[Photo Credit: Reuters]

U.N. climate talks were nearing a midway point on Friday, with countries still wrangling over which issues they might be able to rally around in a final summit deal – and whether such a deal is even possible.

Outside, Indigenous groups rallied in protest at the ongoing industry and development in the forests they call home. They staged a peaceful sit-in at the summit entrance in the morning, before successfully demanding a meeting with COP30 President Andre Correa do Lago.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has highlighted Indigenous communities as key players in this year’s COP30 negotiations.

However, Indigenous representatives used the meeting with Correa do Lago to ask why they had been brought to the host city of Belem if they were not part of the talks.

They were told that more conference passes were being arranged for them, though environment minister Marina Silva said their demands were to the Brazilian government and best addressed there.

To prevent an agenda battle at the summit’s start, Correa do Lago struck an early deal to keep contentious items like climate finance, a shortfall in national climate plans, trade and global greenhouse gas reduction goals to one side to be handled separately.

The official agenda has negotiators from 195 governments working to flesh out earlier deals, such as advancing ways of measuring and supporting efforts to build resilience against weather extremes and other consequences of global warming, known in COP jargon as “adaptation.”

That approach to the talks left some nervous about the summit’s outcome – worrying that the talks could deliver a lightweight response to an escalating climate crisis, or instead fall apart altogether.

Some countries including host Brazil are angling for a strong statement to advance countries’ COP28 promise to pursue “transitioning away from fossil fuels.”

It was unclear if the two-week summit will deliver on that before it is scheduled to end on November 21.

With action on fossil fuels left off the formal agenda, one way of presenting agreed progress on the issue is to include it in a negotiated cover text, often seen as the conference’s central deal.

While a cover deal is still not certain, momentum is building for one to demonstrate that global unity on climate change is still intact outside of the United States pulling away.

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