Belem, Brazil – In the glare of COP30’s global spotlight, negotiators wrestle to forge a hard-edged Roadmap for Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels (TAFF). Yet right outside the conference halls lies an unfiltered contradiction: an epicenter where fossil fuel investments are still surging, and global banks continue pumping capital into the very industry the world claims it must leave behind.

This stark contrast unmasks the widening gap between lofty climate ambition and the hard realities on the ground. Latin America’s fossil fuel investment story is no different from much of the developing world, where many countries still lean on these infrastructure facilities as they battle to jumpstart genuine economic advancements.

At the very least, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) acknowledges the developing world’s pressing energy needs, a reality now taking center stage in Belem as negotiators hammer out the contours of a new global climate accord.

Apart from new coal plant investments, a paper on “The Money Trail Behind Fossil Fuel Expansion,” released by civil society organizations, revealed that at least 190 oil and gas companies across 42 countries are still hunting for new hydrocarbon reserves and building fresh fossil-fuel infrastructure. Much of it is concentrated in the Latin American and Caribbean region.

The report was a collaborative effort of Germany’s Urgewald, Brazil’s Arayara International, Argentina’s Fundacion Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (FARN), Mexico’s Conexiones Climáticos, and the Amazon Watch, spanning the United States, Peru, and Ecuador.

Calling out fossil fuel investments in COP30’s host region is critical—because if the very ground where the world negotiates climate solutions is still fueling the crisis with full financial backing, then that might be casting a dark shadow on chances of keeping global warming within the targeted 1.5°C limit.

And keep in mind, that's just the oil and gas sector. Behind the scenes, a battalion of lobbyists at the climate summit is also tirelessly championing the delay of coal plant phaseouts, anchoring their resistance on a narrative that developing countries still rely on coal as the lifeblood of their economic aspirations.

Tied to the specified exploration and production (E&P) activities would be a staggering $138.5 billion surge in investments to build over 54 GW of new gas-fired power facilities across Latin America and the Caribbean, potentially locking the world deeper into fossil fuels.

The report further exposes an inconvenient truth: over 92 percent of these fossil fuel investments are bankrolled by global banking giants like Santander, JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Bank of America, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, as well as Asian banks Mizuho and SMBC.

As described by Heffa Schuecking, director of Urgewald and lead author of the report, “Latin America and the Caribbean are a global hotspot of fossil fuel expansion. Big players like Petrobras, ExxonMobil, YPF, and Chevron are bent on extracting as much oil and gas as possible before the net zero deadlines take hold.”

And in a bitter twist of irony, Brazil is charging ahead with 47 new oil and gas projects; several of them cutting straight through ecologically fragile frontiers like the Amazon Reef System and vital conservation zones. This is turning some of the planet’s most precious ecosystems into collateral damage for continued fossil fuel ventures.

Arayara Director Nicole Figeuiredo de Oliveira emphasized that “the Amazon is already at risk and now its future is being traded for a few decades of oil,” adding that Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras acts as the single biggest developer of new upstream oil and gas reserves.

The UNFCCC has declared that the newly submitted nationally determined contributions (NDCs) will cut global emissions by 12 percent around 2035. But even that paltry reduction falls far short of saving a planet already teetering on the edge.

That was up from the initial 10 percent emissions reduction assessment first announced during the NDC Synthesis Report launch in October. So far, more than 100 countries have now pledged new NDCs, with 86 already formally submitted.

UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell called the 12 percent emissions cut by 2035 ‘a big deal,’ stressing that “every fraction of a degree of heating avoided will save millions of lives and billions of dollars in climate damage. And these cuts will get deeper and deeper as we move faster and faster.”

He insisted that the good news is we’re not starting from scratch: the Paris Agreement is finally bending the planet-heating curve downward for the first time, and that manifestly shows real progress in the fight against climate change risks.

Stiell cautioned though that even with the anticipated gains, the climate emergency still threatens humanity, pointing to vulnerable countries like the Philippines and other frontline nations as solid proof of the ongoing danger.

“Global heating is already dealing some devastating blows, in every country. Just look at the super typhoons blasting the Philippines and Vietnam, the brutality of Hurricane Melissa crushing lives and businesses – the costs of delay are skyrocketing for every nation,” he stressed.

The UN official expounded that the COP is ultimately about people—those who may skip the negotiations but live the consequences daily, from soaring food and energy bills to the relentless toll of floods, droughts, storms, and heatwaves.

As highlighted, the fate of the most vulnerable, from the Amazon to other high-risk regions, demands a faster and more aggressive push to curb global warming. “Make no mistake – humanity is still in this fight. We have some tough opponents, no doubt, but we also have some heavyweights on our side,” Stiell said.

He underscored that global emissions are being reined in, in part, by formidable instruments like massive renewable investments that are bulldozing through the fossil fuel hegemony, while also echoing Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent declaration in New York that “clean energy is the trend of our time.”

“One is the brute power of market forces, as renewables get cheaper – they’re now cheaper than 90% of all [fossil fuels]. That's why renewables have overtaken fossil fuels in investment and overtook coal this year as the world's top energy source,” he asserted.

Stiell further noted that “policies once unthinkable are now rippling through markets, and change is becoming unstoppable. Extraordinary progress that was unimaginable a decade ago.”

The UN similarly qualified that major economies are already stepping up—essentially seeing climate action not as a cost, but as the century’s biggest economic opportunity.

Suffice it to say that in this chapter of our reality, it’s still brutally clear that even with new NDCs on the table, humanity’s fight against an accelerating climate crisis is nowhere near victory. As COP30’s final hours approach next week, the world watches to see whether global leaders will finally weld together a credible and highly achievable path forward.