Almost 50 heads of State and Government responded to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s invitation to appear in the city before the United Nations Conference on Climate Change
Leaders from various regions of the world will meet starting this Thursday (6) in the city of Belém (PA) to try to save the fight for the climate, threatened by divisions, international tensions and the absence of the United States. Almost 50 heads of State and Government responded to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s invitation to appear in the city before the and (10-21 November).
The choice of Belém generated controversy due to its limited infrastructure, which increased prices and complicated travel for small delegations and NGO representatives. Brazil set aside funds to house delegates from the poorest countries free of charge on two cruise ships chartered for the COP.
The city of almost 1.4 million inhabitants had never hosted an international event of such magnitude and the authorities took the opportunity to give the city a new look. “The COP gives Belém the notoriety it deserves. It’s important that attention turns to our region, to the Amazon”, celebrates Karol Farias, 34 years old, a makeup artist at the emblematic Ver-o-Peso market, completely renovated.
However, the venue for the summit meeting, Parque da Cidade, was still an area under construction on Wednesday, full of workers installing partitions and positioning furniture.
Traffic jams in Belém worsened with the closure of some streets and avenues. “I have nothing against the COP, but Belém does not have the necessary infrastructure to host an event like this”, protested taxi driver Agildo Cardoso. Authorities mobilized almost 10,000 security forces agents, in addition to 7,500 military personnel.
“Enough discussion”
For the Brazilian presidency, the objective is to save international cooperation 10 years after the. The event takes place at a dark time for the climate, after the UN admitted that the world will surpass the critical limit of 1.5ºC of global warming in the coming years.
Brazil will not seek major decisions in Belém: the country wants COP30 to establish concrete commitments and organize monitoring of past promises, for example, on the development of renewable energy.
“Enough discussion, now we have to implement what we say,” declared Lula in an interview with AFP and other press agencies at the beginning of the week. Brazil will launch this Thursday a fund dedicated to forest protection, the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, TFFF, and an agreement to quadruple the production of “sustainable” fuels.
Several countries also want to expand commitments to reduce methane emissions, a gas that contributes considerably to global warming.
Prince William, Macron, Peter
One hundred and seventy countries participate in COP30, but the US government a country that is the second biggest polluter in the world after China, will not send a delegation. The American decision, however, comes as a relief to those who feared that Washington would hamper progress, as it recently did by blocking a global plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from shipping.
The French president Colombian Gustavo Petro and Prince William of England will attend the summit. Most G 20 leaders, including China and India, will not attend the meeting. Donald Trump, invited by Lula, ignored the conference. The United States’ second withdrawal from the Paris Agreement occurred in a tense international scenario of trade wars and conflicts.
“It’s not charity”
Much of the developing world remains dissatisfied after the agreement reached last year in Baku on climate finance and intends to discuss the topic again. “It’s not charity, it’s necessity,” Evans Njewa, a diplomat from Malawi who presides over the group of least developed countries, told AFP.
A and the small island states (Aosis) want more progress in reducing emissions, addressing the issue of fossil energy. “Many of our countries will not be able to adapt to warming that exceeds 2°C,” Ilana Seid, diplomat from the Palau archipelago, in the Pacific, and president of Aosis, told AFP. “Some of our island countries would cease to exist.”
Brazil, which presents itself as a bridge between North and South, is not free from paradoxes: at the same time as it manages to stop deforestation, it authorized oil exploration in Foz do Amazonas. “It’s very contradictory,” said Angela Kaxuyana, from the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon. “The same countries” that are committed to the climate are those that “negotiate oil exploration” in the largest tropical forest on the planet, he lamented in Belém.
*With information from AFP
