Misereor considers the final declaration of COP 30 published today in Belém to be inadequate. In the view of the aid organisation, the international community has failed to take key decisions for greater climate justice. Especially for people in the Global South, urgently needed funding commitments for climate adaptation and a binding phase-out pathway for fossil fuels have not been made.
In addition Anika Schroederclimate expert at Misereor:
"Although Brazil scored points at the start of the conference with its vigour and creative negotiating style, even the best negotiating style can only be as good as the ambition of the respective governments. However, this was very weak. The states describe themselves as incapable of acting in the face of tight budgets. Options such as taxing polluters and reducing harmful subsidies are not even being considered. This is tantamount to accepting that hundreds of thousands of people will lose their livelihoods as a result of the climate crisis.
Civil society, on the other hand, has built bridges at this COP - with a clear goal in mind: climate justice that holds everyone accountable and identifies and demands concrete climate solutions from below. Misereor hopes that this strong role of civil society will also prevail at future COPs."
Madeleine Wörner, energy expert, adds:
"The world needs a fossil detox. At least 80 signatory states were able to agree on this at the 30th World Climate Conference, even if the final declaration failed due to the resistance of a very small group of resource-based countries. Next year, however, around 20 particularly ambitious countries, led by Colombia and the Netherlands, want to agree further steps towards a fossil fuel phase-out at a conference. Host Brazil has also announced that it will take the fossil fuel phase-out to the upcoming G20 summit.
It is positive that awareness of fossil dependency and the necessary phase-out is growing. Although the COP 30 resolutions have not taken a decisive step towards a 'fossil fuel phase-out', the conference has helped to drive forward the coalition of the willing. We can only hope that the trend towards a fossil detox will be emulated and reach the entire multilateral arena."
