Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gestures as he speaks during the opening ceremony of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30), in Belem, Brazil, November 10, 2025. REUTERS/Adriano Machado

By Kate Abnett and Lisandra Paraguassu

BELEM, Brazil (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, 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)