After two weeks of intense negotiations on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, the UN published a new draft text on Friday morning detailing plans for tackling the climate crisis.

The latest text omits the mention of a road map to move away from burning the fossil fuels that are driving the changes in Earth's climate and leading to increased drought, flooding, storms and deadly heat.
 
Though this transition beyond oil, coal and gas was referenced in an earlier draft document this week, the newest version instead includes proposals for increasing finance for adaptation and trade, and accelerating emissions cuts in national climate plans.

Yet it is the topic of accelerating the world's move away from fossil fuels that has sparked heated negotiations over the last week. Deep divisions have emerged between countries in support of a road map, and a significant bloc, including petro-states such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, in stiff opposition.

"We are disappointed with the text currently on the table," said Wopke Hoekstra, the European Union's climate commissioner, in a statement to AFP.

Push for early agreement set back by fire

Hosts Brazil have pushed negotiators hard to deliver an early deal in the summit that traditionally runs into overtime. This year's talks have been marked by Indigenous protests, the notable absence of the US and deep rifts on finance, trade and a fossil fuel phaseout, but there was some hope an agreement would be reached by the official close late Friday.

But on the penultimate day, negotiations were thrown into disarray after a fire believed to have been sparked by an electrical fault engulfed part of the official UN negotiation area. No serious injuries were reported, but the venue remained closed for hours, interrupting talks.
 
Negotiations are now ongoing in response to the latest text, which needs approval by consensus to be adopted.

At the same time the stakes of this year's UN climate summit on the edge of the Amazon rainforest are higher than ever. Record-breaking emissions and temperatures are intensifying extreme weather and pushing the world into an increasingly uncertain future.

Despite all the challenges, Brazil opened the summit with defiant optimism, calling on countries to unite in the spirit of mutirao — a Portuguese word of Indigenous origin meaning collective effort — promising a COP of "implementation" and "truth." 

Fossil fuel road map under the spotlight 

Whether the talks deliver on a fossil fuel road map is proving a crucial litmus test for fulfilling these promises.

Two years ago, an historic agreement on a transition away from fossil fuels was reached at COP28 in Dubai.

Yet with no enshrined targets or deadlines on how to get there, and with emissions at record levels, over 80 countries, including France, Germany, Kenya and Colombia, have used the conference in Belem as a stage to push for progress on turning words into reality.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made a surprise second visit to the talks this week to lend political weight and put the road map back in the agenda.

"We are serious — we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," Lula told journalists. "We need to start thinking about how to live without fossil fuels."

The latest draft text has punctured that momentum.

Proponents of the plan have reportedly indicated they will block any agreement which doesn't include a commitment on phasing out fossil fuels.

In a letter to the COP30 presidency drafted by Colombia, around 30 countries stated "we cannot support an outcome that does not include a roadmap for implementing a just, orderly, and equitable transition away from fossil fuels."

Monique Barbut, France's ecological transition minister, described to AFP the scrapping of the term fossil fuels in the new text as "an incomprehensible omission at a time of climate emergency."

As talks enter their final hours, tensions around the issue are likely to come to a head.

Climate finance: The multibillion-dollar question

Friday's draft text also proposed nations triple adaptation finance by 2030 from 2025 levels, another issue which has proved a central sticking point in Belem this year.

Climate-vulnerable developing countries have demanded industrialized nations significantly increase aid for transitioning to clean energy and dealing with the consequences of extreme weather turbocharged by planetary heating. 

Last year at COP29 in Azerbaijan, the $300 billion-per-year goal by 2035 was agreed. That money is for helping countries cut emissions as well as adapting to drought, heat, storms and other extreme weather. But many nations consider this far below what is needed.

Strengthening finance specifically targeted at adaptation is a particular challenge.

"We need to leave here in Belem with real commitments in adaptation finance. We need partners to uphold their commitments," Steven Victor, environment minister of the Pacific island nation of Palau, told DW. "We have unfortunately been challenged in our drive to scale up adaptation finance, which leaves us puzzled when our asks are based on what we are seeing on the ground." 

What the new text doesn't clarify is whether the tripled adaptation finance would come from rich developed countries or other sources such as the private sector and development banks.

Poorer nations, who have pushed for stronger guarantees of public money, may therefore again be disappointed with the draft text this year.

Private finance investments into adaptation — which can include projects such as reinforcing buildings and infrastructure from storms — are often hard to attract. While vital in saving lives, it brings little financial return.

More space at future COPs for thorny trade issue 

The latest proposed text also includes a proposal to launch a "dialogue" on trade at the next three annual climate conferences that would involve both governments and other actors such as the World Trade Organization.

This is likely to be seen positively by China, which has pushed for greater prominence of trade at climate negotiations.

The European Union has come under fire in Belem from countries such as South Africa and India for its proposed carbon border levy that would put a price on carbon-intensive imports. Critics say this would make products from developing countries that are slower to transition to renewables more expensive and less competitive.

What about rising emissions?

The need to strengthen efforts to cut emissions in line with the Paris Agreement was also emphasized in the latest text.

A decade ago, the historic Paris deal set out the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). But today, scientists project warming of well over 2C by 2100.

National climate action plans — known as NDCs, which the UN required countries to submit ahead of COP30 — have been criticized for falling woefully short of meeting that target agreed in 2015.

The draft text proposes a voluntary initiative to accelerate the implementation of national climate plans and encourage international cooperation to keep the goal of 1.5C alive.

It also details the launch of the "Belem to 1.5 mission," which would encourage investments in NDCs and plans for climate mitigation and adaptation.

Edited by: Tamsin Walker