Latest news with #Cop30
The Star
3 days ago
- Business
- The Star
Brics approves climate finance framework, crafting joint stance for first time
The Brics economic bloc approved its first joint climate finance framework on Thursday, the group's most coordinated effort to date on funding climate action and setting the stage for a shared position – a first for the group – ahead of Cop30 in Brazil. The nonbinding framework – agreed during a high-level meeting on climate change and sustainable development – outlines Brics priorities including the reform of multilateral development banks, the scaling up of concessional finance and the mobilising of private capital to support climate efforts in the Global South. The document will be submitted to Brics heads of state at their July meeting. Cop30, the 30th session of the Conference of the Parties, the latest United Nations climate change summit, is scheduled for November in Belem, Brazil. 'For the first time, there will be a document that guides a common and collective Brics action in the area of climate finance – involving, for example, reforms of multilateral banks, more concessional finance, and also the mobilisation of private capital and regulatory matters to ensure that flows can reach developing countries,' said Tatiana Rosito, the international affairs secretary at Brazil's finance ministry. In a statement, the Brazilian presidency said that the bloc's latest climate effort reflected a shift from defensive posturing to proactive coordination in international negotiations. Although this marks Brics' first formal initiative as a negotiations bloc on climate finance, its core members – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – have coordinated informally for years. Their climate diplomacy began through what was originally called the Basic group, which has worked jointly since the 1990s to defend the principle of 'common but differentiated responsibilities' in global negotiations. Brics' climate ambitions intensified with the 2024 Kazan Declaration, which analysts described as the farthest-reaching statement the bloc has yet produced. It placed the Paris Agreement at the centre of its strategy, rejected unilateral trade measures taken under the guise of environmental policy, and linked sustainability to development and equity. 'The framework declaration on climate finance was approved at the vice-ministerial level and will be taken to the heads of state,' said Liliam Chagas, director of climate at Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 'Brics bringing its perspective as major developing countries of the Global South is very important and will help us with outcomes by the end of the year.' The framework feeds into Brazil's flagship goal for Cop30, called 'Road Map Baku-Belem', which aims to mobilise US$1.3 trillion in climate finance for developing countries by 2035. While the Brics document will not be part of formal talks under the UN climate process, officials say it could help build consensus and overcome deadlocks. 'Financing is one of the central issues – at Cop29 and again for Cop30 – especially in the shape of the Road Map Baku-Belem,' Rosito said. 'Even if it is not a negotiation document, it can very well help to unlock negotiations and push climate action forward.' Among the proposals is Brazil's planned Tropical Forests Forever Fund, a financing mechanism developed during its Group of 20 presidency and expected to launch at Cop30. It aims to attract private investment into forest conservation, offering returns instead of requesting direct contributions. 'This is an initiative that fits well as an innovative mechanism for private capital mobilisation,' Rosito said. 'With the financial model being designed, [we] could leverage resources four to five times over ... and the countries that conserve their forests would receive funds for not deforesting.' Beyond financing, the Brics meeting produced agreements to facilitate the use of climate-related patents, establish a joint platform for research and development and create a new Brics laboratory to assess how climate policies abroad might affect member economies. 'These countries will have a space to understand the impact of trade measures that might affect their exports,' Chagas said. She added that a separate agreement on carbon accounting would let Brics countries better track emissions linked to specific goods and industries, helping them evaluate how environmental standards might influence trade flows, import-export dynamics and broader economic activity.
