COP30 Was A Waste Of Time
The headline says it all. In short, COP30 achieved nothing at all. I will do a full analysis later, but Matt McGrath’s summing up tells us all we need to know:
So what has actually happened here in Belém?
After two weeks of tough talking, negotiators have approved a key agreement by consensus, despite it being massively disappointing for at least half the countries at this COP.
The deal that’s been done, though, is mainly a re-iteration of stuff that’s already been agreed at previous meetings.
There is nothing clear or obvious about a move away from fossil fuels. There is nothing much about stopping deforestation. There is some commitment of money for poorer countries to cope with climate impacts, but it’s the equivalent of “the cheque’s in the post.”
The president of the COP did announce two “roadmaps” on deforestation and one on transitioning away from fossil fuels, but these are mostly a sop to the audience here who desperately wanted those issues mentioned in the main text but couldn’t overcome the objections of others including Saudi Arabia, Russia and India.
These “roadmaps” have no legal standing and are little more than a crumb of comfort.
As one observer said – they’d never seen so many people so underwhelmed by so little progress at a COP.
Of course, not all countries will be disappointed in the outcome tonight. Those who are large producers of fossil fuels or whose economies are dependent on them will welcome the pause in ambition.
It’s been a complicated COP with a complicated outcome and it’s emblematic of a wider world where there’s increasingly less consensus on what to do about global warming.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cgqlqyepwylt?post=asset%3A1f44da8f-15e4-402c-a477-a27513caea90#post
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