Miliband urges Cop30 to find creative' routes to roadmap on phasing out fossil fuel

"Supporters of a global phaseout of fossil fuels must find creative ways to keep the proposal alive, including making it voluntary rather than binding, the UK energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has said in the closing stages of the UN climate talks. As the Cop30 summit in Brazil carried on past the Friday night deadline, the prospect of countries agreeing on the need for a roadmap to a global transition away from fossil fuels looked increasingly dim. A first draft of the potential outcome text from the summit had contained the formulation, but in the updated draft text produced on Friday by the Brazilian presidency it had been excised."

"We are fighting for the roadmap for the transition away from fossil fuels, and we've determined that one way or another we won't lose the momentum [towards that outcome] that we've built at this Cop, he said. There's a big coalition that wants this, of developing and developed countries. More than 80 countries, developed and developing, have backed the call for a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels, but scores of countries are against it. The Arab Group, of which Saudi Arabia is the most prominent member, has led the opposition, but Russia, Bolivia, some African countries and some countries that are heavy consumers of fossil fuels have also rejected the wording."

"Miliband said: We need to think creatively about the possible ways in which we could get this roadmap process going. What matters to me is the outcome, that this roadmap gets launched, the countries can engage in it, and it gets to be considered by a Cop in the future. We've got a critical mass of countries that want that to happen. But there's different ways of doing it. We're looking at all of the creative ways in which that can happen."

Supporters seek a roadmap for a global transition away from fossil fuels but face significant opposition that removed roadmap language from an updated summit draft. More than 80 countries, both developed and developing, back a roadmap, while the Arab Group, Russia, Bolivia, several African states, and major fossil-fuel-consuming countries oppose the wording. Backers aim to preserve momentum by exploring voluntary, non-binding, or alternative mechanisms to initiate a roadmap process. The goal is to launch a process that countries can engage with and that can be considered at a future Cop to advance the energy transition.

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