BELÉM, Brazil— The United Nations climate summit ended in Belém today with the establishment of a first-ever just transition mechanism for workers, Indigenous peoples and frontline communities transitioning to renewable energy economies.

But the final agreement, which comes two days after a fire at the summit venue, failed to include a roadmap to operationalize and fund the COP28 Dubai agreement to “transition away from fossil fuels,” despite surging momentum from more than 80 nations to include it.

The agreement also lacks vital funding commitments from wealthy countries to the Global South for climate adaptation.

“The venue bursting into flames couldn’t be a more apt metaphor for COP30’s catastrophic failure to take concrete action to implement a funded and fair fossil fuel phaseout,” said Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Even without the Trump administration there to bully and cajole, petrostates once again shut down meaningful progress at this COP. These negotiations keep hitting a wall because wealthy nations profiting off polluting fossil fuels fail to offer the needed financial support to developing countries and any meaningful commitment to move first.”

The agreement established the Belém Action Mechanism, a body that aims to coordinate international cooperation for just transition initiatives, including worker protections and energy transitions. A testament to massive civil society pressure, the mechanism establishment language commits to ensuring that the energy transition is centered in justice and equity for the globe’s most vulnerable populations and ecosystems. It also supports just transition funding that is grant-based, as opposed to predatory financing structures.

“It’s a big win to have the Belém Action Mechanism established with the strongest-ever COP language around Indigenous and worker rights and biodiversity protection,” said Su. “The BAM agreement is in stark contrast to this COP’s total flameout on implementing a funded and fair fossil fuel phaseout.”

For the first time in the climate talks’ history, the United States didn’t send a delegation to the negotiations, even as it leads the world in oil and gas production, exports and fossil fuel expansion.

“The U.S. absence at the negotiations should’ve been a blessing for global negotiators, but instead other oil and gas producers are using the same playbook to evade climate responsibility,” Su said. “It’s critical that countries lock down a meaningful, funded plan to phase out fossil fuels. In just a few years, we expect the U.S. to be back in these talks. We should have an agreement that binds the U.S. to provide funding and technology to poor countries in line with their role as the largest historic emitter.”

At the 2023 COP in Dubai, nations agreed to “transition away from fossil fuels” but subsequently failed to establish a game plan to implement that agreement the next year at COP29 in Azerbaijan. Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called for a fossil fuel-phaseout roadmap to operationalize the Dubai decision at the beginning of COP30, with more than 80 countries signing on in support.

In parallel, the Colombian government released a declaration with 23 other countries calling for a just and funded transition off fossil fuels. Such a declaration is outside the UNFCCC framework. The governments of Colombia and the Netherlands also announced that they will co-host the First International Conference on the Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels in April 2026, establishing the first global platform for international cooperation on strategies to transition away from fossil fuels.

Today’s final agreement establishes the Global Implementation Accelerator to allow the Brazilian presidency to keep pursuing the fossil fuel phaseout roadmap — as well as a deforestation roadmap — through other means, including the Colombia conference, and report on progress at COP31 in Turkey.

Global grassroots leaders are making the urgent case that the survival of people and ecosystems depends on a full fossil fuel phaseout paired with trillions of dollars in climate funding for the Global South.