South China Morning Post
5 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Brics approves climate finance framework, crafting a joint position for the first time
The Brics economic bloc approved its first joint climate finance framework on Thursday, the group's most coordinated effort to date on funding climate action and setting the stage for a shared position – a first for the group – ahead of Cop30 in Brazil. The nonbinding framework – agreed during a high-level meeting on climate change and sustainable development – outlines Brics priorities including the reform of multilateral development banks, the scaling up of concessional finance and the mobilising of private capital to support climate efforts in the Global South. The document will be submitted to Brics heads of state at their July meeting. Cop30, the 30th session of the Conference of the Parties, the latest United Nations climate change summit, is scheduled for November in Belem, Brazil. 'For the first time, there will be a document that guides a common and collective Brics action in the area of climate finance – involving, for example, reforms of multilateral banks, more concessional finance, and also the mobilisation of private capital and regulatory matters to ensure that flows can reach developing countries,' said Tatiana Rosito, the international affairs secretary at Brazil's finance ministry. In a statement, the Brazilian presidency said that the bloc's latest climate effort reflected a shift from defensive posturing to proactive coordination in international negotiations. Although this marks Brics' first formal initiative as a negotiations bloc on climate finance, its core members – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – have coordinated informally for years.
Irish Examiner
6 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
World faces new danger of 'economic denial' in climate fight, Cop30 head says
The world is facing a new form of climate denial – not the dismissal of climate science, but a concerted attack on the idea that the economy can be re-organised to fight the crisis, the president of global climate talks has warned. André Corrêa do Lago, the veteran Brazilian diplomat who will direct this year's UN summit, Cop30, believes his biggest job will be to counter the attempt from some vested interests to prevent climate policies aimed at shifting the global economy to a low-carbon footing. 'There is a new kind of opposition to climate action. We are facing a discredit of climate policies. I don't think we are facing climate denial,' he said, referring to the increasingly desperate attempts to pretend there is no consensus on climate science that have plagued climate action for the past 30 years. It's not a scientific denial, it's an economic denial. This economic denial could be just as dangerous and cause as much delay as repeated attempts to deny climate science in previous years, he warned. As the climate crisis has gathered pace, temperatures have risen and the effects of extreme weather have become more obvious, scientists have been able to draw ever more clearly the links between greenhouse gas emissions and our impacts on the planet. So the argument has shifted, Corrêa do Lago believes, from undermining or misrepresenting the science to attempts to counter climate policy. 'It is not possible to have [scientific] denialism at this stage, after everything that has happened in recent years. So there is a migration from scientific denial to a denial that economic measures against climate change can be good for the economy and for people.' The rise of populist politicians around the world has fuelled a backlash against climate policy, most clearly seen in the presidency of Donald Trump in the US, where he has set about cancelling policies intended to boost renewable energy and cut greenhouse gases, and dismantling all forms of government-sponsored climate-related institutions, including scientific research labs. Corrêa do Lago wants to spur a new global effort to persuade people that remodelling the economy away from a reliance on fossil fuels and towards a clean energy future will reap benefits for all people. 'The new populism is trying to show [that tackling the climate crisis does not work],' he said. 'It's the turn of those who believe in the fight against climate change to show and to prove that fighting climate change is possible, and that it can come with economic advantages and with a better quality of life.' Corrêa do Lago faces the task of corralling 196 nations into producing new national plans on greenhouse gas emissions within the next few months, and meanwhile Brazil is already wrestling with the logistical challenges of holding Cop30 in a rainforest. There was controversy earlier this year over a road being built through the forest to the city, though Brazilian officials said the road had already been planned before Cop30 was awarded to Belém. There are also concerns about the environmental credentials of the Brazilian president as his government continues to approve mines and oil drilling projects. The Guardian Read More UN told current Cop is no longer fit to deliver climate change
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
World faces new danger of ‘economic denial' in climate fight, Cop30 head says
