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Brazil's Lula set to meet key negotiators

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COP30 host seeking early deal on contentious issues

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Fresh negotiating texts still not released

By Kate Abnett and Lisandra Paraguassu

BELEM, Brazil, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Brazil's president was

meeting with key negotiators at the COP30 summit on Wednesday as

part of a drive to land an early deal on some of the most

divisive issues in the global climate talks, including fossil

fuels and climate finance.

The two-week U.N. summit in the Amazon city of Belem has brought

nearly 200 countries together to try to ratchet up multilateral

action to limit climate change, despite the absence of the U.S.,

the top historic greenhouse gas emitter.

But rifts on key issues remain, posing a fresh test of the

international will to slow global warming.

Host Brazil, hoping to buck the trend in which recent climate

summits ran well past deadline, seeks to endorse a package of

agreements later on Wednesday, and the outstanding issues on

Friday. But it is already facing delays publishing new

negotiating texts.

FRESH DRAFT EXPECTED ON WEDNESDAY

The COP30 presidency had planned to land a fresh draft of the

initial deal early on Wednesday, but no announcements had been

issued by early afternoon. Negotiators told Reuters tough talks

were ongoing.

The first version of the deal published on Tuesday had

presented a range of options that split opinion.

Brazil and around 80 other supportive nations want to agree

something that helps spur action on a 2023 agreement made at

COP28 to transition away from fossil fuels, the main source of

greenhouse gas emissions.

However, the idea of creating a roadmap to help guide that

transition had so far been rejected by others, Brazil's COP30

President Andre Correa do Lago said on Tuesday.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva arrived back at the

conference on Wednesday, giving renewed political impetus to the

talks. He was expected to meet key negotiators as well as U.N.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

'WE'VE GOT BLOCKERS,' VANUATU SAYS

Pacific island nation Vanuatu's climate minister Ralph

Regenvanu told Reuters Saudi Arabia was one of those opposed to

the fossil fuel plan.

Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to requests for

comment.

"I think it's going to be very difficult ... because we've

got blockers," Regenvanu said.

Other island nations said the issue was vital.

"We're going to have to fight tooth and nail. There are

many parties who have already said that they do not want that in

the text at all," Marshall Islands climate envoy Tina Stege told

Reuters.

A coalition of 100 organisations, including companies like

Volvo and Unilever ( UL ), sent a letter to the COP30 presidency

expressing support for a roadmap to transition away from fossil

fuel use, saying it would help countries and businesses plan the

shift to cleaner energy.

CLIMATE FINANCE

Other contentious issues in the package include pinning down

how rich countries will provide finance to poorer countries to

switch to clean energy, and what must be done about a gap

between promised emissions cuts and those needed to stop

temperatures rising.

Poorer countries already bearing the impacts of global

warming are rallying for a strong outcome.

"We want ambition on finance. We want ambition on

adaptation. We want to see ambition on the transition," Jiwoh

Abdulai, Sierra Leone's climate minister, told Reuters. "And we

want to ensure that we live here on a path that is sustainable,

not just for this generation, but for future generations."

Plans to launch a U.N.-backed global market for trading carbon

offset credits have hit a snag as governments dispute over the

funding to get the market up and running, five sources told

Reuters.

(Additional reporting by William James, Simon Jessop, Sudarshan

Varadahn; writing by Richard Valdmanis; editing by Alison

Williams and David Gregorio)