World governments agreed on Saturday to a compromise climate deal at the Cop30 conference in Brazil that would boost finance for poor nations coping with global warming but omit any mention of the fossil fuels driving it.
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In securing the accord, countries attempted to demonstrate global unity in addressing climate change impacts even after the world’s biggest historic emitter, the United States, declined to send an official delegation.
“We should support it because at least it is going in the right direction,” the European Union’s climate commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra, told reporters before the deal was gavelled through.
The Belem deal launches a voluntary initiative to speed up climate action to help nations meet their existing pledges to reduce emissions, and calls for rich nations to at least triple the amount of money they provide to help developing countries adapt to a warming world by 2035.
Scientists have said existing national commitments to cut emissions have cut projected warming significantly, but are not enough to keep world temperatures from breaching 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above industrial levels, a threshold that could unleash the worst impacts of climate change.
Developing countries have argued in the meantime that they urgently need funds to adapt to impacts that are already hitting, like rising sea levels and worsening heatwaves, droughts, floods, and storms.