Lula at COP30: the Oil Dispute between Rich and Poor

If before the start it was hard to define what the main topic of COP30 would be, by the end it was obvious: fossil fuels. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) did not manage to include in the summits final decision his plan to end oil, gas, and coal exploration, but he put on the global agenda an issue that, until now, had been treated almost as taboo in negotiation backchannels. And this comes about a month after Ibama authorized Petrobras to drill in the Foz do Amazonas basin, which could open a new front of oil production in Brazil. In Lulas view, rich countries, which polluted the planet first, must make their energy transition earlier and help gradually finance the transition of others. COP30, however, reached no agreement on the so-called roadmap for ending fossil fuels, nor did it show major advances in the climate-finance debate. Negotiations once again reflected the historic divide of wealthy nations resisting demands from smaller economies or not so small, such as Arab countries, India, or China.