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Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva, has called on all nations to demonstrate the bravery needed to confront the necessity of a worldwide fossil fuel phaseout, describing the development of a roadmap as an “moral” response to the global warming emergency.

The minister emphasized, however, that participation in this process would be voluntary and “self-determined” for willing governments.

This issue remains one of the most contentious matters at the COP30 in Brazil, with nations divided over if and how such a strategy can be addressed. As the host, the nation has adopted a carefully neutral stance on what can be included on the official agenda.

The official expressed approval for the possibility of a plan, though not explicitly committing the country to it. She stated: “When we have a situation that is very challenging, it is helpful that we have a map. But the guide does not force us to proceed, or to climb.”

In an interview, the minister added: “The roadmap is an response to our scientific knowledge [of the climate emergency]. It is an moral response.”

Scores of nations meeting in the host city for the UN climate summit, which is starting its second week, are aiming to determine how a global phaseout of oil, gas, and coal could work. These nations aim to build on a historic agreement reached two years ago at a previous UN summit to “move away from fossil fuels.”

That commitment lacked a schedule or details on the way it could be realized, and even though it was passed by all, some countries have since attempted to back away from the pledge. Attempts last year to elaborate on its real-world implications were blocked by opposition from petrostates at another UN summit.

Consequently, there was no reference of the shift away from fossil fuels in the outcome of COP29.

For these reasons, Brazil has been wary of calls by some nations to place the transition on the agenda for the current summit. But Silva has strived in private to make sure the pledge could be discussed at the summit outside the official program.

The minister won over the nation's leader, and he made public reference three times to the need to “move away from dependence on traditional energy” at the global leaders' meeting that preceded the conference, and at the start of the summit.

“This is a matter that we know at some point had to be raised, because it is the only way to address the issue from the root,” Marina Silva explained. “We acknowledge that it is challenging, and we must not offer false hopes. Bringing up the subject is brave, and I hope [to see] this courage from everyone, from producing nations and consumers.”

The nation had not initiated the push for a transition, the minister clarified, because that had been initiated at COP28. Instead, it was enabling the discussions to occur in accordance with what some countries desired. “We understand these subjects are delicate. We will give the opportunity to discuss it,” the minister said.

There is not enough time at COP30 to create a detailed plan, a process the minister said could take a number of years because many countries faced complicated issues around dependence on fossil fuels, or wanted to use the proceeds from exporting oil and gas to fund their development.

“Brazil raises the topic, because it is both a producer and user,” she noted. “But the nation is different, because it, if it wants to, need not depend on fossil fuels. We have to understand that there are some that depend on fossil fuels in their economic systems and don’t have simple solutions, and some where fossil fuels are the basis of their economic structure.

“To be just is to be just to everyone, but the essential, primordial justice is to avoid being unjust to the Earth, because it is our home.”

If the pledge receives enough backing, the summit could establish a forum in which the process of creating a roadmap to the transition could begin.

This process would require dialogue with every signatory nations to the UN framework convention on climate change and guidelines for how the initiative would proceed, the minister said. “Once we have criteria, a management framework can be drawn up; after we have a strategy, and establish safeguards to be able to establish confidence in the system, I am confident that with these components we can transform good ideas into steps that are more defined, and more tangible.”

There is no guarantee that a suggestion to begin drawing up a plan would win approval at COP30, even if it may not need the formal approval of the conference, which proceeds by unanimous agreement and can be hijacked by particular groups. Climate analysts have suggested they think there could be backing for such a idea from about 60 nations, but there are thought to be at least forty opposed. There are one hundred ninety-five nations participating at the talks.

“In spite of being the primary source of climate change, fossil fuels are about the most divisive subject there is within the UN negotiations, so to see a chunky coalition of countries openly supporting a path to realizing worldwide transition is in itself highly significant.”

“Put simply, there’s no route to a world where warming remains below 1.5C in which countries cannot to discuss fossil fuel phaseout.”

“We need this wording for real in this conversation. It’s highly illogical that we discuss all topics but that when fossil fuels are the actual problem.”

Negotiations carried on on the weekend on four outstanding issues that have still not been included into the official agenda: commerce, openness, finance and how to tackle the gap between the carbon reduction nations have planned and those required to hold to the 1.5C temperature limit.

A COP30 chair promised a “document” that would cover these issues, after discussions – which have been underway since the start of the week – were inconclusive. He called on countries to embrace the “mutirão” attitude, meaning one of collaboration and constructive dialogue.

Progress on other key issues – including adjustment to the impacts of the climate emergency, the fair shift for those impacted by the move to a green economy and how to build governance capabilities in developing countries – proceeded constructively, the host said.

Brazil’s chief negotiator stated the technical phase of the COP process was nearing the end, and the political phase – when government leaders who have the authority to change their countries’ positions arrive – was starting.