Category: World news

(NEW YORK) — It took an extra day, but the delegates at COP30, the U.N. annual climate conference, have reached a deal on a final agreement.

The agreement, however, falls far short of the high expectations many delegates, environmental groups and non-governmental organizations had going into the conference in Belém, Brazil.

Despite more than 80 countries calling for a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels worldwide, the primary cause of human-amplified climate change, that demand did not make it into the final text.

Although the conference took place in what’s called the “gateway to the Amazon,” the COP30 agreement also doesn’t include any significant new initiatives to stop deforestation and protect the Amazon rainforest, known as “the lungs of the planet.”

“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,” Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement to ABC News, referencing a fire that broke out Thursday at the COP30 venue.

“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,” she added.

Appearing to acknowledge the disappointment of some delegates and environmental and climate groups that the final agreement didn’t include the roadmaps on deforestation and fossil fuels, COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago said during his remarks during the closing plenary that he would use his authority as the COP30 president to create the roadmaps himself.

These roadmaps would not be binding, however, because they weren’t part of the approved agreement and aren’t backed by all 195 countries.

“I, as president of COP30, will therefore create two roadmaps. One on halting and reverting deforestation, another to transitioning away from fossil fuels in a just, orderly and equitable manner,” do Lago said during the final plenary session.

The World Resources Institute (WRI), an environmental research organization that sent a delegation to COP30, said that while there were some notable successes during the nearly two week conference, it didn’t deliver on what many delegates and advocates were hoping it would.

“COP30 delivered breakthroughs to triple adaptation finance, protect the world’s forests and elevate the voices of Indigenous people like never before. This shows that even against a challenging geopolitical backdrop, international climate cooperation can still deliver results,” Ani Dasgupta, the president and CEO of WRI, said in a statement to ABC News.

“But many will leave Belém disappointed that negotiators couldn’t agree to develop a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels. More than 80 countries stood their ground for a fair and equitable shift off fossil fuels, but intense lobbying from a few petrostates weakened the deal,” she added.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) expressed disappointment that a stronger agreement couldn’t be reached but praised the delegates for making progress in some areas.

“The barely adequate outcome salvaged in the final hours of COP30 keeps the Paris Agreement alive but exposes the monumental failures of rich countries–including the United States and European Union nations–to live up to the commitments they made under that agreement,” Dr. Rachel Cleetus, senior policy director for the Climate and Energy Program at UCS, said in a statement to ABC News.

Cleetus acknowledged that the conference saw some progress in several key areas, including “a nod to tripling adaptation finance,” although she said that the specific details of how that will be implemented were left out of the text.

“On a positive note, the COP30 outcome includes a very encouraging agreement to develop a just transition mechanism to help enable a fair, funded transformation to a clean energy future with social and economic safeguards for workers and communities,” she said.

The Center for Biological Diversity praised delegates for the “establishment of a first-ever just transition mechanism for workers, Indigenous peoples and frontline communities transitioning to renewable energy economies.”

These initiatives will focus on ensuring that the shift to a low-carbon economy is fair to workers, communities, and ecosystems.

“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 of the Center for Biological Diversity.

“The BAM agreement is in stark contrast to this COP’s total flameout on implementing a funded and fair fossil fuel phaseout,” Su added.

In his closing remarks, do Lago acknowledged that the outcomes of COP30 may disappoint many.

“I know some of you had higher ambitions,” said do Lago. “I know youth and civil society will demand we do more,” he said. “I will try not to disappoint you during my presidency.”

Next year’s COP31 will be held in Antalya, Turkey, with Australia leading the negotiations.

This rare splitting of responsibilities was part of an agreement to end a standoff between Turkey and Australia over who would host the event.

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(KYIV and LONDON) — Amid a U.S.-proposed plan to end Russia’s nearly four-year war in Ukraine, the Office of the President of Ukraine said Saturday that “consultations on steps to end the war will take place in the coming days.”

