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The environment minister, Marina Silva, has urged all nations to demonstrate the courage needed to confront the necessity of a global transition away from fossil fuels, describing the development of a detailed plan as an “ethical” response to the climate crisis.

The minister stressed, though, that participation in this process would be optional and “self-determined” for willing governments.

The topic remains one of the most debated subjects at the UN climate summit in Brazil, with nations divided over whether and how such a roadmap can be addressed. As the host, Brazil has adopted a balanced position on which items can be included on the official agenda.

Silva voiced support for the potential of a roadmap, without directly committing Brazil to it. She remarked: “When we have a terrain that is very challenging, it is helpful that we have a map. But the map does not compel us to travel, or to advance.”

Speaking further, the minister added: “The roadmap is an answer to our scientific understanding [of the climate crisis]. It is an ethical response.”

Scores of nations meeting in the host city for the global climate conference, which is starting its next phase, are seeking to establish how a global transition of oil, gas, and coal could work. They aim to advance a historic resolution made two years ago at COP28 to “transition away from non-renewable energy sources.”

The pledge had no a schedule or details on how it could be realized, and although it was adopted unanimously, some countries have since attempted to back away from the pledge. Efforts last year to elaborate on its practical meaning were stymied by opposition from oil-dependent nations at COP29.

Consequently, there was no mention of the shift away from carbon fuels in the final agreement of COP29.

Because of this, the host has been wary of demands by certain nations to place the transition on the schedule for COP30. But the minister has strived in private to make sure the pledge could be talked about at the summit outside the formal program.

She won over Brazil’s president, who gave mention three times to the need to “shift from reliance on fossil fuels” at the summit of world leaders that preceded COP30, and at the opening of the event.

“The issue is something that we understand at a certain time had to be raised, because it is the only way to address the problem from the root,” the minister said. “We recognise that it is challenging, and we must not sell false hopes. Bringing up the topic is courageous, and I wish [to see] this bravery from everyone, from producing nations and using countries.”

The nation had not started the push for a phaseout, she said, because that had been done at the earlier summit. Rather, it was allowing the talks to take place in accordance with what some countries wished. “We know these topics are sensitive. We will give the chance to talk about it,” the minister added.

There is not enough time at COP30 to create a detailed plan, a task Silva said could take a number of years because numerous nations faced complicated challenges around dependence on fossil fuels, or aimed to use the revenue from selling fossil fuels to finance their economic growth.

“The country brings up the topic, because it is simultaneously a producing nation and consumer,” she noted. “But Brazil is unique, because it, if it wants to, need not rely on non-renewables. We have to recognise that there are some that depend on fossil fuels in their economies and don’t have easy solutions, and some where fossil fuels are the foundation of their economic structure.

“To be fair is to be fair to all, but the fundamental, primordial fairness is to avoid being unjust to the planet, because it is our home.”

If the pledge receives enough support, the summit could set up a platform in which the work of drawing up a strategy to the phaseout could begin.

The endeavor would require discussions with every participating nations to the UN climate treaty and criteria for how the process would unfold, the minister said. “Once we have criteria, a management framework can be drawn up; after we have a plan, and establish protections to be able to build confidence in the system, I am confident that with these components we can transform positive concepts into steps that are more defined, and more concrete.”

There is no guarantee that a proposal to begin drawing up a roadmap would be accepted at the conference, although it does not require the official approval of the conference, which operates by unanimous agreement and can be hijacked by special interests. Climate analysts have indicated they think there could be support for such a proposal from about sixty nations, but there are believed to be at least forty opposed. A total of 195 countries participating at the talks.

“Despite being the primary source of climate change, carbon-based energy are about the most divisive subject there is within the UN negotiations, so to see a sizable group of countries publicly supporting a path to realizing worldwide phaseout is in itself pretty groundbreaking.”

“Put simply, there’s no path to a planet where warming remains below 1.5 degrees in which nations aren’t able to talk about ending fossil fuel use.”

“We require this wording for actual in this conversation. It’s highly illogical that we discuss all topics but then when the main issue are the actual problem.”

Discussions carried on on the weekend on four outstanding topics that have not yet been included into the official schedule: commerce, openness, funding and how to tackle the gap between the carbon reduction nations have planned and those needed to hold to the 1.5-degree temperature limit.

A COP30 chair promised a “document” that would cover these issues, after consultations – which have been going on since Monday – were inconclusive. He urged countries to embrace the “mutirão” spirit, meaning one of collaboration and positive dialogue.

Work on other substantive issues – including adaptation to the impacts of the climate emergency, the fair shift for those affected by the move to a green economy and how to build institutional capacity in developing countries – proceeded productively, the host reported.

The host nation's chief negotiator said the technical phase of the summit proceedings was approaching completion, and the high-level stage – when ministers who have the authority to alter their countries’ stances join – was beginning.