Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson has said the Cop30 climate summit must do more to end fossil fuels.
Ms Robinson, who is attending the summit in Brazil, said the outcome must be a strong statement of commitment by world leaders to that effect.
“We have to phase out fossil fuels. Everybody knows it but there’s a very big presence here – it’s probably even present in this room for all I know – of the fossil fuel lobby.
“They’re here at Cop30 in numbers and they’re trying to undermine the IPCC [the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change} so there’s a big battle going on.”
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The summit resumes on Monday after a day’s break with the Brazilian hosts facing pressure from some countries to strengthen resolve on ending fossil fuel use, while others have signalled they would vehemently oppose any such move.
The Cop28 summit in 2023 ended with a landmark agreement to “transition away” from fossil fuels but there has been little action on the pledge and analysis published during Cop30 shows oil and gas usage continuing to rise.
Ms Robinson said she had not seen enough ambition on display yet at COP30.
She called on ministers who arrived from all the world over the weekend for the final days of the talks to work together for the common good.
Brazil was not perfect, she said, referring to the recent issue of licences for oil exploration in the Amazon.
But she said Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had made a strong opening address on ending fossil fuels and preserving the rainforests and the newly arrived ministers should support him.
She also said she would like to see an “ethical stock-take” happen in the next few years to assess what should happen from an ethical and moral perspective.
It would challenge countries to think “if it were not for the awful economic situation and bad, short-term populist leaders, where would we go?” she said.
“We would of course go in the right direction.”
Ms Robinson made her remarks at an event where she shared the stage with former Colombian president and Nobel Prize winner, Juan Manuel Santos.
She is attending Cop30 representing both The Elders and her own Project Dandelion group.
Minister for Climate, Environment and Energy, Darragh O’Brien, arrived in the host city, Belém, on Sunday and is to remain at Cop30 until the summit concludes.
He will work with the EU negotiating team on the issue of climate adaptation, a key issue at this year’s summit.
Countries are having difficult discussions on the need to increase funding to poor countries to with adaptation measures such as flood defences, water storage and resilient agriculture to help them adapt to the changing climate, and also how to measure progress in the area.
