After a year of negotiations, COP30 host Brazil presented a plan on Wednesday (6) to increase climate finance to US$1.3 trillion per year and faced several early signs of the challenging political landscape as the city of Belém prepares to welcome world leaders.
The almost 100-page document, called Baku to Belem Roadmap, is the result of months of conversations with interested parties since the end of last year’s event in Azerbaijan.
Providing more financing is critical to maintaining confidence in multilateral climate efforts as emissions continue to rise, leaving some of the poorest countries at greater risk from extreme weather events.
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However, the push to control emissions suffered a new setback when the European Union reached a last-minute deal to reduce emissions by 90% by 2040.
“The EU made a dangerous choice today,” said Jeroen Gerlag, director of the Climate Group’s European office. “It’s a disappointing sign of leadership as we head into COP30 next week.”
Although the trading venue remains under construction,
In another test for Brazil, the United Kingdom said it would not commit money at the event to a plan to protect the world’s tropical forests, the Tropical Forests Forever Fund (TFFF) — seen as one of the hosts’ main goals, aiming to raise $125 billion.
The decision disappointed President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, sources told Reuters, especially as the United Kingdom helped create it and Lula had personally written to Prime Minister Keir Starmer last Friday to request investment.
Separately, Lula met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Ding Xuexiang, vice premier of China’s State Council, to ask for contributions, according to sources who asked to remain anonymous.
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Global cooperation project
As global development aid is being reduced, the roadmap’s authors called it a “blueprint for cooperation and tangible results.”
Mukhtar Babayev, president of COP29, who helped oversee the roadmap, warned at a press conference that it was important to recognize the scale of the challenge.
“We are trying to intervene in the normal functioning of the world economy, we are trying to direct the forces of global finance. That is an immense task.”
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“Success will require great political will. It will require continued focus and will require relentless action from all of us. Countries simply cannot reduce emissions or adapt to rising temperatures if they cannot rely on capital,” he added.
Ideas for expanding financing include giving more in the form of grants and making it easier for developing countries to access private capital, according to the report, while multilateral banks should help ease developing countries’ debt burdens and take on more risk.
“The resources exist, the science is clear, and the moral imperative is undeniable. What remains is the determination to act — transform the unimaginable into the inevitable and make this decade of accelerated implementation one in which humanity’s response finally matches the scale of its responsibility,” the report said.
