Climate deal a 'win' for global unity, but fossil fuels ignored

Nations sealed a modest agreement at the UN climate summit in the Brazilian Amazon on Saturday as many countries accepted weaker language on phasing out fossil fuels in order to maintain consensus.

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Nearly 200 countries approved the deal by consensus in Belem after two weeks of negotiations held on the fringes of the rainforest, with the notable absence of the United States as President Donald Trump skipped the talks.

Applause rang out as the gavel dropped in humid conditions, closing a dramatic summit marked by protests, a large venue fire and mass street marches.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who invested significant political capital in COP30, said the pact showed that a divided world could still unite in crisis.

"The international community faced a choice: to continue or to give up. We chose the first option," Lula said in South Africa, where he was attending a G20 summit. "Multilateralism won."

European ministers in Belem were less celebratory, admitting they backed the diluted text to prevent the process from collapsing.

"We're not going to hide the fact that we would have preferred to have more," EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra said.