The UN’s main climate summit ended without agreeing on a fossil-fuel phase-out roadmap, leaving the European Union increasingly isolated as global partners retreat from ambitious climate plans.
COP30 in Belém closed with a final text that removed any pathway to end fossil-fuel use, triggering criticism that labelled the outcome a “hollow deal” and a “moral failure”.
The United States left international climate talks and created a political and financial void, while President Donald Trump dismissed climate change as a “con job”.
Countries dependent on fossil-fuel revenues, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, rejected every proposal targeting a clear phase-out schedule.
One day before COP30 ended, the EU threatened to withhold approval from the draft text, which required consensus from nearly 200 nations.
The EU eventually supported the paper because it saw no realistic alternative, even while admitting its limited ambition.
The bloc maintained its pledge to cut air pollution and curb global warming by defending the 1.5°C limit and accelerating its shift from fossil fuels, promising continued domestic action and expanded funding for clean projects abroad.
Wopke Hoekstra, European Commissioner for Climate Action, insisted that the deal “moved in the right direction” and stated that a unified EU pushed hard for stronger climate ambition.
Mounting Pressure on Global Alliances
Dutch MEP Mohammed Chahim argued that Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva set a demanding standard and that the EU arrived ready to lead a coalition of ambitious partners.
He stated that deep fractures in the international landscape blocked progress.
He added that strong resistance from oil-producing states and shifting geopolitical dynamics forced the EU and the United Kingdom to fight against the current to protect any ambition, noting opposition from a BRICS bloc that resisted decisive action on fossil-fuel phase-out.
BRICS, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, now operates as a 10-member group of emerging economies guided by Moscow to counter Western influence.
Irish climate and energy minister Darragh O’Brien said the support for the final text “did not come lightly”.
He criticised the absence of a credible fossil-fuel phase-out roadmap, which more than 80 nations, including Ireland, demanded during the summit.
Former US Vice President Al Gore lamented on X that petrostates blocked every attempt to design a pathway away from fossil fuels.
He said the Brazilian COP30 Presidency will continue work on such a roadmap with support from over 80 countries backing the effort.
Scientists Warn of Ignored Evidence and Legal Duties
Climate experts and environmental advocates expressed sharply aligned concerns.
Nikki Reisch, director of the climate and energy programme at the Centre for International Environmental Law, argued that the summit produced an “empty deal” that dismissed clear scientific and legal demands for a transition plan away from fossil fuels and for rules that “make polluters pay”.
She said major contributors to the climate crisis continue to trade blame, resist change, and restrict funding while global fires intensify, adding that attempts to hide science or shield polluters do not exempt them from legal responsibility.
Doug Weir, head of the Conflict and Environment Observatory, called the text a “moral failure” for communities already enduring the harshest climate impacts.
He stated that the world “stands no further ahead than in Dubai two years ago” and now faces an even steeper challenge.
Climate Analytics reported that full delivery of the COP28 pledges could have cut warming rates by one-third within a decade and by half by 2040 when governments triple renewable-energy deployment, double efficiency measures, and tackle methane by 2030.
Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics, explained that such a scenario could hold warming below 2°C this century instead of the 2.6°C trajectory set by current policies.
World leaders spent two weeks in Belém reviewing global action toward preventing temperatures from rising beyond 1.5°C, a decade after the Paris Agreement promised real action against global heating.
Australia and Turkey will host the next UN climate conferences.
