In Belém, Brazil, the U.N. climate summit, known as COP30, has concluded without an agreement to phase out the use of coal, oil and gas, which are by far the largest contributors to global climate change. More than 80 countries had supported a transition away from fossil fuels, but they were blocked by oil-producing nations, including Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. This is Irene Vélez Torres, Colombia’s environment minister.

Irene Vélez Torres: “The root cause of this problem is fossil fuels. How are we dealing with that? How are we going to come out from this COP to say and to tell the people that we deny the most basic scientific truth, which is that the fossil fuels are the cause of more than 80% of the emissions that are generating climate change?”

The COP30 agreement also makes no new commitments to halt deforestation, nor does it address global meat consumption, another major driver of global heating. More than 1,600 fossil fuel industry lobbyists and 300 industrial agriculture lobbyists attended COP30; meanwhile, the Trump administration did not send a formal delegation, after the White House in January withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement for the second time.