Column supplied by Bromsgrove Extinction Rebellion
COP30 (United Nations Conference of the Parties) ended recently last weekend in Belem, Brazil – a city on the edge of the Amazon rainforest and on the frontline of the fight against Global Nature degeneration.
One bright spot of Cop30 was that Colombia and the Netherlands, backed by 22 nations, will independently advance a road map to fossil fuel phaseout, beginning with a separate conference in April 2026.
We have to make that work for the sake of humanity.
So let’s all write to Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, demanding that the UK is included and plays a leadership role.
Write an email to our MP, Bradley Thomas – or if you do not live in Bromsgrove, your MP – and cc Ed Miliband in to air your views.
Since the Paris COP ten years earlier, the annual process has depended upon voluntary NDCs (National Determined Contributions – statements of intention), and consensus agreement.
So this was always going to be a difficult meeting.
The US (world’s historically largest climate polluter) refused to send a delegation (although California attended) and many heads of state were notable by their absence including Sir Keir Starmer, save for a photo op.
Other petro-states were emboldened by this, and by the huge number of fossil fuel lobbyists present.
It started very positively with the creation of a Forest Fund and Brazil’s president saying it was all about implementation and that the world needed ‘road maps that would enable humankind, in a fair and planned manner, to overcome its dependence on fossil fuels’.
At one time this was supported by 89 countries (out of the 190 present), but any words about fossil fuels did not appear in the final communique.
It seems clear that the petro-state ‘robbers’, led by Russia and Saudi Arabia, fought against fossil fuel phase-out and won.
They are ‘robbers’ of concensus and ‘robbers’ of health for our planet.
At the end, there were two large opposing groups and the final agreed text is, a form of climate denial.
Good Things from COP30 – thousands of people, many of them young and from indigenous groups, descended on Belem and gave continuous demonstrations – it was colourful, loud and appropriate.
Yet very few gained access and a hearing.
In the hall, some of the most compelling communicators were not national delegations, but those people who spoke from lived experience.
UK position – As you would expect, Miliband’s Guardian article put a very rosy spin on Britain’s role at COP30.
But Parliament’s Climate Change Committee says our efforts remain far short of what’s required.
We need our politicians to have courage.
In the UK, the priority now must be to deliver the changes needed for climate and nature, support a just transition, contribute to the new Forest Fund, advance climate justice and restore ecosystems through the science-led CAN Bill.
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