Swiss ambassador puts brave face on limited COP30 progress

Environmental ambassador speaks of "climate summit of small steps" Keystone-SDA

The measures agreed at the World Climate Summit in Brazil are less ambitious than Swiss environment ambassador Felix Wertli had hoped.

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“It was a conference of small steps,” he told the Keystone-SDA news agency.

However, Wertli insisted that successes had also been achieved.

The UN Climate Change Conference in Brazil (COP 30) ended on Saturday after almost 20 hours of extra time without a binding commitment to move away from oil, coal and gas. Instead, Brazil announced a voluntary roadmap.

“That is also an answer, albeit a less concrete one,” commented Wertli. Further progress has been made in the area of adaptation.

Wertli also considers it a success that almost 200 countries took part in the negotiations despite the difficult geopolitical situation.

It is now important to consistently implement the next steps. It is particularly important to “defend science”, he said.

Translated from French by DeepL/mga

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