Nearly 200 nations pushed through a modest climate deal on Saturday at the UN’s COP30 summit, held in Brazil’s Amazon region. The agreement was welcomed by some as a reasonable outcome amid tense negotiations — and the notable absence of the United States — while others criticised it as insufficient in the face of escalating climate threats.

Lula: “Science Prevailed”

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who had invested significant political capital in what he dubbed “the COP of truth,” hailed the outcome, saying “science prevailed” and “multilateralism won”.

“We mobilised civil society, academia, the private sector, Indigenous peoples and social movements, making COP30 the COP with the second-highest participation in history,” Lula said.

Europe: Cautious Endorsement

European leaders offered restrained support. EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra admitted, “We’re not going to hide the fact that we would have preferred to have more, to have more ambition on everything,” but said the deal still pointed in “the right direction.”

France’s ecological transition minister Monique Barbut was more critical: “I couldn’t call this COP a success,” she said, adding that while the agreement would not boost global ambition, “it doesn’t disrupt any of the previous momentum” either.

British energy secretary Ed Miliband told AFP that frustrations were inherent to the process: “That’s what this COP process is like… You look over the long sweep of history — it has delivered change. Every COP has frustrations.”

Colombia: Fossil Fuel Concerns

Colombian President Gustavo Petro condemned the deal’s failure to commit to phasing out fossil fuels. Colombia, he said, “does not accept” that the final declaration “doesn’t say with clarity, as science does, that the cause of the climate crisis is fossil fuels.”

BASIC Nations: Support for the Outcome

India, speaking on behalf of the BASIC coalition — Brazil, South Africa, India and China — praised the agreement as “meaningful.”

“We fully support the COP30 presidency… including spending many sleepless nights working to ensure that we leave with something meaningful from Belém,” said India’s representative.

China also welcomed the result. Li Gao, China’s Vice Minister of Ecology and Environment, told AFP that COP30 would be remembered as a “success in a very difficult situation.”

Least Developed Countries: Win on Adaptation Finance

Evans Njewa, representing a bloc of 44 least-developed countries, said the group did not achieve all its goals but secured a vital commitment to tripling adaptation finance by 2035.

“Thanks for siding with 1.6 billion vulnerable people,” Njewa said, calling adaptation finance a key priority and “a red line.”

The Alliance of Small Island States described the deal as “imperfect” yet still a step towards “progress.”

Guterres: “The Gap Remains Dangerously Wide”

UN Secretary-General António Guterres applauded the intensive efforts but acknowledged widespread disappointment, particularly among Indigenous communities, young people and nations facing the harshest climate impacts.

“I cannot pretend that COP30 has delivered everything that is needed,” his statement read. “The gap between where we are and what science demands remains dangerously wide.” He pledged to continue “pushing for higher ambition and greater solidarity.”

NGOs: Breakthroughs and Shortcomings

Environmental organisations offered a mixed assessment.

Ani Dasgupta, head of the World Resources Institute, celebrated progress on tripling adaptation finance, protecting forests, and “elevating the voices of Indigenous people like never before.” However, he criticised the negotiations for failing to deliver a fossil fuel phase-out, resulting in what he called a “weakened” deal.

Ilan Zugman, Latin America and Caribbean director of 350.org, said the lack of concrete commitments revealed who continued to benefit from delays: “the fossil fuel industry and the ultrarich, not those living the climate crisis every day.”