The head of the UN at the Climate Conference in Belém. UN chief at the Climate Conference in Brazil: postponing compromise decisions is no longer possible Climate and environment
The time for climate negotiations in Belém, Brazil is running out. UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in their speeches at the ongoing Climate Conference (COP-30) there, voiced the same thesis: the whole world is watching what is happening, and it is already time to postpone compromise decisions impossible.
Amid reports that the parties cannot agree on a number of key issues, both leaders called on delegates to act decisively to achieve a phase-out of fossil fuels and increase funding for climate change adaptation.
Guterres: 1.5 degree Celsius threshold – “red line”
Speaking at a press conference, Guterres called on countries to “follow the science and put people before profits.” He stressed the need to triple adaptation funding and achieve real emissions reductions.
“Ministers and negotiators must show leadership, courage and goodwill,” he said, noting that the 1.5 degrees Celsius global warming threshold set out in the Paris climate agreement remains “the only red line that cannot be renegotiated.”
Po He said the final agreement in Belem must take into account both the lack of resources for adaptation and the critical need to reduce rapidly growing emissions. For millions of people, adaptation is “the difference between reaping a harvest or going hungry, between preserving our ancestral land or losing it forever.”
The UN chief reiterated that the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy must be fair and consistent. KS-30
A few hours after the Secretary General’s press conference, a fire broke out at the Hangar conference center, where COP-30 is taking place. Tense negotiations were briefly interrupted.
Security services helped carry out the evacuation. The fire was quickly brought under control and there were no casualties. The cause of the fire is still unknown.
Lula: “We must start thinking about life without fossil fuels”
Brazilian President Lula said that any energy transition plan “must be perceived seriously.”
“We don’t want to impose anything on anyone and we’re not going to set deadlines. Each country must determine for itself what it can do within its time and capabilities,” Lula said.
“If fossil fuels become the main source of emissions, we must think about how to live without them – and how to pave that way. And I say this with absolute confidence as the leader of a country that has oil and produces five million barrels a day,” he added. Lula emphasized that Brazil is actively using ethanol and biodiesel, and called on oil and mining companies to do their part in the fight against climate change. He called on multilateral banks to stop charging “extortionate interest rates” to African states and the poorest countries in Latin America and suggested channeling some of those debts into investment.