Welcome to the final edition of Green Queen’s #COP30 Digest. Here, our editorial team curates the must-reads, the must-bookmarks and the must-knows from around the web to help you ‘skim the overwhelm’.
Catch up: VOLUME 1 | VOLUME 2 | VOLUME 3
After a few eventful weeks, COP30 has finally ended. Our favourite take on the conference is by Semafor’s climate and energy editor Tim McDonnell. In his Semafor Energy newsletter column titled ‘COP30’s success was to not be a failure’, he wrote: “The best that can be said of the outcome is that it managed to avoid regressing on previous commitments.”
Headlines You Need To Know
The COP-related news you cannot miss.
FOSSIL FUEL PHASEOUT STILL MISSING FROM FINAL TEXT: More than 80 countries joined a call to develop a roadmap for a transition away from fossil fuels, one of the thorniest issues of any COP. But despite going nearly 18 hours overtime, the final text still does not contain any mention of this – instead, willing countries agreed to begin discussions on a path to a full phaseout, after a standoff from a group led by Saudi Arabia, its allies, and Russia.
CALLS FOR ADAPTATION FINANCE TO TRIPLE, BUT CRITICS SAY NOT ENOUGH: Countries at the summit agreed to triple global climate adaptation finance to vulnerable nations, but the goal of scaling up finance to $120B a year was pushed back by five years to 2035, and critics say it’s way short of the $300B needed.
NO MENTION OF INDUSTRIAL AG OR FOOD SYSTEMS: Despite the food system accounting for a third of global emissions, the final text of COP30 doesn’t even mention it. Ditto for industrial farming, which drives 90% of forest loss.
NO DEFORESTATION ROADMAP AT COP30: Part of the reason COP30 was held in the Amazon was to highlight the rainforest’s deforestation issues, but the rainforest conference failed to create a deforestation roadmap after it was tied to the fossil fuel phaseout, deliberately or otherwise, by the Brazilian foreign ministry.
FOOD EXPERTS CONVENE AS SINGAPORE MINISTER CALLS FOR FINANCE: As part of a series of events focused on food system sustainability, Singapore environment minister Grace Fu remarked that “finance really is the enabler”, given that the sector receives only 5% of global climate funding.
WORLD NOT WINNING CLIMATE FIGHT, BUT STILL IN IT, SAYS UN: The UN climate chief, Simon Stiell, has warned that the world is not winning the battle against the climate crisis, but crucially, it’s still in the fight. “Amid the gale-force political headwinds, 194 countries stood firm in solidarity – rock solid in support of climate cooperation,” he said.
ONLY HALF OF COP30 MENU WAS MEAT-FREE: Despite animal agriculture making up almost 60% of agrifood emissions, only 51% of the menu at COP30 was vegan or vegetarian (although that exceeds the 40% commitment made by the secretariat).
TURKEY WINS BID TO HOST COP31: Turkey has emerged as the host of COP31, after a group comprising Australia, countries in Western Europe, and others dropped their bid. They reached a compromise that would see next year’s summit be preceded by Australia’s minister, but (likely) in Antalya.
Key #COP29 Reports
The food and climate reports you need to know about.
- Agrifood system emissions up, share down: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has found that greenhouse gas emissions from food and agriculture reached 16.5 billion tonnes of CO2e, up by 21% since 2001. But the sector’s share in overall emissions fell from 38% to 32% in this period.
- Extreme heat is killing food and farmers: A single heatwave can cut agricultural productivity by up to 50%, and agricultural workers are 35 times more likely to die from heat exposure, according to a new report by the FAO and the World Meteorological Organization. And every 1°C of additional warming will cut yields of staple crops like maize and wheat by 4-10%.
- The food-climate connection: Also from the FAO, a new document provides scientific findings on the interactions between agriculture, food systems and climate change, synthesising material that could inform future IPCC assessments on the links between them.
Awesome Resources From Media Friends
A curation of our favourite reads from COP29 – excellent guides, explainers and op-eds from around the web.
- A British message: In an op-ed for the Guardian, UK net-zero secretary Ed Miliband outlined the message his government delivered at COP30: despite the delayers and deniers, a global majority continues to wish for clean energy and climate action.
- What a mess: The Guardian’s environmental team, meanwhile, argued that COP30 will do little to move the needle on the climate fight, thanks to the array of watered-down and downright missing commitments.
- Biofuels could wreck food: COP30’s focus on biofuels could spell disaster for the food supply, as well as the planet, writes Grist’s Ayurella Horn-Muller.
- Behind the EU’s role: Writing for Politico, Zia Weise and Karl Mathiesen break down how the EU exorcised its COP demons (and found some new ones) by salvaging a weak deal, yet a deal nonetheless.
Lighter Green Fun
Funny stuff, weird stuff, random stuff related to COP you may enjoy.
- Robots at COP: What’s it really like negotiating at the UN climate conference? For one expert, it’s akin to “arguing with robots”.
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