COP30 Climate Talks Conclude Without Progress on Fossil Fuel Commitments

Sun Nov 23 2025 22:48:40 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

The recent UN climate summit COP30 in Belém, Brazil ended with no commitments to decrease fossil fuel use, leading to frustration among many countries striving for tougher climate action.

The COP30 climate summit in Belém wrapped up without concrete commitments to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, despite significant contention from over 80 participating nations advocating for stronger action. The final agreement encourages voluntary measures, while oil-producing countries maintain their stance on economic growth through fossil fuel usage. Concerns have risen about global efforts to keep temperature rise below 1.5C, with calls for more decisive action on climate change continuing.

Following bitter rows, the UN climate summit COP30 in Belém, Brazil has ended with a deal that contains no direct reference to the fossil fuels that are heating up the planet.

It is a frustrating end for more than 80 countries including the UK and EU that wanted the meeting to commit the world to stop using oil, coal and gas at a faster pace.

But oil-producing nations held the line that they should be allowed to use their fossil fuel resources to grow their economies.

The meeting takes place as the UN says it fears global efforts to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels have failed.

A representative for Colombia furiously criticised the COP presidency for not allowing countries to object to the deal in the final meeting on Saturday.

Colombia believes that we have sufficient scientific evidence saying that more than 75% of the global greenhouse gas emissions come from fossil fuels, Daniela Durán González, Colombian Climate Delegate, told BBC News.

So we do believe it's time that the Convention on Climate Change starts talking about that reality, she added.

The final deal, called the Mutirão, calls on countries to voluntarily accelerate their action to reduce their use of fossil fuels.

For the first time, the US did not send a delegation after President Donald Trump said the country will leave the landmark Paris treaty that committed countries to act on climate change in 2015. He has branded climate change a con.

Veteran negotiator and former Germany climate envoy Jennifer Morgan told the BBC that the US absence was a hole in the negotiations.

In a 12-hour negotiation overnight, when you have oil-producing countries pushing back hard, to not have someone counteracting on that, it certainly was hard.

But for many countries, the fact that the talks did not collapse or roll back on past climate agreements is a relief.

Antigua and Barbuda Climate Ambassador Ruleta Thomas commented: We are happy that there is a process that continues to function [...] where every country can be heard.

In the final meeting, a representative for Saudi Arabia said: Each state must be allowed to build its own path, based on its respective circumstances and economies.

Like many other leading oil-producing nations, the country has argued it should be allowed to exploit its fossil fuel reserves as others have done in the past.

The two weeks of talks were at times chaotic. Toilets ran out of water, torrential thunderstorms flooded the venue, and delegates struggled to cope in hot, humid rooms.

The COP's around 50,000 registered delegates were evacuated twice.

Despite its desire for a more ambitious fossil fuel agreement, Brazil was criticised for its own plans to drill for oil at the mouth of the Amazon, and its offshore oil and gas production is on course to increase until the early 2030s.