By Lisandra Paraguassu
BELEM, Brazil (Reuters) -Brazil’s COP30 climate summit faced a crunch day on Saturday following all-night talks to overcome an impasse after the European Union blocked a deal it said would fail to advance efforts to curb the greenhouse gases driving global climate change.
The two-week conference – billed as a chance to show that nations can still join forces to tackle climate change despite the absence of the United States – was scheduled to end on Friday but the standoff forced negotiators into overtime.
The Brazilian presidency was trying to find a compromise on a deal that most of the 200 nations attending the summit were ready to accept, but that the EU said was unbalanced.
Any deal needs a consensus to be approved.
There had already been little prospect of any agreement that laid out more detail on how and when nations fulfil their promises to shift away from fossil fuels. Staunch objections had been led by the Arab Group of countries.
That left the prospect of agreeing on a voluntary “Global Implementation Accelerator” in which countries could discuss how to advance their emissions-cutting efforts.
A draft of part of the proposed final deal, seen by Reuters on Saturday, also called for global efforts to triple the financing available to help developing nations adapt to climate change by 2035.
The EU indicated it could “move beyond its comfort zone” on finance for developing nations – but only if clauses on action to cut planet-warming emissions were strengthened.
Sources told Reuters the COP30 presidency was preparing a side text addressing fossil fuels, though it was not clear if Brazil would issue the declaration itself or if other countries had signed on to support it.
It was not expected to be part of an overall consensus deal after earlier attempts by Brazil to get all countries at the summit to agree to a text on fossil fuels were unsuccessful.
(Reporting by William James, Lisandra Paraguassu, Kate Abnett and Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Katy Daigle and Kevin Liffey)
