'International cooperation can deliver results': Grace Fu at the closing of COP 30

Grace Fu, Singapore’s Minister for Sustainability and the Environment, commemorated the end of the COP 30 gathering, paying tribute to participants and volunteers as she stood outside the Singapore pavilion in Belem, Brazil.

Conference of the Parties

The COP 30 gathering saw the United Nations bringing together international leaders and delegates to Belem, Brazil, for the 30th iteration of talks to address global climate change.

Initially due to take place over 11 days from Nov. 10 to 21, the BBC reported it overran until Nov. 22, as the conference failed to make significant progress on a roadmap to end the use of fossil fuels.

The BBC described "bitter rows" at the summit between countries affected by a changing climate and fossil fuel producing countries, and was ultimately only able to reach an agreement which called on countries to voluntarily increase efforts to reduce the use of fossil fuels.

COP 30 is also the first COP summit that the United States did not send a delegation to, as current U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed scepticism about climate change.

Deep appreciation

Grace Fu spoke outside the Singapore Pavilion, which she said had welcomed over 8,000 visitors in person and 30,000 online visitors during its time open.

The pavilion was not open when she spoke, due to a fire that had broken out at the conference area, although Fu said that the Singapore pavilion had not been affected.

She paid tribute to the partners, speakers, volunteers, contractors, and Team Singapore colleagues’ hard work over the past fortnight and said that as COP 30 drew to a close, “we should reflect with deep appreciation on another successful year of the Singapore Pavilion”.

Fu shared several “key milestones” that Singapore had accomplished during COP 30, such as the Monetary Authority of Singapore releasing its Transition Credits Coalition (TRACTION) Report, as well as making significant progress on Implementation Agreements on carbon markets with Bhutan and Thailand.

Singapore was also able to expand its network of partnerships, signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Malawi, and would have signed another with Brazil, but for the fire disruption the day before.

Nonetheless, Singapore had substantially concluded its MOU negotiations with Brazil.

International cooperation can deliver results

Fu said it was “clear that international cooperation can deliver results”.

This sentiment was echoed by Germany's Special Envoy for International Climate Action Jennifer Morgan, who said that while the Belem conference was a “meaningful process”, it was still “far from what’s needed”, as quoted by The Guardian.

“Multilateralism continues to support the interests of the whole world in tackling the climate crisis,” Morgan added.

Fu concluded by saying that it was away from the conference that  “the true test of our effort begins”.

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Top image via Grace Fu/Facebook