Belém, Brazil – With only a day left ahead the scheduled end of the 30th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30), the Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED) urged the Philippine government to join the growing coalition of nations supporting a roadmap for a global transition away from fossil fuels.
Host country Brazil’s President Lula had been supportive of a COP30 outcome that promotes a global fossil fuel phaseout roadmap – a matter which was reflected in options within the November 18 iteration of a draft Mutirão text, albeit weakly. The ‘Mutirão’ is a high-level document that seeks to summarize key agreements and mandates discussed at COP, with focus on four key themes in need of progress: financing related to Article 9.1, unilateral trade measures, transparency reports, and meeting the gap in ambition of parties’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to radically reduce greenhouse gas ambitions in line with the 1.5 °C goal of the Paris Agreement.
Negotiations had been in full swing on Wednesday, with new texts expected to drop by Thursday. A fire at the Blue Zone, however, necessitated the evacuation of all participants from and stalled the climate talks.
“Delegates were evacuated safely thanks to the commitment of staff, security, and first responders. Everyone’s safety was necessarily the order of the day. Unfortunately, the fire also means precious hours lost in the progress of the negotiations, with substantial work left to be done in delivering critical outcomes – including on the transition away from fossil fuels,” said Avril De Torres, Deputy Executive Director of think-tank Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED).
“It’s at a time like this that we need parties to show real leadership. With just a day left in the official schedule, the Philippines has yet to step up and join more than 80 parties backing a COP30 pact for a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels. There’s a real opportunity now for the Philippine delegation to fight on behalf of Filipinos for a global transition path that delivers the capacity, finance, technology, and other resources we need to do away with dirty and costly coal and gas, and to benefit from renewables. To ignore this is to commit a grave disservice to our climate-vulnerable people,” she said.
The number of countries expressing support for a fossil fuel roadmap is expected to grow by Friday, November 21, with the anticipated launch by Colombia and other supporting parties of its fossil fuel phaseout declaration by 9:30 AM (GMT-3).
