UN climate talks have entered their second week with battle lines drawn over fossil fuels, as dozens of countries demanded a roadmap to phase out oil, coal and gas in the face of fierce resistance from producers and a record number of industry lobbyists.

The confrontation has become the defining issue at COP30 in Belém, where global emissions from fossil fuels hit record levels in 2025 even as climate scientists warn the world is on track for 2.6 °C of warming by 2100.

Amid growing calls for action from the scientific community, a coalition of approximately 60 countries from across Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Small Island Developing States is pushing to add a fossil fuels roadmap to the official agenda.

France, Colombia, Germany, and Kenya are leading the diplomatic effort, with supporters aiming to reach 100 nations.

"Our priority for the coming days is to broaden this coalition, to speak to all the countries that believe we need to move forward and accelerate on this issue," a source from the French delegation told DW.

The push builds on COP28's historic call to "transition away from fossil fuels," which offered few details on implementation.

"We need an actionable outcome, not another roadmap to nowhere," Jasper Inventor, deputy programme director at Greenpeace International, said in a statement.

Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva expressed support for a roadmap "because it lays the foundation for a fair and planned transition" away from polluting fuels, while Jochen Flasbarth, German state-secretary for climate action, said his country would support any roadmap decision.

Colombia has reportedly drafted a declaration on phasing out fossil fuels that a handful of states have signed.

Record lobbyist presence fuels concerns

Opposition to the roadmap, however, has been bolstered by an unprecedented concentration of fossil fuel industry representatives at the summit.

One in every 25 participants at COP30 is tied to the oil and gas sector, the highest concentration ever at UN climate talks, according to Radio France Internationale (RFI), citing analysis from Kick Big Polluters Out, a coalition of 450 organisations.

An estimated 1,602 delegates with links to oil, coal, and gas are in Belem, including representatives of energy giants ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies, as well as state-owned oil firms.

They outnumber the delegations of every country except Brazil and have two-thirds more conference passes than the 10 most climate-vulnerable countries combined.

"It is clear we cannot solve a problem by giving power to those who caused it," Jax Bongon from IBON International in the Philippines told RFI.

"Yet 30 years and 30 COP summits later, more than 1,500 fossil fuel lobbyists walk through the climate negotiations as if nothing had happened."

The coalition stated that, although the absolute number of lobbyists is lower than at some past summits, the concentration within the talks is at its highest point. This figure has risen sharply from 500 attendees with fossil fuel ties at the Glasgow summit five years ago.

At least 600 lobbyists hold special party overflow badges, allowing them to remain in closed negotiation rooms without speaking rights. France's delegation of 449 includes at least 22 people linked to the sector, including five TotalEnergies executives, amongst them CEO Patrick Pouyanné.

TotalEnergies was found guilty two weeks ago by a French court of misleading commercial practices over claims it could reach carbon neutrality by 2050 while increasing oil and gas production.

Brazil's contradictory position

The host nation's position reflects the summit's central tensions. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has positioned himself as a climate advocate, has urged world leaders to end fossil fuel dependence even as his government recently approved oil exploration at the mouth of the Amazon River.

Brazil's first lady, Janja Lula da Silva, articulated the government's pragmatic stance during a panel in the federal government pavilion.

"We can't believe that next week, as soon as COP ends, we're going to stop using fossil fuels. That's not a reality yet," she said, cited by Click Petróleo e Gás (CPG).

"We need to build a roadmap. And the Brazilian government, President Lula, is making this proposal, and we have been talking about it very intensely," Janja added.

The first lady's speech reflected an attempt to balance Brazilian climate discourse with national economic reality.

To this end, Lula stated at the end of October that Brazil "will not throw away" the wealth generated by oil and announced during the COP30 Leaders' Summit the creation of a specific fund to allocate part of oil exploration profits to renewable energy investment.

Fierce opposition expected

Most oil-producing states, particularly Saudi Arabia, have unequivocally rejected the roadmap idea and are pushing back against diplomatic efforts. One negotiator estimated that around 70 countries would oppose any new COP30 decision addressing fossil fuels, DW reported.

At COP28 in Dubai, major oil-producing nations resisted transition calls, proposing instead to phase out fossil fuel emissions using unproven technology such as carbon capture and storage.

"The challenge will be to present a big enough bloc of support to force the roadmap onto the conference agenda," said Romain Ioualalen, global policy campaign manager at US-based advocacy organisation Oil Change International. "It's a diplomatic puzzle that's taking shape."

TotalEnergies’ CEO Pouyanné expressed scepticism about a roadmap, calling it a "European vision" and suggesting more government regulation was not the answer. He said to DW he was not a lobbyist and had been invited to COP30.

Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, told DW ahead of COP30 that the summit includes "so many strong voices that want to avoid the elephant in the room" – fossil fuels.

Advances on other major COP30 issues such as forest protection or adaptation finance "can only be celebrated if we also see progress” on the phase-out of fossil fuels, Rockström stated.

In a letter dated October 1, 225 environmental organisations urged the COP30 presidency to stop inviting major polluters into the talks.

They argued that "big polluters should not have access to climate policy making" and that allowing industry representatives lets them "continue to influence and undermine the international response."

US absence and hostility

Meanwhile, the US withdrawal from climate negotiations under President Donald Trump has further hindered efforts to hash out actionable strategies to promote a transition to clean energy sources. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright went as far as condemning COP30 as "harmful and misguided," The Associated Press (AP) reported.

“It's essentially a hoax. It's not an honest organisation looking to better human lives," Wright said, defying global scientific consensus on climate change. He added he might attend next year's summit "just to try to deliver some common sense."

Wright's comments echoed the Trump administration's rejection of global climate agreements and prioritisation of fossil fuels. President Trump, a long-time climate sceptic, pulled out of the Paris Agreement for the second time upon returning to office and declined to send high-level negotiators to Belem.