The world is facing a new form of climate denial – not the dismissal of climate science, but a concerted attack on the idea that the economy can be reorganised to fight the crisis, the president of global climate talks has warned. André Corrêa do Lago, the veteran Brazilian diplomat who will direct this year's UN summit, Cop30, believes his biggest job will be to counter the attempt from some vested interests to prevent climate policies aimed at shifting the global economy to a low-carbon footing. 'There is a new kind of opposition to climate action. We are facing a discredit of climate policies. I don't think we are facing climate denial,' he said, referring to the increasingly desperate attempts to pretend there is no consensus on climate science that have plagued climate action for the past 30 years. 'It's not a scientific denial, it's an economic denial.' This economic denial could be just as dangerous and cause as much delay as repeated attempts to deny climate science in previous years, he warned in an exclusive interview with the Guardian. As the climate crisis has gathered pace, temperatures have risen and the effects of extreme weather have become more obvious, scientists have been able to draw ever more clearly the links between greenhouse gas emissions and our impacts on the planet. So the argument has shifted, Corrêa do Lago believes, from undermining or misrepresenting the science to attempts to counter climate policy. 'It is not possible to have [scientific] denialism at this stage, after everything that has happened in recent years. So there is a migration from scientific denial to a denial that economic measures against climate change can be good for the economy and for people.' The rise of populist politicians around the world has fuelled a backlash against climate policy, most clearly seen in the presidency of Donald Trump in the US, where he has set about cancelling policies intended to boost renewable energy and cut greenhouse gases, and dismantling all forms of government-sponsored climate-related institutions, including scientific research labs. Corrêa do Lago wants to spur a new global effort to persuade people that remodelling the economy away from a reliance on fossil fuels and towards a clean energy future will reap benefits for all people. 'The new populism is trying to show [that tackling the climate crisis does not work],' he said. 'It's the turn of those who believe in the fight against climate change to show and to prove that fighting climate change is possible, and that it can come with economic advantages and with a better quality of life.' Corrêa do Lago is an economist by training – the youngest of five brothers, all of whom became economists. 'My mother was horrified with our lack of originality,' he joked. He has been a career diplomat, having joined Brazil's foreign service in 1983 and serving previously as ambassador to India and Japan. He is also a veteran of the Cop talks – the annual 'conference of the parties', which will take place this year in Belém, near the mouth of the Amazon, in November. 'Most of the answers have to come from the economy,' said Corrêa do Lago. 'Because we have now enough science, enough demonstration of how climate change can affect people's lives. Now we need answers [in the form of policy measures]. We need economists to rally.' Over the past two decades, economists have begun to take on the challenge of the climate crisis, after the 2006 landmark review by Nicholas Stern, the former chief economist of the World Bank, which found it would be cheaper to tackle emissions than to allow them to run unchecked. That contradicted the conclusions of some previous economists, who had claimed it was not worth trying to move away from fossil fuels, or it would be too expensive. Since then, multiple reports have proved the same point. Most recently, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the UN Development Programme produced a joint report this year, with the final version to come out next month, showing that tackling the climate crisis would materially increase economic growth, rather than being a necessary cost. But much mainstream thinking on economics does not take the climate crisis into account. Most governments preparing budgets, for instance, do not include climate impacts in their estimates, and nor do businesses. Many of the economic estimates of climate damage are also far too modest. For Corrêa do Lago, this shows that much more needs to be done. 'Climate has not been incorporated into economic theory in a satisfactory way yet,' he said. 'Because it's a very disturbing element.' Corrêa do Lago also faces the task of corralling 196 nations into producing new national plans on greenhouse gas emissions within the next few months, and meanwhile Brazil is already wrestling with the logistical challenges of holding Cop30 in a rainforest. There was controversy earlier this year over a road being built through the forest to the city, though Brazilian officials said the road had already been planned before Cop30 was awarded to Belém. There are also concerns about the environmental credentials of the Brazilian president as his government continues to approve mines and oil drilling projects. But those pale in comparison with geopolitical headwinds. Trump will not attend the talks and has withdrawn from the Paris agreement, and his actions have emboldened countries that wish to derail progress. Saudi Arabia, Russia, Argentina, Venezuela and a host of other countries, including petrostates and populist-leaning governments, are all possible mischief-makers. Other major economies may be less overtly disruptive but also could fall well short in their commitments, with equally damaging effects. Each country is supposed to prepare a nationally determined contribution (NDC), a complex document setting out targets on greenhouse gas emissions to 2035 and sometimes beyond, and policies intended to meet them. But so far only a handful of countries – not including the EU, China, Japan or India – have submitted their NDCs, even though the deadline passed in February. The UK's plan was submitted last year, along with Brazil's. Brazil and last year's hosts, Azerbaijan, are working on a 'roadmap' that will set out what countries must do to achieve the financial goals that will also be a key issue. The outline will be ready before governments gather in the Amazon in November. For Corrêa do Lago, the hope is that the world can come together to solve the existential crisis of the climate in the way governments did 40 years ago to tackle the hole in the ozone layer. 'Climate change is much more complex, and the gases act for much longer, and the impact on the economy is infinitely larger than the elimination of the gases that deplete the ozone layer. But the ozone layer is the only example of the phenomenon that connected human action could change the direction [of an environmental crisis].' If we fail? 'The alternative is accelerating climate change.'
