Climate summit ends in anger as Cop30 deal fails to mention oil, coal or gas

A tentative plan setting out steps for the world to transition away from fossil fuels was announced at UN climate talks yesterday - but only after language relating to oil, coal and gas was stripped out of the official agreement.

- reports climate editor Jeevan Vasagar

The talks in the Amazonian city of Belém spilled into an extra day and came close to collapse after countries led by China, Russia and Saudi Arabia refused to agree language on fossil fuels.

Ani Dasgupta, president of the World Resources Institute thinktank, said there would be disappointment over negotiators' failure to agree on a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels. "More than 80 countries stood their ground for a fair and equitable shift off fossil fuels," he said, "but intense lobbying from a few petrostates weakened the deal."

In a move that was welcomed by campaigners, André Corrêa do Lago, president of Cop30, announced the creation of two "roadmaps" - one on halting and reversing deforestation and the other on "transitioning away from fossil fuels in a just, orderly, and equitable manner". But this announcement was made unilaterally by Brazil, without formal agreement from other countries.

Do Lago said the roadmaps would be "led by science", and that dialogues involving both oil-producing and consuming countries would be created. But these will happen outside formal UN negotiations. The US, led by a president sceptical of the climate crisis and seeking to expand fossil fuel exports, is likely to attempt to block any global agreement on a phaseout.