No fossil roadmap in CoP30 draft text

The CoP30 presidency on Friday released a new package of draft texts which made no mention of a fossil fuel phase-out or roadmap.

India on Thursday had made it clear that it was not in favour of a uniform roadmap for fossil fuel phase-out, saying countries should be allowed to decide their pathway to transition away from fossil fuels.

Ramya Natarajan, the research scientist leading the climate mitigation team at Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), said a blanket ‘fossil fuel roadmap’ was what India is likely pushing back against, because each country’s situation was different.

She added: “For example, India provides subsidies to help households shift to LPG for cooking in place of solid biomass. LPG is technically a fossil fuel, but it is much cleaner than the traditional fuels — a major source of indoor air pollution, black carbon, and methane — still used by many rural households and even some urban households. So, any roadmap for phasing out fossil fuels needs to be nuanced and sensitive to country-specific realities. The timelines for complete fossil fuel phase-out should be different for different countries, with the developed world reaching there much sooner.”

India has not submitted its updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), a national climate action plan detailing a country's commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Natarajan said India was moving along a low-carbon trajectory despite the NDC not being formally submitted yet — it is expected to be submitted by December.

“The emissions intensity of GDP is steadily declining, the share of fossil-free energy is rising, and a number of other initiatives are underway. Also, year after year, towards the end of the CoP, developing countries often face criticism for not agreeing to some aspects of the outcome text, while shortfalls in climate finance from developed nations receive comparatively less attention. This recurring pattern merits closer examination,” she said.

India had earlier said it was not opposed to the mention of a fossil fuel phase-out plan in the package, but it must be ensured that countries were not called to adhere to a uniform pathway for it.

21 hurt in fire at main venue  

At least 21 people were injured in a fire which broke out at the main venue of the ongoing UN COP30 Climate Summit in Brazil’s Belem, forcing thousands of people to run for safety.