Colombia's President Gustavo Petro on Saturday said the South American country "does not accept" the modest deal secured at the UN climate summit in Brazil because it omitted a plan to phase out fossil fuels.
Colombia was one of more than 80 countries that had pushed for a "roadmap" to transitioning away from oil, gas and coal -- efforts that met resistance from emerging and petroleum-producing nations.
The draft text on the outcome of the Cop30 climate talks contains no mention of a phase-out of fossil fuels, despite countries supporting such action having threatened to block any agreement without it.
At least 29 nations supporting a phase-out of fossil fuels at the climate summit had sent a letter to the Brazilian Cop presidency threatening to block any agreement that did not include such a commitment, in a significant escalation of tensions at the crunch talks. The leaked letter demanded that the roadmap be included in the outcome of the talks, which are due to end on Friday but are likely to continue into the weekend.
An option to start the process of drawing up a potential roadmap for the “transition away from fossil fuels” was included in the first draft of a potential outcome from the two weeks of talks, published on Tuesday. But early on Friday morning, a “mutirão” text was published by the presidency which contained no mention of the roadmap, and no mention of the term “fossil fuels”.
It was not immediately clear how countries would respond to the proposal, but Brazil faced pressure from some petrostates – including Saudi Arabia, Russia and some large fossil fuel consumers including India – to omit the potential resolution.