COP30 Fossil Fuel Roadmap Asks Countries for National Transition Plans; India Declines COP31 Electrification Pledge
Brazil's COP30 Presidency released its Roadmap for Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels (TAFF) in Energy Systems. It asks every country to make a national plan to use less coal, oil and gas, grow clean energy and reshape economies that depend on fossil fuels.
The roadmap has three priorities: cutting fossil fuel use, managing a gradual fall in fossil fuel production while clean energy grows, and transforming fossil-dependent economies. It is voluntary and sets no new targets. It draws on 267 submissions from countries and groups representing 115 nations.
It proposes a "Belém Readiness Approach" that looks at each country's situation in three areas: energy demand, energy supply and economic transition. It warns that electrification without enough investment in power plants, grids and storage can hurt reliability and raise prices.
Separately, Türkiye's COP31 Presidency has launched a "35 by 35" Global Electrification Pledge: to raise electricity's share of the world's final energy use from about 20% to 35% by 2035. India has not signed it; the Union Environment Ministry said on 3 November 2026 that India's position will be stated at COP31.
India repeated its opposition to the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which entered its definitive (charging) phase on 1 January 2026, and called for much larger climate finance, pointing out that developing countries' needs run into trillions of dollars, far above the old US$100 billion goal.
Fossil fuels cause about 73% of global greenhouse gas emissions, which reached 57.7 billion tonnes of CO₂-equivalent in 2024. The next Global Stocktake is due in 2028, and a second international conference on the fossil fuel transition is proposed for 2027.
Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels (TAFF): From Phase-Down to the Belém Roadmap
"Transitioning away from fossil fuels" means the world slowly moving its energy system off coal, oil and natural gas and onto clean sources like solar, wind, hydro and nuclear power. The phrase comes from a 2023 UN climate decision, the first time all countries together agreed that the fossil fuel era must end. It does not set a date or a target for any one country. It is a shared direction of travel, and the big fight in climate talks is about how fast, who goes first, and who pays.
The roadmap released by Brazil's COP30 Presidency is the first detailed plan for putting paragraph 28(d) into practice. Because it is voluntary and has no targets, countries like India can engage with it on their own terms, while pressing for the finance they say the transition needs.
Global Stocktake (Article 14, Paris Agreement)
The Global Stocktake (GST) is a five-yearly check of the whole world's progress on climate change under Article 14 of the Paris Agreement. It looks at the combined effort of all countries, not any one country. Its findings are meant to push countries to make stronger plans (NDCs) in the next round. The first stocktake ended at COP28 in Dubai in 2023.
The COP30 roadmap is built on the first Global Stocktake's fossil fuel paragraph. Campaigners want the second stocktake in 2028 to measure how far countries have actually moved away from fossil fuels.
Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM): The EU's Carbon Charge on Imports
The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, or CBAM, is a European Union rule that puts a charge on the carbon released while making certain goods abroad, when those goods enter the EU. In simple words, it is a carbon price at the border. It is meant to make imports pay the same carbon cost that EU factories pay at home. India sees it as a trade barrier that unfairly hits developing countries.
Alongside its stand on the electrification pledge, India repeated its opposition to CBAM ahead of COP31. India links the fairness of the fossil fuel transition to trade rules like CBAM and to more climate finance.
- Roadmap: Roadmap for Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels (TAFF) in Energy Systems, released by Brazil's COP30 Presidency; voluntary, no new targets
- Based on 267 submissions representing 115 nations; uses a Belém Readiness Approach (energy demand, energy supply, economic transition)
- Fossil fuels: about 73% of global GHG emissions; global emissions 57.7 billion tonnes CO₂e (2024)
- COP31 "35 by 35" pledge: electricity share of final energy use from about 20% to 35% by 2035; India has not signed
- COP31: Antalya, Türkiye, 9 to 20 November 2026
- CBAM definitive phase: from 1 January 2026
- Next Global Stocktake: 2028; second fossil fuel transition conference proposed for 2027
- COP28 paragraph 28: triple renewables and double energy efficiency by 2030; transition away from fossil fuels to reach net zero by 2050
- Glasgow (2021): "phasedown of unabated coal power"