Brazil’s COP30 presidency publishes fossil fuel and forest roadmaps

Brazil’s COP30 presidency published two roadmaps on November 3, one on moving away from fossil fuels and one on halting deforestation, along with a companion document on climate finance. The presidency presented them at the United Nations Development Programme’s Brazil office in Brasília, according to the COP30 announcement.

COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago had announced both roadmaps at the closing plenary in Belém in November 2025.

The fossil fuel roadmap, titled Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Energy Systems, notes that energy accounts for 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions. It concludes that the transition is urgent, inevitable and possible, and that every country can start regardless of its starting point.

The document introduces what it calls the Belém Readiness Approach. It assesses countries across three pillars, energy demand, energy supply and the broader economy, and sorts them into archetypes for each pillar. It proposes that countries, subnational governments and sectors start now, that governments launch a “TAFF Mutirão,” a collective agenda running through 2033, and that international dialogue continue through future COP presidencies and the Global Stocktake. The presidency says an open call for input drew 267 contributions, 21 of them from parties or groups of parties representing 115 parties in total.

The forest roadmap addresses the goal of halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation by 2030. It says forest loss accounts for 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Citing the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, it says annual deforestation fell from 17.6 million hectares between 1990 and 2000 to 10.9 million hectares between 2015 and 2025. Tropical forests make up about 45% of global forest area and 88% of the deforestation recorded from 1990 to 2025.

On money, the forest roadmap cites the UN Environment Programme. Annual forest finance must rise from $84.5 billion in 2023 to more than $300 billion per year by 2030, it says. Domestic public budgets supplied 88.3% of recorded forest finance in 2023, and international public finance supplied 3.4%. The roadmap reviews 30 international forest financing mechanisms, including the Tropical Forest Forever Facility. It proposes using existing COP decisions for forest monitoring systems, technical assistance and capacity building, action against transnational environmental crime, and trade incentives for sustainable production.

A third document, “Implementing the Baku to Belém Roadmap to 1.3T,” sets out how climate finance for developing countries could reach at least $1.3 trillion per year by 2035, according to Common Dreams. The presidency’s Global Climate Action Agenda includes more than 480 initiatives and coalitions and more than 100 Plans to Accelerate Solutions.

Corrêa do Lago said, according to Common Dreams: “We don’t need more negotiations. What we need is for governments to start taking action.”

Environmental groups and scientists responded with mixed assessments, as reported by Common Dreams. Carolina Pasquali, executive director of Greenpeace Brazil, said the fossil fuel roadmap “stops short of setting clear fossil fuel phaseout targets,” and praised the forest roadmap. Joeri Rogelj, a professor of climate science and policy at Imperial College London, said the roadmaps lack a timeline or key benchmarks. Romain Ioualalen, global policy lead at Oil Change International, warned against delaying global action on fossil fuel supply until the 2030s and said existing extraction projects commit the world to emissions nearly seven times the remaining 1.5 degrees Celsius carbon budget. He also said the finance tools in the roadmap, such as debt swaps and derisking, have a track record of failing. Fanny Petitbon, a policy analyst at 350.org, called the roadmap a “critical handbook for ending the fossil fuel era” and noted that France, the Netherlands and Germany have published national roadmaps.

The roadmaps arrive days before COP31, which is scheduled to begin Monday in Antalya, Türkiye. The Second Global Stocktake is scheduled for 2028.