COP30 Proposes Draft Agreement That Omits Any Limits on Fossil Fuels

Welcome back to the Global Summary, where we look at the sections Conference of the Parties 30 ocean fossil fuels, Israeli settler violence in West BankAnd a large-scale attack on A Nigerian Boarding school.

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Welcome back to the Global Summary, where we look at the sections Conference of the Parties 30 ocean fossil fuels, Israeli settler violence in West BankAnd a large-scale attack on A Nigerian Boarding school.

Do you have tips or comments? Click to reply with your thoughts.

There is no consensus

There are only a few hours left before the two-week UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) comes to a close. But it appears the summit may end without reaching an agreement, with one issue still dividing the event’s 194 delegates.

Early on Friday, COP30 host Brazil unveiled a revised draft agreement that contained no mention of fossil fuels, the world’s biggest contributor to global warming. The new version represents a significant break from previous versions of the text, which included three potential routes for countries to reach net-zero carbon emissions.

The omission sparked a backlash from dozens of countries, which claimed that not addressing fossil fuels undermines the urgent need to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (about 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, which the Paris Agreement in 2015 stipulated was necessary to avoid the worst effects of irreversible climate change.

“Failing to identify the causes of the climate crisis is not a compromise,” Panamanian negotiator Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez said. “It’s denial.”

The fossil fuel row highlights growing concern about the future of oil, gas and coal. Several major oil and gas producing countries – such as India, Russia and Saudi Arabia – have opposed the initial draft due to restrictions on fossil fuels, which would harm the economies of these countries. The notable absence of the United States from the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) also weakened trends supporting green policies. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly engaged in climate denial, calling climate change the “greatest hoax” and defending fossil fuels during his speech to the UN General Assembly in September.

However, other COP30 delegates emphasized that the road map to net zero is vital to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“Look at the text,” said Wopke Hoekstra, European Commission climate chief. “There’s none of it there. No science. No global assessment. No transmission away. But instead, vulnerability.” The 27-nation European Union appears prepared to block the draft agreement, with Hoekstra saying: “We will not accept this under any circumstances.”

All 194 delegates must agree to the text for the agreement to pass. “This cannot be an agenda that divides us,” COP30 President Andre Correa do Lago said on Friday before the start of another round of negotiations.

But fossil fuels are not the only issue generating conflict. The draft also includes softened language on tackling deforestation, despite the conference being held in Brazil’s lower Amazon region, which faces regular threats of deforestation. Although the text calls on COP30 members to triple climate financing for countries that need help to address climate change, the agreement does not specify whether this money will come from rich countries or be outsourced to the private sector. This leaves countries vulnerable to climate change without strong guarantees of support.

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What we follow

Violence in the West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with senior security officials on Friday to discuss increasing Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank. According to one Israeli official, the leaders discussed potential strategies to reduce attacks, with one proposal suggesting that perpetrators of attacks attend educational programs. The high-level meeting took place just days after Israeli settlers celebrated the construction of a new illegal settlement outpost in the West Bank near Bethlehem, and comes as the Israeli Civil Administration announced plans to expropriate large areas of Sebastia, a key archaeological site in the region.

The pace of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has escalated in recent months, coinciding with the harvest season in the region. According to a UN report, Israeli settlers carried out at least 264 attacks on Palestinians in October, the highest monthly number since the agency began tracking incidents in 2006. This brings the total number of Israeli settler attacks since January 2025 to more than 1,400.

Several countries imposed sanctions, entry bans and other measures on Israeli settlers for their alleged involvement in these attacks, as well as on far-right Israeli ministers for what the UK described as their “repeated incitement to violence against Palestinian communities” in the West Bank.

Kidnapping rash. Gunmen attacked a Catholic boarding school in western Nigeria’s Niger State early Friday, kidnapping at least 52 students and faculty. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but some analysts suspect local gangs may be involved, as they often target educational institutions for ransom.

According to Abubakar Usman, Secretary to the Niger State government, the kidnappings occurred despite prior intelligence warning of increasing threats in the region. “Unfortunately, St Mary’s School has proceeded to reopen and resume academic activities without notification or seeking permission from the state government, exposing pupils and staff to avoidable risks,” Usman said.

The attack occurred a few days after gunmen kidnapped 25 female students from a secondary school in neighboring Kebbi state on Monday. One of those students has since escaped. “We will use all the tools of the state to return these girls to their homeland and to ensure that the perpetrators of this evil face the weight of justice,” Nigerian Vice President Kashim Shettima said during a visit to Kebbi State on Wednesday.

Also this week, gunmen in Kwara State attacked a church, killing two people and kidnapping 38 worshipers. The perpetrators demanded a ransom of 100 million naira (about $69,000) for each person captured.

President Bula Ahmed Tinubu’s office announced on Friday that he is canceling his scheduled trip to attend the G20 leaders’ summit in South Africa on Saturday to address the recent kidnappings. Shettima will be brought in his place.

“Too little, too late.” A two-volume, 750-page public inquiry concluded on Thursday that former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to delay the implementation of a nationwide lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic led to about 23,000 fewer deaths than if it had been implemented a week earlier. “There has been a toxic and chaotic culture at the heart of the UK government during the pandemic,” said inquiry chair Heather Hallett, adding that had early action been taken to prevent the spread of the virus, the lockdown could have been avoided altogether.

The scathing report accused Johnson of prioritizing government business over tackling the health crisis. At the time, the United Kingdom was working to formally exit the European Union. Hallett also claimed that Johnson “fostered a culture in which the loudest voices prevail and the views of other colleagues, especially women, are often ignored at the expense of good decision-making.” The UK has had one of the highest death rates from Covid-19 in Western Europe.

Johnson announced the nationwide lockdown on 23 March 2020. However, the report found that if he had issued the lockdown just a week earlier, the number of deaths in England during the first wave of the virus could have been cut by almost half. In July 2022, Johnson was forced out of office for holding parties in Downing Street during lockdown, and during a committee hearing in 2023, the former prime minister admitted he had “significantly downplayed” the risks of coronavirus.

Odds and Ends

Scandal rocked the European parliament on Tuesday after a member of the Italian government ordered an immediate investigation into an alleged unacceptable scam. Problem: “Italian-looking” pasta sauces are on sale at Body Supermarket. “Ignoring the pancetta in carbonara…all of these products represent the worst of the Italian language,” Italian Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida wrote on Facebook. (For non-foodie readers, traditional carbonara contains bacon that is higher in fat than pancetta.) Rome has long sought to combat foreign companies that use Italian-sounding words and images to advertise their products.