Many hoped UN climate talks in Brazil would be historic. They may be remembered as a flop

This year s U N weather conference in Brazil had a large number of unique aspects that could have been part of an historic outcome COP as it s called was hosted in Belem a city on the edge of the Amazon rainforest a crucial regulator of setting and home to several Indigenous peoples who are both hit hard by situation change and are part of the remedy It had the heft of Brazilian President Luiz In cio Lula da Silva an influential and charismatic leader on the international stage known for his ability to bring people together And encouraged by Lula s rousing speeches in the summit s beginning days more than nations called for a detailed road map for the world to sharply reduce the use of gas oil and coal the main drivers of environment change In the end none of that mattered The final decision disclosed Saturday which included certain tangible things like an increase in money to help emerging nations adapt to environment change was overall watered-down compared to a large number of conferences in the past decade and fell far short of multiple delegates expectations It didn t mention the words fossil fuels much less include a timeline to reduce their use Instead of being remembered as historic the conference will likely further erode confidence in a process that countless environmentalists and even specific world leaders have argued isn t up to the challenge of confronting global temperature rise which is leading to more frequent and intense extreme weather events like floods storms and heat waves The criticism was withering and came from a large number of corners A atmosphere decision that cannot even say fossil fuels is not neutrality it is complicity announced Panama negotiator Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez Science has been deleted from COP because it offends the polluters Even those who saw certain positives were quick to say they were looking toward the future Conditions action is across several areas so on the whole it is a mixed bag They could have done much much more commented Lidy Nacpil coordinator of the Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Enhancement All eyes are already turning to COP added Nacpil referring to next year s conference which will be held in Turkey High expectations for COP Saturday s final resolution was the culmination of three years of talk from measured optimism to hoopla about a Conference of the Parties as the summit is known that could restore confidence in the ability of multilateral negotiations to tackle circumstances change It was even called a COP of truth From the time Lula was reelected in October he began pitching his vision of hosting a context summit for the first time in the Amazon By the U N had verified Brazil s bid to host it in Belem The choice of Belem a coastal city in northeast Brazil raised multiple questions both in Brazil and in plenty of countries because Belem doesn t have the infrastructure of other Brazilian cities such as Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo For Lula that was the point This was a chance for the world to get a taste of the Amazon truly understand what was at stake and a chance for thousands of Indigenous peoples who live across the vast territory shared by a multitude of South American nations to participate By the time the conference began Nov with two days of world leaders speeches Lula was able to change the subject from Belem in large part by laying out a vision of what the conference could be Earth can no longer sustain the progress model based on the intensive use of fossil fuels that has prevailed over the past years Lula revealed Nov adding The fossil fuel era is drawing to a close Words like those coming from the leader who has both curbed deforestation in the Amazon and unabashedly supported oil exploration in it raised hopes among multiple delegates scientists and activists Here was Lula the ultimate pragmatist from a major oil-producing country which gets largest part of its potential for domestic uses from renewables like hydropower pushing a major change Previous naming of fossil fuels In late during COP in Dubai the final resolution declared the world needed to transition away from fossil fuels The past two years though nothing had been done to advance that Indeed instead of phasing away greenhouse gas emissions worldwide continue to rise Now at COP there was talk of a road map to fundamentally changing world potency systems A limited days before the talks concluded there were signs that even Lula arguably Brazil s the majority dominating political figure of the past years was tempering his expectations In a speech Wednesday night he made the matter that setting change was an urgent threat that all people needed to pay attention to But he was also careful to say that nations should be able to transition to renewable energies at their own pace in line with their own capacities and there was no intention to impose anything on anybody Negotiators would lose much of Thursday as a fire at the venue forced evacuations An outcome that a great number of nations blasted By Friday the European Union along with several Latin American and Pacific Island nations and others were flatly rejecting the first draft of a resolution that didn t identify fossil fuels as the cause of context change or have any timeline to move away from them After years this process is still failing Maina Vakafua Talia minister of setting for the small Pacific island nation of Tuvalu mentioned in a speech Friday talking about the decade since the Paris Agreement which set international goals to limit temperature rise After an all-nighter from Friday into Saturday the revised resolution which U N functionaries called the final did not include a mention of fossil fuels Environmental activists decried the influence of major oil producing countries like Saudi Arabia which historically have fought against proposals that put a timeline on reducing oil When delegates met Saturday afternoon for the final plenary COP President Andr Corr a do Lago gaveled in the text while also promising to continue the discussion of fossil fuels and work with Colombia on a road map that could be shared with other countries Technically Brazil holds the presidency of the environment talks until the summit in Turkey next year That was little consolation for several dozen nations that complained including specific such as Colombia that flatly rejected the outcome Thank you for your declaration do Lago would say after each one It will be noted in the analysis