COP30 WAS HELD LAST WEEK - HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

You may have seen in the news that the annual climate conference was held in Belém, Brazil last week - but what does it mean for our environmental aims for the next year? Whether you have never heard of COP before, or you have been following its progress, read on for a summary of this year's outcomes.

WHAT IS COP30?

COP - Conference of the Parties

COP30 was this year's - and the 30th installment - of the United Nations Climate Change Conference; the event is held annually, and its aims are to assess how well we are fulfilling the terms set out in The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This is an international treaty that was signed by 197 countries in 1992, with the aims of recognising the harm that mankind has caused to the environment, and setting achievable goals for reducing our impact on the planet. It specifically emphasises the impact of developed countries on the environment:

'Noting that the largest share of historical and current global emissions of greenhouse gases has originated in developed countries'¹

WHAT WAS SET TO BE DISCUSSED AT COP30?

The agenda for COP30 was as follows:²

The conference was set to address the issues discussed in the first Global Stocktake (GST-1) - this was the first of the five-year reviews to help countries reach the goals set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement. The main aim of this is to reduce the global temperature by 1.5°C. The countries were due to decide on new NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions) this year. These were required to be more ambitious than previous NDCs, as we are currently not on track to achieve the 1.5°C goal. By the end of October, only a third of the Parties had submitted their NDCs, suggesting it that it was not considered a priority by the remaining two thirds. You can find the details of each country's NDCs here: https://unfccc.int/ndc-3.0 

The graph below shows global warming in an industrial age:³

WHAT WERE THE OUTCOMES OF THE CONFERENCE?

The outcomes of the conference were as follows:

Fossil fuels - the idea of a roadmap to phase out the use of fossil fuels was presented and agreed to by a number of countries, but opposed by others. Seeing as an agreement couldn't be reached, the existing UAE agreement was mentioned, but not updated. The UAE Consensus was signed at COP28, and aims to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030.

Economic outcomes - a deal was agreed to triple the money pledged to help developing countries tackle climate change between 2030 and 2035. This was following the agreement set out at COP29, during which a goal of giving at least $300bn a year to developing countries by 2035 was set.

Halting deforestation - some world leaders met shortly before COP30, and during this meeting Brazil presented the Tropical Forests Forever Facility notion, which would reward countries for keeping their forests standing. This would be a vital step in maintaining the planet's biodiversity, while decreasing our carbon footprint. However, this notion was not included in the final agreement of COP30.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

There was no real consensus at COP30, with many countries having different priorities with regards to climate change. Trump wasn't present at the conference, and has said that he aims to increase oil and gas drilling, as well as withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. Given the economic strength of the US, these changes will place even more responsibility on the shoulders of other countries.

The roadmap to reduce fossil fuels was also pushed out, which means less direction for countries to meet the 1.5°C target.

There have been some concerns raised regarding the environmental impact of the COP30 conference itself, with regards to carbon emissions from flights and overall emissions from the vast size of the event - perhaps this could lead to more remote discussions in the future.

References

1 - https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/conveng.pdf

2 - https://cop30.br/en/action-agenda

3 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c04gqez4lkyo

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