Last Monday, to get the COP30 agenda agreed, Brazil promised to hold consultations on four controversial issues: emissions-cutting, transparency, trade and finance. Last night, after most delegates had spent their day off exploring the Amazon, the Presidency released a five-page document summarising what was said in those consultations.
Nothing in that “summary note” has been agreed by countries. But it collects together divergent views and forms the basis of what could become a politically agreed statement (known in the jargon as a cover decision) at the end of the COP. It has three key strands on boosting climate finance, strengthening emissions reductions and tackling trade measures linked to decarbonisation.
It includes the key rhetorical messages the COP30 presidency wants to include – that this is a “COP of Truth”, multilateralism is alive (despite President Trump’s efforts to thwart climate action) and the Paris Agreement is now moving from negotiation to implementation.
On emissions-cutting and the need to raise ambition – sorely lacking after the latest round of national climate plans (NDCs) – the note includes an option to hold an annual review and explore the “opportunities, barriers and enablers” to achieve the global efforts agreed at COP28 in Dubai to triple renewable energy and double energy efficiency by 2030; accelerate action to transition away from fossil fuels; and halt and reverse deforestation. This is essentially where any reference to a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels could be anchored.
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COP30 Bulletin Day 5: COP30 could greenlight work on a fossil fuel transition roadmap
At the climate talks in Belém, governments are considering whether to launch a process to craft a roadmap and how that might look -
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The document also includes proposals to “urge” developed nations to include finance in their NDC climate plans and “encourage” all countries that have set a range of percentage emissions reductions in their NDCs – like the EU’s 66.25-72.5% – to move toward the upper end of the range.
On finance, options include a three-year work programme on provision of finance by wealthy governments and a goal to triple adaptation finance (something the least-developed countries are pushing for) or just repeating the finance goal agreed at COP29 and “noting” a new roadmap to achieve that (which rich nations very much prefer).
There are also various options for how to talk about where climate and trade overlap: an annual dialogue, roundtables, consultations, a new platform or just to keep discussing in the ‘response measures’ strand of climate talks.
Li Shuo, head of the Asia Society Policy Institute’s China Climate Hub, told Climate Home News it was highly significant that – after two years of the issue being buried in climate talks – trade has now been “anchored in the endgame of this COP”.
The various potential outcomes in the summary note could be included in existing agenda items or they could be lumped together into what is usually referred to as a cover text but the Brazilian government would likely prefer to call a “mutirão decision” or a delivery, response or global action plan.
Essentially, after governments ignored the presidency’s pleas not to add contentious items to the agenda, it looks like they could get at least some of what they want by turning those issues into the headline deal from COP30 .
At the start of the high-level segment of the conference on Monday morning, where environment ministers deliver their speeches, UN climate chief Simon Stiell urged governments “to get to the hardest issues fast”.
“When these issues get pushed deep into extra time, everybody loses. We absolutely cannot afford to waste time on tactical delays or stone-walling,” he added.
The presidency consultations on the issues in the note will continue on Monday, along with negotiations on adaptation metrics and a Just Transition Work Programme among others. The COP30 president then plans to convene a “Mutirao” meeting of ministers and heads of delegation on Tuesday “to bring together various outcomes”.
Korea joins coal phase-out coalition at COP30
As fossil fuels have grabbed headlines at COP30, major coal producer South Korea kicked off the second week of the Belém conference with an actual concrete pledge: the country will phase out most of its coal power by 2040.
Operating the seventh-largest coal fleet in the world, Korea announced on Monday that it will join the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA), an initiative launched in 2017 by the UK and Canada to encourage countries to wean themselves off the planet’s largest source of emissions. Oil and gas exporter Bahrain is another new member.
Asian industrial giant Korea said that out of 62 operating coal power plants, it will commit to retiring 40 of them by 2040. The phase-out date of the remaining 22 plants “will be determined based on economic and environmental feasibility”.
Korean Minister of Environment Kim Sung-Hwan said at an event announcing the pledge that the country will play a “leading role” in the energy transition.
“South Korea is known as a manufacturing powerhouse. Unfortunately renewable energy has taken a low share in our power mix, but going forward we are determined to foster renewable energy industries,” he told journalists. “We will show the world that we can create a decarbonised energy transition.”
Asked about a fossil fuel transition roadmap – an idea floated around by many governments in Belém – Sung-Hwan said “humanity and all of the governments should work together to achieve a decarbonised green transition”, adding that “COP30 will be an important momentum”.
UK climate minister Katie White said Korea was taking an “ambitious step”, and that they can “reap the rewards that we are seeing from our own clean energy transition”.
Korea is a major importer of oil and gas. Domestically, it has historically relied on coal for electricity, but the country’s production of the fossil fuel has decreased steadily by 86% in the last 25 years, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Their nuclear fleet, on the other hand, has nearly doubled in the same time period.
The post COP30 Bulletin Day 7: Brazil outlines options for a possible deal in Belém appeared first on Climate Home News.
COP30 Bulletin Day 7: Brazil sets out options to reach a deal in Belém
Climate Change
Alabama Poised to Drastically Overhaul Utility Regulation. Will It Lower Electric Bills?
