The UN climate summit failed to deliver a fossil-fuel phase-out plan, leaving the EU increasingly isolated as global ambition weakens.
COP30 in Belém ended with a final text that avoided any transition roadmap, prompting critics to call the result an empty deal and a moral failure.
The United States abandoned climate negotiations and created a political and financial gap, while President Donald Trump called climate change a con job.
States reliant on fossil-fuel profits, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, rejected every attempt to set a phase-out target.
EU representatives threatened to reject the final agreement because nearly 200 nations needed to approve the text unanimously.
EU officials eventually supported the deal because no other option existed, even as they admitted its lack of ambition.
The EU’s 27 members kept their pledge to hold warming to 1.5°C and continued their shift away from fossil fuels.
They promised to advance clean projects abroad and pursue stronger pollution cuts at home.
Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said the EU acted together and demanded greater ambition from global partners.
Fragmented Partnerships Undermine Progress
MEP Mohammed Chahim said President Lula raised expectations and the EU entered COP30 ready to lead an ambitious coalition.
He argued that today’s fractured global system blocked cooperation and weakened climate efforts.
Chahim noted that oil-producing states resisted every major proposal, while shifting geopolitical alignments reduced momentum.
He said the EU and the United Kingdom struggled to preserve ambition while BRICS nations pushed back.
BRICS now includes ten emerging economies and positions itself as a counterforce to Western influence.
Irish minister Darragh O’Brien said he approved the final text reluctantly and regretted the lack of a credible phase-out plan.
More than 80 countries, including Ireland, demanded that roadmap during COP30, but negotiators refused to include it.
Former US Vice President Al Gore blamed petrostates for blocking negotiations and slowing the shift away from fossil fuels.
Gore said Brazil would still work on a global roadmap backed by the nations supporting stronger climate action.
Scientific Warnings Intensify
Environmental groups and climate experts raised similar concerns.
Nikki Reisch from the Centre for International Environmental Law denounced the deal for ignoring legal and scientific calls to end fossil-fuel use.
She said major polluters stalled progress, withheld funds, and diverted blame while the planet faced growing fires and disasters.
Reisch warned that attempts to hide science or evade responsibility would not shield large emitters from legal scrutiny.
Doug Weir of the Conflict and Environment Observatory said the final text failed communities already suffering severe climate impacts.
He argued that negotiators made no progress since Dubai and now faced an even harder challenge.
A Climate Analytics report estimated that full implementation of COP28 pledges could cut warming rates by one-third within a decade.
The analysis suggested governments could halve warming rates by 2040 by tripling renewable energy and doubling efficiency.
Climate Analytics CEO Bill Hare said those steps could keep warming below 2°C instead of the predicted 2.6°C.
World leaders met in Belém to evaluate progress toward limiting global temperatures, ten years after the Paris Agreement.
The summit closed after two weeks of discussions on global action in the Amazonian host city.
Australia and Turkey will hold the next COP gatherings as the world seeks renewed climate cooperation.
