By Abayomi Azikiwe
Brazil hosted the United Nations Climate Conference (COP30) in the city of Belem in the north of the country and the gateway to the Amazon.
The conference lasted from November 10-21 and attracted thousands of delegates along with various non-governmental and mass organizations from throughout the world.
The concluding statement offered by conference Executive Secretary Simon Stiell of the eastern Caribbean island of Grenada draws on what he viewed as the positive aspects of the conference despite resistance from several capitalist states. Many of the same pledges which have been articulated in the past were again promised to those delegates representing peoples and states from the Global South.
Yet these contradictions between the reality of climate change and the unwillingness of the major culprits in the emissions of greenhouse gases to shift their international posture counterposed against those who remain the victims, are threatening the very existence of these UN platforms where discussions are being held. Any serious observer of these annual summits on climate change recognizes that the gap between language which is cognizant of the crises caused by the contamination and warming of the planet and the actual practice within the context of the international division of economic exchange and labor remains vast.
The highly industrialized capitalist states of Western Europe and North America continue to dominate the world economy. The involvement of these states in deliberations concerning reducing the dependence on fossil fuels has only been detrimental to addressing the underlying causes of the deterioration of the environment.
Over the last decade the Paris Agreement has served as a framework for reducing the level of greenhouse gas emissions. The goal was set at reaching levels below a 2 degrees Celsius increase. Ideally the temperature would stabilize at around a 1.5 Celsius rise.
In order to reach this goal, it would require an aggressive reduction in fossil fuel usage for all of those in the business of extraction and export. Although the more advanced economies appear to be in a better position to transition to clean energy sources, they are not demonstrating any willingness to change their role in the global energy industry.
Those states in the Global South which say they are willing to shift their production utilizing clean energy are in need of subsidization from the leading capitalist states. Although there have been verbal commitments by some governments in this direction, there has been negligible transferral of resources from the ruling class and state interests in Europe and North America towards the underdeveloped and developing countries.
One official account of the outcomes of COP30 said, while acknowledging differences in approach and objectives among the states and territories present: “At a moment widely recognized as the most geopolitically challenging and fragile for the Paris Agreement since its adoption a decade ago, COP30 approved a robust package of decisions that fulfilled its three core objectives: (i) strengthening multilateralism, (ii) connecting climate multilateralism to people, and (iii) accelerating the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
“COP30 successfully balanced forces between North and South, developed and developing countries, energy and nature, technology and people, commitments and implementation, mitigation and adaptation. On the political dimension, Brazil led an unprecedented global debate on the future of fossil fuels. Despite the absence of consensus, with more than 80 countries supporting explicit language and over 80 opposing it, the Brazilian Presidency announced, on its own initiative, processes to develop two key roadmaps: Transition to a fossil fuel-free economy in a just, orderly, and equitable manner; Forest and Climate Roadmap to halt and reverse deforestation.” ()
Nonetheless, the imperatives of emerging economies such as Brazil require competition within the global markets. Today the Republic of Brazil is recognized as a middle-income country. Oil drilling and exports play a critical role in the status of the South American state in the present international configuration of income generating industries.
Can Brazil Set an Example?
Just prior to the convening of the COP30 Summit which Brazil had lobbied for considerably, a new energy exploration initiative was announced by the national petroleum industry. Prior to the current administration of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the regime of the conservative party leader President Jair Bolsonaro threatened to expand oil drilling in the Amazon.
With the ouster begrudgingly of the previous administration, the public image of Lula’s government has been one that is pro-worker along with people who live in the forest areas. Brazil with its enormous natural resources and a population estimated to be 213 million is a force in the attempts to reconfigure the world economic system.
Nevertheless, despite these social assets another source on the COP30 Summit took a more critical view on the ability for the country to balance its economic status and the demands for taking a leadership position in the fight for climate justice. The fossil fuel producing states are facing the dilemma of environmental protection against the competitive nature of the energy industry worldwide.
The online journal Dialogue Earth, which deals with the economics of environmental issues, said of the Brazilian situation:
“A decision to approve oil exploration off the coast of Brazil weeks before the country hosted the COP30 climate conference signals the country’s intention to increasingly target the international market, despite criticism from environmentalists. At the close of the conference in Belém, Brazil, [Brazil] committed to continuing to pursue a plan to eliminate fossil fuels from global economies. However, activists have claimed that its decision to award the exploration license to state-owned Petrobras threatens the country’s position as a climate leader, suggesting that it intends to expand its oil frontiers. Brazilian crude oil exports have grown 132 per cent in the last decade, reaching almost 90 million tons in 2024, according to foreign trade data. During this period, China dominated demand: alone, it imported more Brazilian oil than all the other countries in the top 10 combined, according to an analysis by Dialogue Earth.”
Brazil is pursuing a multilateral course in various forums including the UN Climate Conference simultaneously with the BRICS Summit. The New Development Bank (NDB), which is headed by former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, is associated with BRICS in its aims of lessening the dependence upon the United States dollar as a preferred currency.
These differences in positions will have to be worked out within Brazil. Similar situations exist in other states within the Global South. What is not apparent is the degree of militarism exerted by the U.S. and its NATO allies.
Successive U.S. administrations have staged destabilization campaigns, sanctions, blockades and invasions into countries in the Caribbean, Central America and South America. Chile in 1973, Haiti on numerous occasions and most recently in 2004 along with the failed Bay of Pigs in Cuba (1961), the funding of the contras against the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua during the 1980s, serves as a precedent for the present efforts to overthrow the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, one of the most lucrative holders of fossil fuels in the world.
The Pentagon is the largest institutional emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. Therefore, a genuine movement to end climate change must take on imperialist militarism led by Washington and Wall Street.
70,000 Take to the Streets
On November 15, 70,000 people marched through the conference area demanding immediate action to curb climate change. These marchers represented people from Indigenous, African and other oppressed groups in Brazil and throughout the world.
An article published on November 14 by the Associated Press said that:
“For the second time this week, Indigenous protesters on Friday disrupted entry to the main venue for COP30 to demand progress on climate change and other issues. Though their march was peaceful — it required conference participants to detour through a side door, leading to long lines to get in for the day’s events — one protester likened it to ‘a scream’ over rights violated and decisions made without consulting the Indigenous. ‘I wish that warmth would melt the coldness of people,’ Cris Julião Pankararu, of the Pankararu people in the Caatinga biome of Brazil, said.”
These forms of resistance in Brazil and other countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America are finding similar expression in the U.S. where the demand for data centers is threatening the energy sources, their costs and reliability in urban, suburban and rural areas. Demonstrations are erupting against the impunity of the high-tech corporations which are backing the present administration of President Donald Trump.
The questions related to who will control energy generation in the contemporary period are closely linked to environmental concerns and the threats of imperialist war. This international situation provides greater avenues for alliances spanning a myriad of issues which are determining the future.
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