ANTALYA, Turkey (AP) — Brazil offered countries trying to wean themselves off the fossil fuels that cause climate change a road map toward renewable energies on Tuesday, the second day of U.N. climate talks in Turkey.
The promised document by Brazil, which ran last year's climate conference, proposed a “transition away from fossil fuels” at this year's talks, known as COP31 in the Turkish resort city of Antalya.
It stresses different “levers” countries can use to transition from coal, oil and gas to cleaner sources, like wind and solar, which don't release the heat-trapping gases that contribute to global warming. This transition has long been promised but past climate talks didn't provide any guidance.
“What we want is to be very pragmatic, helping countries move forward,” Ana Toni, CEO of COP30 in Brazil, told The Associated Press.
Those attending the talks in Antalya stressed the need for global climate action.
“We don’t need more promises, we need plans," said John Kerry, former U.S. secretary of state and former presidential climate envoy — though the United States itself is noticeably absent, for the second year in a row.
U.S. President Donald Trump called climate change "the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world" at the 2025 U.N. General Assembly. More recently, he has targeted offshore wind projects and removed rules limiting power plant emissions.
But Trump's fossil fuel policies — which he has summed up as “drill, baby, drill” — are being challenged. Last week during the U.S. midterm elections, Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress in a decisive rebuke of Republican governance. The Democrats have shown signs they will be pushing back with clean energy initiatives.
“This I promise you is a transition that the world wants," Kerry said, adding that it was evident in the midterms, "when people made climate change and its exigencies a voting issue.”
Brazil's road map was long awaited
Brazil's road map is designed to allow nations to look at different tools and make context-specific decisions about moving away from fossil fuels, Toni said.
Some people may think this is impossible, she added, but the road map shows it's inevitable. It highlights key actions, such as halting construction of new fossil fuel power plants and cutting fossil fuel subsidies.
Brazil, which is home to most of the world's largest rainforest, the Amazon, has significant oil deposits and is a major fossil fuel exporter. Most of its domestic energy comes from hydropower.
Toni declined to comment directly on her country's oil exports, but said the road map "is good not only for Brazil, but for the world.”
Like the Netherlands, many countries depend on imported fossil fuels and these road maps can "provide a clear path towards a clean energy future at a global, regional and national level,” said Stientje van Veldhoven, the Dutch minister of climate and green growth.
Environmental group Climate Action Network lauded Brazil “for doing something that feels increasingly revolutionary at a climate summit: working out how to deliver what was agreed.”
Brazil is also presenting other road maps during COP31 that will focus on dealing with deforestation and following through on the needed $1.3 trillion in climate finance for poorer nations.
“Although every country has a different starting point, all countries can start their own path,” said Stela Herschmann, international policy lead for Observatório do Clima, a network of Brazilian environmental organizations.
Traffic jams slow the second day of climate talks
Access to the COP31 venue continued to be a challenge on Tuesday, with traffic congestion and road closures forcing the rescheduling of several morning meetings as delegates struggled to reach the venue.
Arriving at the talks, prominent climate change and pro-Palestine activist Greta Thunberg said of climate change that “everything and everyone we love is at stake. This is threatening everything.”
There are more than 68,500 registered conference participants and a nearly 25,000-person workforce, according to the United Nations.
“It just makes it very difficult for countries and for other people to do their work,” said participant Emilie Beauchamp, who watched four packed train carriages come and go before finally being able to board.
Climate change goals are offtrack
This year's climate talks are kicking off after a year of deadly climate-related disasters and the imminent failure of past pledges to curb global warming.
“COP31 must show countries (that) working together is the only way to deal with climate change and other crises that the world is facing," said Chris Bowen, chief of this year's negotiations and Australia's minister for climate change and energy.
In September, the U.N. readjusted its decade-old goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial levels because the world is blowing past that threshold.
Electrification is a key issue this year, with Turkey pushing for electricity — preferably from renewables, like solar and wind — to make up 35% of global energy consumption by 2035, up from 23% today.
“We are expecting for the electrification that is being called here to be powered with green electricity," said Irene Vélez Torres, former environment minister of Colombia.
“There shouldn’t be a way for gas, coal or even diesel to power that electrification,” she added.
In April, Colombia hosted a separate summit pushing for the transition away from fossil fuels, after Brazil failed to push a fossil fuel plan through at COP30 last year.
“We need to continue insisting on national and regional road maps that explicitly address the elimination of the fossil fuels, not only from the side of the consumption and demand but also from the side of the supply and production which has forever been a taboo," Torres said.
Borenstein reported from Kensington, Maryland; Arasu from Bengaluru, India, and Delgado from Bangkok.
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