COP30: can the green transition still succeed?
COP30 begins on Monday in Belém, Brazil. Ahead of the Climate Change Conference, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for stronger measures against climate change. The world had failed to meet its goal of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees C, he said, stressing that every tenth of a degree increase means more hunger, displacement and financial losses. Commentators also emphasise the need for action.
Past inaction necessitates drastic measures
Five young scientists call on Spain to push for an end to the fossil fuel era in El País:
“In Spain, public debate has focused heavily on adaptation [to changing climate conditions]. ... But you can't heal a wound without stopping the bleeding: adaptation is pointless unless we abandon fossil fuels. ... At the upcoming COP30, Spain should sign the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and join the leading climate protection countries. ... The inaction of recent decades forces us to take drastic measures. The alternative is a dystopia that exacerbates the climate apartheid: a few benefit while the global majority suffer in climate hell.”
A cocktail of crises and conflicts
Le Quotidien warns of the devastating consequences of not meeting the climate protection targets:
“For now, we hardly feel any difference in our lives. However, climate change will certainly affect our temperate regions in a few decades. It's hard to imagine that the many people on the other side of the world will remain in regions where droughts, food shortages and floods have made it impossible to live. Humanitarian and migration crises will continue to define this century. This cocktail could also trigger conflicts over access to resources. We will be in the front row.”
High time to phase out fossil fuels
We must not give up hope, urges Avvenire:
“The proliferation of wars, massive investment in weapons and steadily rising energy demand have pushed environmental changes down the list of priorities for many countries - regardless of the rhetoric. Not only in Washington, which wants to withdraw from the Paris Agreement at Donald Trump's behest, and is conspicuous by its absence in Belém. ... It is therefore not surprising that UN Secretary-General António Guterres opened the COP by stating that the Paris Agreement's main goal of keeping global temperatures below 1.5 degrees had 'failed globally'. ... But all is not lost: the world can still minimise the damage by taking accelerated action, starting with a gradual phase-out of fossil fuels.”
Much has been achieved in the last decade
Kauppalehti hopes for complementary successes:
“The 1.5-degree target of the Paris Agreement is still a long way off, but a lot has happened in ten years. A major transformation is already underway in the energy sector, and companies in Finland have also invested money in reducing their emissions because they see this as the smartest move for their own business. In the climate negotiations over the coming weeks, further pieces of this puzzle must find their place.”
Focus on progress
We shouldn't concentrate too much attention on the final statement of the COP, writes François Gemenne of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in Les Echos:
“If, on the other hand, we stopped hoping for a decisive change of direction from every COP and focused instead on the things that happen beyond the main negotiations, which are so often decried as just a big show, we might find more cause for hope. The coalitions and partnerships that are forged and the projects that are funded are more tangible results than the final statement, and outline the contours of the future economy.”