By AFP - Agence France Presse
COP30 president calls for emissions targets to be as ambitious as possible
By Anna PELEGRI
Countries should aim as high as possible when setting new targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, André Correa do Lago, president of the COP30 climate conference to be held in Brazil in November, told AFP in an interview.
With just a few days to go before the February 10 deadline for the signatories of the Paris climate agreement to reveal their new targets for 2035, the main players, such as the European Union and China, have yet to announce their goals.
Under the agreement, countries agreed in 2015 to try to keep warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels - which has already been exceeded in the last two years.
Europe's climate monitor said on Thursday that last month was the warmest January on record.
Correa do Lago, environment secretary at Brazil's Foreign Ministry, said that it doesn't matter if countries are slow to announce their new targets, but that they need to be “as ambitious as possible”.
“They have to be more ambitious than they were before; that's a rule, but we want them to be particularly ambitious and compatible with preventing a 1.5% increase in temperature.”
Brazil will host the COP30 meeting in the Amazonian city of Belém - the first time the conference will be held in a region considered so crucial to the global climate.
This year's climate conference will take place after US President Donald Trump withdrew his country from the Paris Agreement for the second time and doubled the use of fossil fuels.
Correa do Lago said that there are still “several ways to talk to the United States” about climate change, such as through the G20 or the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
After many tortuous negotiations, the last COP held in Azerbaijan ended in an agreement that provides for rich nations to pay $300 billion a year to developing countries, which are the most affected by climate change.
This agreement was criticized by the poorest nations as falling short of what is needed to tackle the impact of climate change.
Correa do Lago said that, in addition to the presentation of the new goals of the Paris Agreement, “there are a series of negotiations that are still ongoing”.
“There is also a mandate for Brazil, together with Azerbaijan, to present alternatives so that we can increase financial resources from $300 billion to $1.3 trillion.”
Under leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil - the world's ninth largest oil producer - is trying to position itself at the forefront of efforts to combat climate change.
Although the country has managed to reduce deforestation in the Amazon, Lula has been criticized for pushing for the expansion of oil exploration, especially in a controversial offshore basin near the mouth of the Amazon River.
Correa do Lago said that the energy transition “is something that will be very different depending on the country”.
“This process can take paths that some consider tortuous or not in a straight line. The example that is always remembered is that when Germany decided to abandon nuclear energy, which does not emit greenhouse gases, it went back to using coal. But that's a process.”
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