Delegates at the pre-Cop held in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia this week reached some consensus on the next steps to combat global warming, but there are still many barriers to overcome, the UN Cop 30 climate summit's president said.
The 13-14 October event — held less than a month before Cop 30 begins in Belem, Brazil — received delegates from about 70 countries and served as a preamble to the UN summit. While delegates rarely finalize deals during the event, it can serve as a barometer on how negotiations may go next month.
Cop 30 president Andre Correa do Lago characterized pre-Cop talks as "positive", saying that parties were able to reach "pre-consensus" on some issues. But the main talks will still be left for Cop 30.
Delegates during the two days of talks agreed that Cop 30 needs to be "one of implementation and solutions" instead of rhetoric, Cop 30 chief executive Ana Toni said. There were also positive remarks from all parties regarding Brazil's goal of promoting multilateralism, an approach that emphasizes international cooperation and shared responsibility. The need for climate adaptation to be discussed "in a more robust manner" was also prevalent, she said.
Talks at Cop 30 will be a little easier after pre-Cop, the international policy coordinator of Brazilian climate umbrella group Observatorio do Clima Claudio Angelo said on the event's sidelines. The topic of multilateralism, for example, was "well established", he said.
As for barriers still to be overcome, do Lago said the dynamics of the talks themselves have changed. When the Cop 30 presidency began negotiations, there were basically two groups of countries in the discussions: developing and developed nations, he said. But these groups have now divided into several sub-groups, which makes talks more difficult because each sub-group has its "red lines", or issues on which they are unlikely to compromise.
But pre-Cop was useful to map out these red lines, do Lago said. The Cop 30 presidency will now ask sub-groups with similar red lines to join in discussions and find "common languages", the Cop 30 president said.
One of the main red lines was on the issue of financing for climate adaptation, he said. Although all countries find the matter to be important, there are still many diverging ideas on how that should take place.
The topic of financing also stalled conversations at the UN climate conference in Bonn, Germany, in June. Do Lago told reporters that the Cop 30 presidency attempted to address that during bilateral meetings, testing "a few alternatives".
"We received a low score on many of them", he said. "But we still have a few that we will continue to work on. At least we were able to discard one or two of them."
Chapter 28
Another topic that did not find a consensus was how to address the global stocktake's Chapter 28, Angelo told reporters.
Chapter 28 of the first global stocktake — a five-yearly process established by the Paris Agreement to assess the world's collective progress toward its climate goals — "recognizes the need for deep, rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in line with 1.5 °C pathways" and calls on parties to contribute to global efforts, including tripling renewable energy capacity and transitioning away from fossil fuels.
While some countries argue that all countries must contribute to all efforts included in the chapter, others — especially in the Middle East — treat it as a "menu", Angelo said, meaning they could pick and choose which efforts to follow. There were dissents on this topic once it was mentioned during pre-Cop, as is usual during climate summits, Angelo said.
Waiting for NDCs
There is also still some frustration caused by the number of countries that have yet to deliver their nationally determined contributions (NDCs), or climate plans, do Lago said.
"We didn't expect so few NDCs," do Lago said, adding that there are a lot of promises to deliver them by Cop 30.
So far, 62 countries have submitted their NDCs. Another 63 have pledged to send them by Cop 30.
There was also some frustration about the EU's position in pre-Cop, delegates said. The bloc has also not delivered its NDC, but is "extremely committed" to do so and "assure a leading role" in Cop 30, do Lago said.
Baku-to-Belem roadmap
Do Lago had the opportunity to present an initial draft of the Baku-to-Belem roadmap to delegates, but there is still work to be done, he said.
The Baku-to-Belem roadmap is a workstream agreed to during Cop 29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, to work out ways to increase finance to $1.3 trillion/yr. Delegates at Cop 29 managed to reach an agreement to allocate $300bn/yr in resources for climate action. But Cop 30 delegates are targeting at least $1.3 trillion/yr.
"I must say that we are still working [on the roadmap] because we received some final contributions in early October," do Lago said. "We are looking to involve as many actors as possible to contribute."
The presence of economists such as Jose Alexandre Scheinkman and Brazilian finance minister Fernando Haddad at pre-Cop were positive to "strengthen the participation of institutions outside of" the UN's climate body UNFCCC, do Lago said.
