Climate & Environment

Brazil Releases Global Blueprint to End Fossil Fuel Use

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Brazil Releases Global Blueprint to End Fossil Fuel Use
Photo: Among the steps Brazil suggests is for oil and gas producers to urgently cut the flaring and venting of gas from extraction sites. Photograph: Eremeychuk Leonid/Alamy

Brazil announced the world’s first global roadmap for phasing out fossil fuels ahead of the upcoming UN climate summit. The government said countries can reduce dependence on coal, oil and gas without waiting for new technologies or economic shifts, and that doing so could boost economies and lift people out of poverty. Joeri Rogelj, a climate science professor at Imperial College London, noted that while the roadmaps are a step forward, they lack timelines and benchmarks, leaving uncertainty about the pace needed to meet the Paris Agreement’s goals of limiting warming to well below 2 °C, ideally 1.5 °C. Brazil’s Cop30 president, André Corrêa do Lago, explained that the roadmaps are intended to shift the focus of annual UN COP meetings from negotiating agreements to implementing them. He urged ministries of finance, transportation, energy and infrastructure to adopt the roadmaps and tailor them to each country’s circumstances. The roadmaps were produced after a dispute at Cop30 over whether final resolutions should include fossil‑fuel pledges; the compromise was to create two documents—one on transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, and another on halting and reversing deforestation. The deforestation roadmap estimates that about $300 bn per year will be needed by 2030 and $500 bn by 2050 to support forest‑rich developing countries, compared with the current $85 bn available. It also calls for stronger trade regulation to prevent the sale of goods from deforested areas. The oil and gas roadmap recommends cutting flaring and venting of gas at extraction sites, reducing fossil‑fuel subsidies, and expanding renewable generation. Brazil’s roadmaps are non‑binding and leave it to individual countries to diagnose their fossil‑fuel dependence and choose appropriate measures. The documents were released after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva secured a fourth term; under his four‑year tenure, deforestation rates have fallen by about 70 %. The next COP, COP31, will be held in Antalya, Turkey, this month.

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