COP30: what was achieved?
The 30th World Climate Conference (COP30) ended on Saturday in Belém, Brazil. A voluntary platform outside the COP committees to speed up progress on climate protection and a new rainforest protection fund were set up, but no consensus on an action plan was reached. Concrete targets for moving away from coal, oil and gas also failed to materialise. Europe's press takes stock.
The world's attention is elsewhere
Other issues are dominating the headlines right now, but sooner or later the reality of the climate crisis will catch up with the world, Milliyet comments:
“On Friday an international event of crucial importance for our world came to an end, but the world barely paid attention. ... The fact that the US didn't send any delegates played a key role in this. ... The major US media companies (CBS, NBC, Fox) didn't send any reporters either. Our country's agenda is so full that ordinary citizens are understandably not very interested in what the world will look like 40 or 50 years from now. ... But as Carl Sagan said, everything – all of humanity's history, both good and bad – is entirely dependent on the existence of our planet.”
Better to focus on smaller summits
The COP needs a new format, La Tribune de Genève argues:
“In Belém, the participating countries have once again demonstrated their inability to speak with one voice. Disappointing and unambitious – this is undoubtedly the weakest consensus ever reached at a COP. ... This failure comes as no surprise. While the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement made people aware of the urgency of the climate crisis, the subsequent COPs have only revealed our weaknesses. The lack of ambition to keep our promises. ... These costly gatherings must be abandoned – in favour of smaller summits that focus on a single issue such as forests, agriculture or oceans.”
Finally moving forward
The Financial Times points to encouraging progress:
“Brazil used COP30 to launch a forum for countries to thrash out what seem certain to be rising trade and climate tensions. Just another talking shop? Perhaps, but it was refreshing to see immediate economic realities introduced into a process that often seems remote from such concerns. Likewise, countries made a rare push to include the critical minerals central to the energy transition in the formal COP talks. ... And a pioneering 5.5 billion dollar tropical forest protection fund was launched.”
Markets are taking the lead
All is not lost yet, comments Der Tagesspiegel reassuringly:
“A promising process began at COP28 in Dubai two years ago, with countries committing to tripling renewable energy capacities by 2030, doubling energy efficiency and reducing methane emissions by 30 percent. ... Even without binding COP decisions, markets are already moving in this direction, even in the main emitting countries such as China and the US, driven by rapidly falling costs for things like solar modules and batteries, as well as technological advances. Developments in the real economy could prove to be more effective in the long term than international agreements. Climate protection can work – even without perfect summit results.”
The system is still intact
Avvenire observes growing differences and centrifugal factors:
“The Amazon summit unequivocally revealed the dramatic nature of the current global situation. ... A reality that a handful of powerful people refuse to acknowledge – because it contradicts their interests, which are not in line with those of the rest of the world. This is nothing new. But never before – or at least since the Second World War – have the interests of the few been so incompatible with the common good. The fragile global institutional architecture, built up over more than seventy years, threatens to collapse piece by piece. COP30 has also clearly demonstrated this. However, the summit refused to deal another, possibly decisive blow to the system: climate diplomacy is one of the few remaining areas for multilateral action.”