While the deal confirms that global cooperation on climate action remains possible, it also exposes the gaps that must be closed if the world is to keep 1.5 °C within reach. Europe now carries a heightened responsibility to push ambition forward and build the alliances needed for real progress.
Emma Wiesner, Renew Europe MEP (Sweden, Centerpartiet) and shadow rapporteur on the COP30 resolution, and Brigitte van den Berg, Renew Europe MEP (Netherlands, D66), issued the following reactions on their return from Belém.
Emma Wiesner said: “The Paris Agreement is alive and the fact that the parties managed to agree today is a very important signal. Nevertheless, the agreed text is a disappointment for everyone who is fighting for the climate. We still do not have a clear global roadmap to phase out fossil fuel. So despite progress in the smaller negotiating rooms, the result today is far from sufficient. Unfortunately, we still see that the oil countries dominate the global climate agenda. And US absence overshadows the efforts of the willing parties.”
Brigitte van den Berg observed: “Now lays a great responsibility, not least on the EU Member States in Council, to show more leadership and cohesion for the next climate conferences. The EU needs to show much more unity and more ambition than what we did in Belém. Our next chance to make real progress is the announced initiative taken by Colombia and the Netherlands, to organise the first international conference in April 2026 on transitioning away from fossil fuels. And there are also other positive results. It is very positive that COP30 has agreed to support tripling of climate adaptation — a clear request from many developing countries in the Global South. Concluding, even though climate action again takes a step, it is still too slow and too little. It is now up to us as EU to keep building partnerships with the willing countries, the willing entrepreneurs and people, to do what it takes to transition.”
Renew Europe will now work to ensure that the EU strengthens its unity and ambition ahead of the next round of negotiations, pushing for credible pathways to phase out fossil fuels and partnerships that deliver global action at the pace required.