“Yesterday, the President of Ukraine approved the composition of the Ukrainian delegation and the directives for the relevant talks,” the president’s office said in a statement posted on social media. “We anticipate constructive work and are ready to advance as swiftly as possible to achieve a real peace.”

“Ukraine never wanted this war and will make every effort to end it with a dignified peace,” the statement continued. “Ukraine will never be an obstacle for peace, and the representatives of the Ukrainian state will defend legitimate interests of the Ukrainian people and the foundations of European security. We are grateful for our European partners’ willingness to help.”

In another statement posted on social media Saturday, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Rustem Umerov, said “we are starting consultations between high-ranking officials of Ukraine and the United States on the possible parameters of a future peace agreement in Switzerland.”

Earlier this week, the White House presented Kyiv with a new 28-point peace plan drawn up in coordination with Moscow that contains conditions that are widely seen in Ukraine as effectively demanding the country’s capitulation.

U.S. Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll and Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George led an American delegation to Kyiv on Wednesday, with a U.S. official confirming to ABC News that the group was read in on the new peace plan. The U.S. military officials are the most senior delegation to visit Ukraine since President Donald Trump took office in January.

A U.S. official told ABC News Saturday that a U.S. delegation including Driscoll, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and envoy Steve Witkoff will meet in Geneva, Switzerland, with a Ukrainian delegation.

Additionally, the official said there are plans for the U.S. delegation to hold a separate meeting with a Russian delegation. No details were provided about the location of the planned meeting with the Russians.

“Since the first days of the war, we have taken one, extremely simple position: Ukraine needs peace,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his Friday evening address. “And a real peace — one that will not be broken by a third invasion.”

Driscoll met with Zelenskyy for an hour on Thursday and discussed “a collaborative plan to achieve peace in Ukraine,” according to a U.S. official.

“This is a comprehensive plan to end the war,” the official said of the plan, which was described as a collaboration between the U.S. and Ukraine.

The plan includes a number of maximalist demands that the Kremlin has long demanded and that have been previously dismissed as non-starters for Kyiv, including that Ukraine cut its armed forced by more than half and cede swaths of territory not yet occupied by Russia, according to a Ukrainian official.

Ukraine would also be forbidden from possessing long-range weapons, while Moscow would retain virtually all the territory it has occupied — and receive some form of recognition of its 2014 seizure of Crimea under the latest proposed U.S. plan.

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(BELLA COOLA, British Columbia) — Eleven people, including children, were injured in a grizzly bear attack that occurred in the small, remote community of Bella Coola in British Columbia, Canada, on Thursday, according to regional and local officials.

On Thursday at 1:46 p.m., officials said received a call about an animal attack along a trail in Bella Coola, with two ambulances and a community paramedic responding to the scene.

Seven people were treated at the scene and four patients were transported to the hospital, according to the Provincial Health Services Authority.

The British Columbia Conservation Office Service, which was deployed to the scene along with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said three children were among the injured.

Acwsalcta School, an independent school in Bella Coola run by the Nuxalk Nation, said it will be closed Friday due to the “bear incident,” adding that “it’s hard to know what to say during this very difficult time.”

The victims were part of a school group of students and teachers who stopped along a trail near the river when a grizzly bear emerged from the forest and attacked. Multiple teachers physically intervened, using bear spray and a bear banger, to drive the bear away, the BCCOS said on Friday.

Four patients remain in the hospital as of Friday, officials said.

“Our thoughts are with the victims and their families, and we wish them a full and speedy recovery,” said BCCOS Insp. Kevin Van Damme said in a statement.

Nuxalk Nation said the animal “has still not been found” after warning of an “aggressive bear” in the Four Mile subdivision, a forested and residential area in the Bella Coola Valley where Acwsalcta School is located.

Preliminary information suggests the offending bear may have been previously injured, officials said.

Officials also urged people in the area to stay indoors, warning them to not go looking for the bear and to “not go down any trails.”

British Columbia is home to an estimated 15,000 grizzly bears, which makes up more than half of the total grizzly population in Canada, according to a 2012 assessment and status report by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.

ABC News’ Will Gretsky contributed to this report.

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