Brazil, host of last year’s UN climate summit, has unveiled a roadmap for countries to transition away from fossil fuels, describing the shift as “urgent, inevitable and yet possible” ahead of next week’s COP31 conference.

Released on Tuesday (Nov 3), the roadmap proposes a voluntary, three-phase collective agenda running from 2028 to 2033, during which countries would develop transition plans and transform their energy systems.

The initiative follows the COP30 summit in Belem in 2025, where countries failed to explicitly mention fossil fuels in the final agreement following strong opposition from major oil producers, including Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Instead, Brazil’s COP30 presidency proposed developing a voluntary roadmap to help countries move away from oil, gas and coal.

“Taken together, the evidence and analysis in this Roadmap lead the COP30 Presidency to a clear conclusion that transitioning away from fossil fuels is urgent, inevitable and yet possible,” the document said.

However, it acknowledged that there was no single solution to the complex transition, stressing that countries would need to adopt measures suited to their individual circumstances.

Nearly 200 countries agreed at the COP28 summit in Dubai in 2023 to “transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems”, marking a significant step in global climate negotiations.

“The transition is inevitable, so start planning now and as soon as possible, because this will be good for your country, for your society, for your economy,” said Ana Toni, chief executive of COP30, during a media briefing.

The roadmap noted that existing government policies and announced plans remain insufficient to achieve the energy transition commitments made in Dubai.

COP31 is scheduled to begin on Monday in Antalya, a resort city on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. However, the summit is not expected to deliver major breakthroughs.

Turkey, which holds the COP31 presidency, and Australia, which is overseeing the negotiations, are instead promoting a voluntary programme focused on accelerating electrification.

Toni said the fossil fuel transition roadmap would be discussed in Antalya on November 10.