Five days before COP31, Brazil tables two voluntary plans: moving off fossil energy and ending deforestation
Brazil's COP30 presidency has drafted the roadmaps that failed to win consensus in Belém last year; green groups are positive but miss firm end dates.
COP30 president André Corrêa do Lago on Tuesday presented two roadmaps in Brasília: one for the transition away from fossil fuels and one to halt deforestation by 2030. Brazil had promised them in the final stage of the climate summit in Belém, after countries failed to get them into the official outcome text, Climate Home News writes. Both texts are voluntary and not official UN documents. According to Al-Monitor, citing Reuters, the fossil fuel part stalled on opposition from major oil producers, while Europe supported it.
The energy plan asks countries to review their energy systems and draw up national transition plans by 2028, to have investment in grids and renewables under way by 2030, and to replace fossil fuels faster in the 2031 to 2033 period. The plan notes that recent growth in renewables has mostly met new demand rather than displacing fossil sources. The forest plan brings together measures from more than 180 contributions; global funding for forest protection, around 84.5 billion dollars in 2023, needs to rise above 300 billion a year by 2030.
Greenpeace calls the plans an important step but regrets that the fossil fuel plan contains no clear phase-out dates and does not call for a halt to new oil and gas projects. WWF says the forest plan gets the basics right but that speed is now the challenge. The COP31 climate summit opens on Monday 9 November in Antalya, Türkiye. This year Belgium's delegation is led by Flemish climate minister Melissa Depraetere (Vooruit), together with federal minister Jean-Luc Crucke (Les Engagés) and Brussels state secretary Ans Persoons (Vooruit), Business AM reported earlier.