President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) will return to Belém on Wednesday (19) to try to help unlock some of the COP30 negotiations, with many topics still open and below Brazil’s expectations.
The announcement was made in a letter read by the Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, during the closing of the so-called Peoples’ Summit — a meeting of indigenous peoples parallel to COP30 — on Sunday.
‘I will return to Belém on November 19th to meet the UN Secretary General in a joint effort to strengthen climate governance and multilateralism,’ said Lula in the letter, adding that he will have meetings with several countries, representatives of civil society, indigenous people, governors and mayors.
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The conference enters its last week of negotiations with more doubts than successes. The Brazilian presidency of the COP invests in the need to close negotiations on adaptation to climate change, but the topic still faces difficulties.
One of the central points, the need to approve parameters to evaluate the progress of adaptation, is hampered by the fear of poorer countries — especially the group of African countries — that financing for climate change will be somehow linked to these parameters.
The fear is that, once adopted, the parameters could be used by richer countries to control investments, either because the countries are not meeting the targets, or because they are complying ‘too well’ and would have passed the point of needing external resources.
Other issues, such as a work program for energy transition, and the eternal discussion about financing climate change, have also not progressed as Brazil expected.
According to a Brazilian diplomat, the political weight of the arrival of the president, an experienced negotiator, could help advance the agenda.
Lula’s arrival in the last week of negotiations is nothing new. At other conferences, presidents also took to the field to try to help unblock the traditional knots of climate negotiations.
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Afterwards, Lula leaves for South Africa, where he participates in the G20 summit weekend.
