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Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva, has called on all nations to show the bravery needed to address the imperative of a global transition away from fossil fuels, labeling the development of a roadmap as an “ethical” answer to the global warming emergency.

The minister emphasized, though, that involvement in this process would be optional and “independently decided” for willing governments.

The topic remains one of the most contentious matters at the UN climate summit in Brazil, with nations divided over whether and how such a strategy can be discussed. As the host, the nation has adopted a balanced stance on which items can be included on the official agenda.

Silva expressed support for the potential of a plan, though not directly pledging Brazil to it. The minister stated: “In times we have a terrain that is very challenging, it is good that we have a map. But the guide does not force us to proceed, or to advance.”

Speaking further, the minister added: “The roadmap is an answer to our scientific understanding [of the climate crisis]. It is an moral response.”

Dozens of countries meeting in Belém for the global climate conference, which is starting its next phase, are aiming to establish how a global transition of oil, gas, and coal could be implemented. They aim to build on a historic agreement reached two years ago at COP28 to “transition away from non-renewable energy sources.”

The pledge lacked a timetable or specifics on the way it could be realized, and although it was passed unanimously, several countries have since attempted to back away from the pledge. Efforts last year to expand on its real-world implications were stymied by resistance from petrostates at another UN summit.

As a result, there was no reference of the shift away from carbon fuels in the outcome of that conference.

For these reasons, the host has been cautious of calls by certain nations to place the transition on the schedule for the current summit. But Silva has strived in private to ensure the topic could be discussed at the conference outside the official agenda.

The minister convinced the nation's president, who made public reference repeatedly to the need to “shift from reliance on traditional energy” at the global leaders' meeting that preceded the conference, and at the start of the event.

“This is a matter that we understand at a certain time had to be raised, because it is the only way to face the problem from the root,” the minister said. “We acknowledge that it is not easy, and we must not offer unrealistic expectations. Bringing up the subject is courageous, and I hope [to see] this bravery from everyone, from producing nations and using countries.”

The nation had not initiated the push for a phaseout, she said, because that had been initiated at the earlier summit. Instead, it was allowing the discussions to occur in accordance with what some nations wished. “We know these subjects are sensitive. We will provide the opportunity to talk about it,” she said.

Time is insufficient at the summit to draw up a roadmap, a task Silva said could take several years because numerous nations faced complicated issues around dependence on fossil fuels, or wanted to use the proceeds from exporting fossil fuels to finance their development.

“Brazil brings up the topic, because it is simultaneously a producing nation and consumer,” she noted. “But Brazil is different, because it, if it chooses to, does not have to rely on non-renewables. We have to understand that there are some that depend on fossil fuels in their economic systems and lack easy solutions, and others where fossil fuels are the basis of their economic structure.

“To be just is to be just to everyone, but the fundamental, basic justice is to avoid being unjust to the planet, because it is our home.”

Should the proposal receives sufficient support, the summit could establish a forum in which the work of drawing up a strategy to the phaseout could begin.

The endeavor would require dialogue with all participating countries to the UN framework convention on climate change and guidelines for how the initiative would proceed, the minister explained. “After we have standards, a governance structure can be drawn up; once we have a plan, and establish safeguards to be able to establish confidence in the process, I am confident that with these components we can turn good ideas into actions that are more defined, and more tangible.”

It is uncertain that a proposal to begin developing a roadmap would be accepted at the conference, even if it may not need the official approval of the summit, which operates by consensus and can be disrupted by special interests. Climate analysts have indicated they believe there could be support for such a idea from about sixty nations, but there are thought to be at least 40 against. A total of 195 nations participating at the negotiations.

“In spite of being the primary source of climate change, carbon-based energy are about the most divisive subject there is within the UN negotiations, so to see a chunky coalition of nations openly supporting a path to achieving global phaseout is in itself highly significant.”

“Put simply, there’s no route to a planet where temperature rise remains below 1.5 degrees in which countries aren’t able to talk about fossil fuel phaseout.”

“We require this wording for actual in this discussion. It’s quite stupid that we talk about all topics but then when the main issue are the real challenge.”

Negotiations continued on the weekend on several outstanding topics that have still not been included into the official schedule: trade, transparency, funding and how to address the gap between the carbon reduction nations have proposed and those required to hold to the 1.5-degree temperature target.

A COP30 president pledged a “document” that would address these matters, after discussions – which have been underway since the start of the week – were unresolved. He urged nations to adopt the “mutirão” spirit, meaning one of cooperation and constructive dialogue.

Work on other substantive topics – such as adaptation to the impacts of the climate emergency, the fair shift for those affected by the transition to a low-carbon economy and how to build institutional capacity in developing countries – carried on productively, the host reported.

The host nation's chief negotiator stated the detailed part of the summit process was approaching the end, and the political phase – when government leaders who have the authority to alter their nations' stances join – was starting.