The Global South, especially countries like India and Brazil, which have strong institutions and scientific expertise but also large vulnerable populations, is in a unique position to lead the fight against climate change, with developed countries failing to show the way, the president of this year’s UN climate conference said on Thursday.
COP30 President André Correa do Lago, currently in India for bilateral meetings, told journalists at a press conference that Brazil aims to go beyond the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement to ensure the implementation of commitments made at UN climate conferences, as many financial and governance institutions operate outside the UN system.
Correa do Lago, a former Brazilian ambassador to India, highlighted a shift in global climate leadership from the Global North to the Global South, saying that the US has "reluctance regarding this subject", while “the Europeans now have priorities regarding defence” and "other countries [are] presenting other priorities."
"The Global South has an important role to play at this stage… The South has participated in this multilateral process of rules in a very constructive way. We followed the agreements, debated a lot, but remained constructive. We accepted the Paris Agreement, etc. But the part of the (Global) North, which involved financial support and accelerating emission reductions, has not happened as planned."
"So, there is a new space for the Global South because a country like India or Brazil has, at the same time, advanced science, very strong institutions, and also parts of the population that are very poor. The Global South has to come with solutions for the fight against climate change... the North has not proven that it could show the way," he said.
He said that Brazil and India have been working together in various international groups like BRICS and BASIC to push for a "South-to-South" agenda.
Asked whether India shares Brazil's sense of urgency regarding climate action, he said that India has strong scientific institutions and is "very much conscious and vocal about the threat of climate change." He also mentioned that India has offered to host COP33 and that both countries need to work together to ensure that the Global South has a strong and coherent position.
Regarding how Brazil plans to push countries to do more on climate action, the COP30 president said that while the Paris Agreement was negotiated with a sense of urgency, at the time, it was based on theoretical projections.
However, he said climate impacts are happening much earlier than expected "even by the most pessimistic of scientists," with 2024 being the first year to exceed 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial levels.
"Paris is a success… but we enter a new phase in which we have to be quicker," the veteran climate diplomat said.
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