• EU says it supports agreement because it’s going in right direction.
• Efforts insufficient for keeping temperatures at1.5C: scientist.
• Climate bodies to review alignment of trade with climate action.
  

World governments agreed on Saturday to a compromise climate deal at the COP30 conference in Brazil that would boost finance for poor nations coping with global warming but omit any mention of the fossil fuels driving it.

In securing the accord, countries attempted to demonstrate global unity in addressing climate change impacts even after the world’s biggest historic emitter, the United States, declined to send an official delegation.

But the agreement, which landed in overtime after two weeks of contentious negotiations in the Amazon city of Belem, also exposed rifts between wealthy and developing nations, as well as between those governments with opposing views on oil, gas and coal. After gaveling the deal through, COP30 President Andre Correa do Lago acknowledged the talks had been tough.

“We know some of you had greater ambitions for some of the issues at hand,” he said.

The European Union had been the main holdout for language on a transition away from fossil fuels, but ultimately agreed to drop it after a coalition of countries including top oil exporter Saudi Arabia said it was off-limits.

“We should support (the deal) because at least it is going in the right direction,” the European Union’s climate commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra, told reporters before the deal was gaveled through.

Some countries had harsher words.

“A climate decision that cannot even say fossil fuels is not neutrality, it is complicity. And what is happening here transcends incompetence,” said Panama’s climate negotiator Juan Carlos Monterrey.

Finance boost

The deal launches a voluntary initiative to speed up climate action to help nations meet their existing pledges to reduce emissions, and calls for rich nations to at least triple the amount of money they provide to help developing countries adapt to a warming world by 2035.

Scientists have said existing national commitments to cut emissions have cut projected warming significantly, but are not enough to keep world temperatures from breaching 1.5C above industrial levels, a threshold that could unleash the worst impacts of climate change.

Developing countries have argued in the meantime that they urgently need funds to adapt to impacts that are already hitting, like rising sea levels and worsening heat waves, droughts, floods, and storms.

Avinash Persaud, Special Advisor to the President of the Inter-American Development Bank, a multilateral lender focused on Latin America and the Caribbean, said the accord’s focus on finance was important as climate impacts mount.

“But I fear the world still fell short on more rapid-release grants for developing countries responding to loss and damage. That goal is as urgent as it is hard,” he said.

Fossil fuel side text

The impasse between the European Union and the Arab Group of nations over fossil fuels had pushed the talks past a Friday deadline, triggering all-night negotiations before a compromise could be reached.

Correa do Lago said on Saturday morning that the presidency was issuing a side text on fossil fuels — as well as on protecting forests — keeping it out of the main accord because of the lack of consensus.

But he urged countries to keep discussing the issues.

“I know that most of you are tired, but as president of this conference, it is my duty to recognize some very important discussions that took place in Belem and that needs to continue during the Brazilian presidency, until the next COP, even if they are not reflected in this text we just approved,” he said.

Saturday’s agreement also launches a process for climate bodies to review how to align international trade with climate action, according to the deal text, amid concerns that rising trade barriers are limiting the adoption of clean technology.

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro was taken from house arrest into police custody on Saturday to prevent him from escaping as he appeals a conviction for a failed coup attempt, the Supreme Court said.

The far-right firebrand was sentenced to 27 years in prison over a plot to stop leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after 2022 elections.

Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes, who is leading the trial against Bolsonaro, said his arrest was a preventative measure as he is a “high flight risk”, and not the execution of his sentence.

Bolsonaro, who governed Brazil from 2019 to 2022, was placed under house arrest in August and has been confined to an upscale condominium in the capital Brasilia, and monitored electronically.

In his ruling, Moraes said that a planned vigil outside the condominium called by the former leader’s son Flavio Bolsonaro on Saturday could cause turmoil that would “create an environment conducive to his escape.”

The judge said there had been an “attempt to break” Bolsonaro’s ankle bracelet just after midnight on Saturday, confirming his plan to “ensure the success of his escape, facilitated by the confusion caused by the demonstration called by his son.”

Moraes also highlighted the proximity of Bolsonaro’s home to the US embassy, adding the far-right leader had previously planned to flee to the Argentine embassy to request political asylum.

Bolsonaro is an ally of US President Donald Trump, who said his trial was a “witch hunt” and imposed punitive tariffs and sanctions against Brazil in retaliation.

Time running out

Bolsonaro has been taken to a federal police complex in Brasilia, where prisoners undergo medical examinations before being sent to jail, according to a source close to the case.

Bolsonaro was convicted in September of leading a criminal organisation that conspired to ensure his “authoritarian hold on power.”

The plot involved a plan to assassinate Lula, his vice president Geraldo Alckmin, and the Supreme Court judge de Moraes.

His detention comes as time is running out for him to be ordered to serve his 27-year jail term.

An appeal of his sentence was rejected last week.

On Friday, Bolsonaro’s lawyers have said they would file further appeals before a Monday deadline.

However, they sought to get ahead of plans to put Bolsonaro in jail by requesting he be allowed to serve his sentence under house arrest.

Sending Bolsonaro to prison “will have serious consequences and represents a risk to his life,” his lawyers said in a petition to the Supreme Court.

They added Bolsonaro’s “health condition is already deeply debilitated.”

Bolsonaro, 70, suffers ongoing consequences of a stab wound to the abdomen received during a knife attack on the campaign trail in 2018 and has required several follow up surgeries.

His lawyers said that since he was placed under house arrest, Bolsonaro “has already been hospitalised three times — twice for tests and once due to a medical emergency.”

They listed a variety of medical woes, from gastritis to his need to sleep with a CPAP machine due to severe apnea.

He also suffered from persistent “uncontrollable hiccups” which require daily medication and have caused shortness of breath and fainting, according to the petition.

His lawyers highlighted the fact that in May, another former president, Fernando Collor de Mello, was allowed to serve his nearly nine-year sentence for corruption at home, on health grounds.

‘A way out’

As prison looms, Bolsonaro’s family has raised the alarm over his health on social media, and his son Flavio urged supporters to “fight for your country” in a video calling for the vigil.

His wife Michelle wrote on Instagram: “I trust in God’s justice. Human justice, as we have seen, no longer holds. But I know that the Lord will provide the way out.”

The court scheduled a “custody hearing” via video conference for Sunday and Moraes ordered that a doctor accompany Bolsonaro at all times.

DUBAI: Investigators are examining whether the pilot who died in India’s Tejas fighter jet crash at the Dubai Airshow descended below the mandatory 300-foot minimum altitude for aerobatic manoeuvres or breached any approved flying protocols, aviation officials said on Saturday.

The inquiry is being led jointly by the UAE’s civil aviation authority, the country’s armed forces aviation division, and the Dubai Airshow’s Flying Control Committee (FCC), which is reviewing all available technical data and display-routine documents.

Officials said investigators are analysing radar tracks, flight-path recordings, and high-resolution video footage to determine the jet’s altitude profile and maneuver sequence in the moments before impact.

The FCC is also assessing whether the pilot performed any aerobatic manoeuvres that had not been formally cleared for the show.

A parallel technical investigation is examining whether the aircraft experienced a sudden loss of power, a control-system malfunction, or another mechanical failure that may have prevented recovery.

The Dubai Airshow, held every two years since 1989, had not recorded a fatal flying-display accident until Friday’s crash, which killed the pilot and brought the day’s demonstrations to a halt.

Authorities say no determination will be made until all evidence — including cockpit-related data, maintenance logs, and approved display documentation — has been fully examined.