World strikes climate deal but fails to agree to a roadmap away from fossil fuels after contentious, chaotic summit

The world struck a new climate deal at the COP30 summit in Brazil Saturday, which calls for a tripling of funding to help countries adapt to increasingly severe climate impacts. But countries failed to agree to a roadmap away from fossil fuels, after entrenched divisions threatened to collapse the talks.

The agreement came after more than two weeks of increasingly fraught negotiations between representatives of more than 190 countries in the port city of Belém, known as the gateway to the Amazon.

The final text contained no mention of fossil fuels — the drivers of the climate crisis — signaling a retreat from consensus agreements only two years old. It included only a general agreement on deforestation, rather than more explicit commitments, which had been another key issue in the negotiations.

More than 80 countries supported the concept of a “roadmap” to transition away from fossil fuels, building on a commitment made at COP28 in Dubai in 2023. However, intense opposition from petrostates and heavy users of fossil fuels prevented consensus.