure explicit, binding commitments. Instead, nations agreed to incremental steps and language urging them to “strive” for more ambitious action — phrasing notably used by China when describing its own targets.

Brazil secured a side agreement to develop two separate roadmaps: one outlining a path to reduce fossil-fuel use and another focused on ending deforestation. Colombia and the Netherlands — vocal advocates for a fossil-fuel phase-out — announced they will co-host a follow-up summit next year to advance that work.

Several delegates described the outcome as a mixed result. COP30 President André Aranha Corrêa do Lago said important discussions in Belém should continue during Brazil’s presidency even if not all were captured in the adopted texts. German climate minister Carsten Schneider called it “a bit of progress” but said he had hoped for more. EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra said the bloc reluctantly endorsed a slightly revised text after late concessions, and U.K. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband emphasized the importance of sustaining multilateral cooperation while pointing to clean-energy opportunities.

Observers noted the continuing growth of fossil-fuel production since the 2023 U.N. summit, despite rapid deployment of renewables such as wind and solar — driven largely by falling costs and the global supply chain, particularly equipment exports from China. China, which describes itself as a developing country and is the world’s largest emitter, had a significant presence at COP30 but declined to assume a political leadership role, leaving the EU and more progressive states somewhat isolated in pressing for stronger commitments.

In sum, COP30 produced a nonbinding agreement that kept multilateral dialogue alive and secured modest advances, including the roadmaps and renewed financial pledges, but it fell short of the decisive fossil-fuel transition many delegates had sought. The summit highlighted the political obstacles — from great-power calculations to energy security concerns — that remain in the way of faster, more binding climate action.