COP 30 president André Aranha Corrêa do Lago, former ambassador in India and Brazil’s chief negotiator at Rio conference in 1992, has expressed hope that the ensuing global climate summit in Belem, Brazil; will be a turnaround summit after a relative failure in Baku.
“I believe that this will be the first COP that we can really say is a COP of implementation but we also want this to be a COP of adaptation and as well as a COP of the turnaround” said the top COP official in an exclusive interview with this correspondent.
The response has been shared when it was pointed out that COP 29, at Baku, Azerbaijan, ended quite dismally with developed countries committing far less money compared to demand of the emerging and developing economies based on UN analysis; and, many expressed hopes at the time that the next summit in Brazil would be ‘a turnaround COP’.
“Lots of things have happened since Baku. With your huge experience with many COPs, you know that cops have to be analyzed in different layers. There are many layers and sometimes civil society is satisfied with something but countries are frustrated; sometimes business is happy and civil society is not. COPs have many actors. Baku was supposed to be the finance cop and, as you said, the numbers did not satisfy most people. While you also had the decision on the 300 billion” explained Ambassador Correa. …
The official also shared that the ‘Baku to Belem Road Map’ to increase the funding is ready and would be presented in Belem.
“There was the decision in Baku that the president of COP 29, together with the president of COP 30, would present a road map from Baku to Belem trying to show how we can increase the 300 billion to 1.3 trillion USD. I, alongside Mukhtar Babayev, COP 29 president, are preparing the document, and we will present the road map at Belem”, said COP 30 president.
He has however pointed out that there is no mandate to officially revisit the value fixed at Baku. “ There is no mandate to discuss the agenda at the Belem and the delegations will read but there is neither any plan nor there is any item in the agenda to formally debate the issue”, added Ambassador Correa. The official however admitted that he however “expects many discussions” concerning the agenda in the side-events and corridors.
“There are some subjects that seem like an obvious subject to debate but if it’s not in the agenda approved by consensus then formally it cannot be discussed” elaborated the official allowing a peek view of the mindset that led the process.
“Obviously it is not an easy task as you can imagine but we have to be realistic. At the same time, we need to think about the urgency as beckoned by the scientific evidence and I believe that this will be the first COP that we can really say is a COP of implementation”, said Andrea Correa.
“Keeping in mind that we only have a few years to do what would really make a difference; we need to try to make the transition as quickly as possible and as intensively as possible; and are preparing this road map with that in mind” explained the official.