The 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) opens this Monday (10) in Belém, following last week’s Climate Summit, which signaled the main challenges facing progressive governments such as Brazil’s in efforts to restore the credibility of the Paris Agreement: increasing accountability of rich countries and multinational corporations on climate finance, energy transition, and the regulation of carbon markets.
While the summit, for the first time, managed to shine a stronger spotlight on environmental racism, outside the blue zone social movements and traditional communities from around the world will try to show that the climate crisis cannot be overcome without changing the capitalist mode of production.
The Leaders’ Climate Summit held in Belém on 6–7 November set the political tone expected to guide COP30, with a focus on accelerating the energy transition, securing climate finance, and protecting tropical forests.
majorKey announcements included the Belém Commitment on Sustainable Fuels, which aims to quadruple the use of alternative fuels by 2035; the creation of an international carbon markets coalition; and the launch of the Tropical Forests Forever Fund (TFFF), proposed by Brazil to reward countries that keep their forests standing. Despite these advances, experts still see the commitments as timid in light of the climate emergency.
The summit also brought the phase-out of fossil fuels back to the center of the debate, although without concrete measures, and laid the groundwork for a “roadmap” towards a just energy transition. Other issues expected to dominate COP30 include strengthening national emissions-reduction targets, securing climate finance, and confronting environmental racism, incorporated for the first time into an international agreement.
With more than 50,000 participants from nearly 200 countries, the conference in Belém seeks to turn political signals into concrete action capable of rescuing the Paris Agreement, which, as President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has stressed, is far from being fulfilled.
BdF spoke with sources from the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change and the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples to assess whether the approval of offshore oil exploration at the mouth of the Amazon River had weakened Brazil’s leading stance in the energy transition debate. They noted that sensitive domestic issues such as this are unlikely to be raised in a setting where the host country is a political ally, although internally the assessment is that granting the license so close to COP30 was a strategic mistake.
Voices that must be amplified
Since Glasgow in the United Kingdom in 2021, COP has not been held in a country as open to popular participation. Social movements and traditional communities plan a wide range of activities in Belém to denounce that COP30 continues to shield those truly responsible for the environmental crisis: major corporations and the capitalist system, which profits from nature’s destruction. When large corporations are the protagonists at a climate summit, the solutions proposed tend not to confront the underlying logic that turns forests, peoples, and territories into commodities.
Some grassroots leaders believe that issues such as direct climate finance, environmental racism, and multilateralism were addressed in a more meaningful way at the Leaders’ Summit and may gain traction inside COP30 as well, influenced by debates closer to these movements. The fact that COP is being held in the Amazon, after all, is expected to carry weight in official decisions. Sara Pereira, coordinator of the non-governmental organization Fase and member of the political committee of the Peoples’ Summit, argues that it is the role of organized civil society to expose the structural causes of the crisis and to propose measures that go beyond palliative solutions which tend to intensify the neocolonial appropriation of rivers and forests, such as carbon market regulation.
“I believe every step forward we have achieved in changing the government’s stance, which in recent months has shifted somewhat further to the left, came through heavy pressure from society, through struggle,” says Sara Pereira. “And I believe that at COP, which has an extremely limited structure for welcoming the demands of social movements, the tendency is that it will continue to serve the interests of major corporations.” For her, the fact that agribusiness and mining companies will have stands in the blue zone, while social movements will not, is proof of that imbalance.
According to Adolfo Neto, professor of geography at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), COP30 has already left a crucial legacy for Brazilian and Amazonian society by bringing socio-environmental issues into everyday conversation. “Today there is no one in Belém who doesn’t think about this topic,” he says, adding that this awareness has likely spread across much of Brazil. “The more the issue is in the spotlight, the more space dissenting voices, from the Peoples’ Summit, Indigenous leaders, quilombola communities, riverine peoples, will have to be heard. These voices are essential if we are to confront the main challenges with solutions that already exist. We will only be able to face the climate crisis by changing the unrestrained mode of production and advancing a new economic model,” he argues.
The Peoples’ Summit is expected to bring together around 15,000 people from 12 to 16 November, alongside several parallel grassroots events. BdF will provide full coverage of these activities and of the debates taking place at COP30.
Challenges of a COP in the Amazon
COP30 is being held in Belém, a city that in recent months has faced criticism over structural shortcomings, lack of accommodation, and exorbitant lodging prices. While some local politicians accused the criticism of xenophobic overtones, Lula has repeatedly said it is important to recognize the city’s problems rather than conceal them.
With 160 countries confirmed, Belém now offers about 53,000 beds across hotels, hostels, schools, and cruise ships. Before major public investments, the city had roughly 15,000 hotel spots. According to Valter Correia, executive secretary for COP30, Belém has received nearly R$ 6 billion (approximately US$ 1 billion) in upgrades, with more than R$ 4.5 billion (around US$ 750 million) coming from the federal government.
“We have radically changed the reality of Belém. Pará is not the same. The northern region is not the same. The development here is very clear; the investments made here are improving many people’s lives. In Belém alone, more than half the population is being directly reached by sanitation and drainage works,” said Valter.
There are, however, unfinished projects, such as the Linear Park along the São Joaquim stream and the redevelopment of Rômulo Maiorana Avenue, where fencing and rubble remain visible near the blue zone. Several COP30-related works have been criticized for forced evictions, inadequate compensation, and environmental racism.
To ease traffic and prioritize event logistics, the Pará state government brought school holidays forward and instituted remote work for public agencies and many private institutions so that the expected 50,000 participants can move around and attend activities.
At the same time, “although this is not a tourist event like a World Cup or an Olympics, many people see an opportunity to consolidate Belém and the Amazon as a tourism hub,” says tourism specialist Raquel Ferreira. “We have a wonderful culture, unique cuisine, and stunning landscapes. Despite the problems we face every day, we know we can welcome everyone in a way that makes them want to come back.”