The Alabama Senate unanimously voted to expand the public service commission, and create a Secretary of Energy to address rising electricity prices. A bill in the House would go even further, requiring rate case hearings and limiting utility profits.
MONTGOMERY, Ala.—High electricity costs have been the talk of the session in the Alabama Legislature, and the state seems poised to totally revamp its utility regulatory process.
Alabama Poised to Drastically Overhaul Utility Regulation. Will It Lower Electric Bills?
China, Brazil, Italy and Belgium have joined a pledge, launched at COP28 two years ago, to triple global nuclear energy capacity between 2020 and 2050.
Ministers from these four countries announced their support at this week’s Nuclear Energy Summit in Paris, increasing the total number of backers to 38.
At the summit, Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing said China endorsed the pledge to help tackle climate change and strengthen energy security. “To deliver such ambitious goals we should uphold multilateralism, strengthen solidarity and cooperation and resist unilateralism and protectionism,” he said.
In the last 15 years, China has added more nuclear energy capacity than the rest of the world combined, mainly through large conventional reactors. The country is also planning to become a nuclear exporter, constructing its Hualong One reactor in Pakistan and Argentina.
Sama Bilbao y León, head of World Nuclear Association (WNA), said the new endorsements add “tremendous momentum” to the initiative.
Victor Ibarra, head of the nuclear energy programme at the climate think tank Clean Air Task Force (CATF), said that these endorsements reflect growing recognition for nuclear as a “reliable source of clean, firm power”.
He added that “geopolitical tensions and instability in oil and gas markets” highlight the risks of relying on “volatile fuel supplies”, motivating countries to seek a “more flexible, innovation-driven approach to the energy transition”.
In a report from last year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) heralded a “new era of growth” for nuclear power, as demand for clean electricity rises to power electric vehicles, data centres and artificial intelligence.
A 2026 WNA report projects the tripling goal is achievable if current planning targets hold. On the other hand, Jacopo Buongiorno, nuclear science and engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) told Climate Home News last August that meeting the target would need a supply chain scale-up of “epic” proportions.
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Nuclear emerging in Global South
As the construction of new reactors has stagnated in the US and Europe over the last decade, large emerging economies like China, India, the UAE and South Korea have taken the lead. Now, Brazil is also voicing support.
Brazil’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the country would develop nuclear power responsibly and with “elevated standards for safety, protection and non-proliferation”.
In an interview with Deutsche Welle last week, Brazil’s energy minister Alexandre Silveira said that Brazil’s “future is nuclear”. Silveira has proposed replacing fossil fuel power plants in the Amazon with small modular reactors (SMR), of which only two exist in the world: one in China and one in Russia.
Brazil’s foreign ministry said the country’s large uranium reserves offer it energy security. Uranium is the main fuel used in nuclear reactors, but it requires a refining process known as “enrichment” before it can be used to produce power.
Caio Victor Vieira from the Brazilian climate think tank Talanoa Institute, said nuclear expansion offers only “limited” economic benefit for Brazil, given that the country already sources almost 90% of its electricity from clean sources – mostly hydropower.
He said Brazil’s signing of the pledge “is better understood as a diplomatic and strategic move” to support nuclear globally. “If Brazil were to pursue additional nuclear capacity in the future, it would require a broader domestic policy debate,” he added.
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Europeans divided on nuclear
About half of the pledge’s signatories are European but the continent has long been divided on the issue of nuclear power. France – which derives two-thirds of its power supply from nuclear – has championed this technology, with Germany pulling in the opposite direction.
At the summit on Tuesday, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen weighed into this debate, calling Europe’s move away from “reliable, affordable” nuclear in the last 30 years a “strategic mistake” that “should change”.
She added that the oil and gas crisis in the Middle East – which has raised the cost of electricity in gas-reliant countries – “gives a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities” that come from phasing out nuclear capacity.
“Europe has been a pioneer in nuclear technology and could once again lead the world in it. Next-generation nuclear reactors could become a European high-tech high-value export”, she said.
She argued that nuclear and renewables should be used in combination, as renewable energy is cheap but intermittent and often best produced far from where it is needed so nuclear energy, storage and improved grids are needed for a reliable energy system.
Europe’s move away from nuclear was led by its biggest economy Germany. Following Von der Leyen’s comments, German environment minister Carsten Schneider said that subsidising new reactors would require “very large amounts of money that would then not be available elsewhere”.
“Clean, safe electricity from wind and solar energy is affordable, has long been a driver of the energy transition and does not produce radioactive waste,” Schneider said.
However, German chancellor Friedrich Merz has indicated he would not oppose classifying nuclear as a clean energy source. His centre-right party governs in coalition with Schneider’s centre-left party
Japan’s anti-nuclear stance has also softened. The country shut down all reactors after the 2011 Fukushima disaster but is now restarting some, though it faces resistance over waste storage.
In the United States, the Trump administration has continued Biden-era support for nuclear energy—pushing new SMRs while weakening safety oversight and exempting reactors from some environmental reviews.
The post China and Brazil join pledge to triple global nuclear energy capacity appeared first on Climate Home News.
China and Brazil join pledge to triple global nuclear energy capacity
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