SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Climate negotiations at the United Nations COP30 Conference ended this afternoon in Belem, Brazil, with a last-minute deal. The resolution calls for an increase in money going to nations affected by global warming to help them adapt. But it doesn't really address phasing out the primary driver of climate change, fossil fuels. NPR's climate correspondent Julia Simon is at the conference center in Brazil and joins us now. Hi, Julia.
JULIA SIMON, BYLINE: Hi, thanks for having me.
PFEIFFER: This conference lasted two weeks. I've read there were bitter negotiations up to the end. What ultimately came of it?
SIMON: It has been a tense conference. Ultimately, it did not deliver as much as many hoped. Let's start with what it did manage to do. The final agreement calls to triple the amount of financing to help nations adapt to a hotter world. That tripling of money will happen within a decade.
But a lot of the tension, Sacha, at this COP30 has been around this question - will the negotiations explicitly address phasing out fossil fuels? More than 80 countries were calling for this conference to emerge with a clear road map to move away from fossil fuels. Burning oil, gas and coal make up about 70% of the greenhouse gases driving global warming. The final agreement did not mention fossil fuels, and this is where it gets really interesting because one of the most important things to come out of this conference is actually the announcement of another conference.
PFEIFFER: And why, after finishing one lengthy conference, would they have another one?
SIMON: This is an important question. But the problem is that in recent years, there have been countries and NGOs saying, this United Nations process, these conferences, aren't enough. We need another process to really get countries to phase out fossil fuels, a complementary process. So yesterday, Irene Velez Torres, Colombia's environment minister, along with ministers from Europe, Latin America, the Pacific Islands - Torres announced that they are making a new conference next year in Santa Marta, Colombia. This conference is explicitly dedicated to discussions around phasing out fossil fuels. Here is Minister Torres.
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IRENE VELEZ TORRES: The idea of the Santa Maria Conference is to have this first space in which we are completely clear that the phasing out is necessary because it's not easy. No one is saying that it is easy. But if we don't face the problems, we cannot build the solutions.
SIMON: It is a big deal that Colombia is hosting this new conference. They are an oil, gas and coal producer. The co-host will be the Netherlands, the birthplace of Shell oil. And at this conference, you likely will not see Russia and Saudi Arabia, who have been an obstacle for this phaseout of fossil fuels.
PFEIFFER: Julia, for these previous gatherings, there have often - they have often ended with commitments from countries to reduce their climate pollution. What's the assessment of how that effort is going?
SIMON: To answer that, I spoke to Alden Meyer. He's senior associate at climate change think tank E3G about this. He says, scientists say, collectively, country commitments are not nearly enough to avoid catastrophic warming. Right now, he says, countries are pursuing policies that would lead to their climate emissions falling by about 12% by 2035.
ALDEN MEYER: The science says we need five times that much. What I'm saying is, we're not even close.
SIMON: And this is why, again, many countries are looking to transition away from fossil fuels, the main driver of global warming.
PFEIFFER: I understand that the issue of trade was also a really big factor in this conference.
SIMON: Yeah, trade really took center stage. China is exporting massive amounts of solar, batteries, electric vehicles, all around the world. China has been pushing for free trade of this climate tech. So trade's becoming a climate issue, and this is actually an area where the U.S. is missing out. Climate tech is good for the climate, but it can also be good for a country's pocketbooks. China is now making more money exporting clean energy technologies than the U.S. is making exporting fossil fuels.
PFEIFFER: So China was at this conference. The U.S. was absent. It did not send an official delegation for the first time. What about Brazil, the host of this meeting, a meeting in a rainforest?
SIMON: Yes, we're in the Brazilian rainforest, in the Amazon. Brazilian hosts did play a key role in getting the agreement through, as contested as it was, and the Brazilians will be continuing to lead the negotiations, the discussions, until the next COP in Turkey.
PFEIFFER: That's NPR's Julia Simon reporting for us from Brazil. Thanks, Julia.
SIMON: Thank you, Sacha. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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