The battle to phase out black energy has been brought to a head at the COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil. Shortly before Friday's official deadline for a global climate agreement, there are such significant disagreements about whether the world community should move away from fossil fuels that a large group of countries have broken out with their own declaration.
- Unfortunately, it's the same battle we fight every year. That there are countries that have very large interests in fossil fuel production, says Climate Minister Lars Aagaard (M).
With just a few hours of negotiations left before Friday's official deadline, over 80 countries have joined forces in a form of "coalition of the willing" - an expression that draws references to the West's support for Ukraine.
Here, the countries are adamant that the climate summit must describe a path away from fossil fuels, even though it is not on the official agenda.
On the opposite front are countries such as India, China and the Arab countries. They consider all fossil fuels necessary to ensure economic growth for their population.
The coalition of the willing is led by, among others, the German Environment Minister, Carsten Schneider, and the British Climate Minister, Edward Miliband, while Denmark and the host country Brazil are also involved.
- We want a result from this COP that addresses the transition away from fossil countries in a fair and inclusive way, said Carsten Schneider at a press conference at the climate summit.
Although the coalition is currently supported by less than half of the participating countries, it includes both countries from Europe and from poorer parts of the world where climate change is hitting hard. The British climate minister highlights this as a strength.
- It is a global coalition with countries from the global north and south that come together and say with one voice: "This is an issue we cannot sweep under the carpet", said Edward Miliband at a press conference.
Not a unified EU
But between the lines, the European ministers reveal a hole in the explanation. At the press conference, where pressure was to be put on the black countries, German Carsten Schneider was forced to say that "some" European countries were involved.
The EU as a unified entity is not part of the alliance. The European Union has had difficulty bringing its member states together on climate issues recently. And this is also evident at the climate summit.
- It is a sign of weakness. And it shows that the EU is having difficulty staying together, says Mattias Söderberg, climate advisor at DanChurchAid.
However, Lars Aagaard firmly rejects this interpretation.
- No, I don't think so at all, says the Minister for Climate.
He emphasizes that there are "several EU countries" that are part of the coalition, and that such initiatives often happen spontaneously and quickly at a climate summit, where not all countries have time to formulate their position.
As a representative of the Danish EU presidency, Lars Aagaard can report that the EU is working closely with the British to formulate diplomatic pressure that can include the need for CO2 reductions in a final agreement.
- We must also ensure that a very broad group of countries is behind this. And we are pushing for that, he says.
It could be a very difficult mission for the EU, estimates Jens-Mattias Clausen, program manager for EU and global climate policy at the think tank Concito.
- We will have to deal with the fact that it will be really difficult in the last hours to convince both the countries that consume and produce fossil fuels to join in, he says.
/ritzau/
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