The Guardian
29-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Trump's assault on climate make UN talks an ‘uphill battle', says Cop30 chair
Crucial United Nations climate talks this year will be a 'slightly uphill battle' due to economic turmoil and Donald Trump's removal of the US from the effort to tackle global heating, the chair of the upcoming summit has admitted. Governments from around the world will gather in Belem, Brazil, in November for the Cop30 meeting, where they will be expected to unveil new plans to deal with the climate crisis and slash greenhouse gas emissions. Very few countries have done so yet, however, and the world remains well off track to remain within agreed temperature limits designed to avert the worst consequences of climate breakdown. It's not clear what, if any, presence the US will have at the talks after Trump, who calls climate change 'a giant hoax', removed the world's leading economic power from the Paris climate agreement and set about demolishing environmental regulations at home. A trade war triggered by Trump has also caused concerns over a global economic downturn, further distracting leaders from the task of cutting emissions. This backdrop will make the Cop talks challenging, its president André Corrêa do Lago conceded. 'I think it's going to be a slightly uphill battle,' the Brazilian diplomat said in New York on Tuesday. 'Let's say that the international context could help a little more.' Asked about the fear that other countries will also scale back their plans to address the climate crisis, Corrêa do Lago said that none have said they will do so officially. 'But there is obviously some that say, 'God, how am I going to convince my people that I have to try to lower emissions if the richest country in the world is not doing the same?,'' he said. Corrêa do Lago said that invites have yet to be sent to the US, so he does not know who will attend from the Trump administration. The focus at Cop, Corrêa do Lago said, will be on highlighting how the shift to cleaner energy and protecting forests provide tangible economic benefits to people. 'That's why we wanted to be a Cop of solutions, a Cop of action, and not so much a Cop in which you're going to negotiate documents that you don't know if they're going to be implemented,' he said. 'We negotiated so many things under the Paris accord, including about renewables, about energy efficiency, about transitioning away from fossil fuels, about ending deforestation. I believe that there are enough agreements on those things, now we have to translate that into the economy and into people's lives.' Countries will again discuss climate finance at Cop30 but there remains a 'very strong divide' between developed and developing countries on this issue, Corrêa do Lago said, with poorer nations urging those countries most responsible for the climate crisis to provide more funding to help deal with the impact of flooding, heatwaves, droughts and other mounting disasters. Small Pacific island states also recently called for rich countries to hurry up and submit their new climate plans. China, the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, is 'demonstrating an absolute conviction that it's the right way to go and to incorporate climate into their economic growth', according to Corrêa do Lago. Xi Jinping, China's president, has said that his country will 'not slow down its climate actions' despite Trump's backtracking on cutting carbon pollution. Corrêa do Lago was speaking at a BloombergNEF event which featured several gloomy comments from speakers about the US' retreat from dealing with the climate crisis and the uncertainty this has caused for clean energy developers. States, cities and businesses within the US are still pushing ahead with the energy transition despite Trump's actions, insisted Gina McCarthy, Joe Biden's top climate adviser. 'Yes we need to recognize that we have a president who wants to deny climate, yes we have tremendous challenges moving forward but we have incredible opportunities,' McCarthy said. 'Clean energy is not gone, it may have gone quiet but businesses are still jumping in to make the investments to protect our future and our kids. That is what gives me hope.'
