United Nations climate conference in Belém had absence of global leaders, infrastructure problems and even fire
COP30 (30th United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change) came to an end on Saturday (22.Nov.2025), after the approval of the summit, called “Global Mutirão”. Read the text (PDF – 163 kB, in English).
The result of what many governments, experts and scientists expected. But the event in Belém, Pará, collected other flops. A series of logistical problems and important absences of global leaders marred the conference.
There was an attempt on the 2nd day of the event (Nov 11) and one on Thursday (Nov 20). The executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Simon Stiell, wrote a letter to the PT government cabinet on November 12 demanding that Brazilian authorities present a plan to address the precarious conditions at COP30.
Hosting crisis
Months before the start of the summit, high prices for accommodation reservations in the capital of Pará were criticized and controversies. Some hotels even charged daily rates 10 times higher than normal.
On July 31, André Corrêa do Lago, president of COP30, asked the participating countries to hold the conference in another location, due to the price of hotel rates in Belém. But the Brazilian government kept the conference in the capital of Pará.
Many people gave up participating in COP30 because of the high accommodation prices. A few weeks before COP30, prices fell. With the reduction in demand, some hotels had vacancies left during the event.
Motels tried to attract some of the guests, with cheaper stays than in traditional hotels. Demand, however, was very low. establishment owners.
Ships and boat
The federal government bought 2 cruise ships for R$71.7 million to overcome the lack of hotel rooms in Belém. For delegations from countries, especially the poorest, the government hired 450 cabins. Spent R$26.3 million. Hired another 400 cabins for the Brazilian delegation for R$45.4 million.
Lula and the first lady, Janja Lula da Silva, on the boat Iana 3, anchored at a Navy base. It needed to be taken from Manaus to Belém because the capital of Pará is large.
Transporting the boat used by Lula and Janja consumed at least 4,000 liters of diesel oil. It is a contradiction for the government, which tried to get COP30 to reach a final declaration with a deadline for the end of the use of fossil fuels.
Absence of global leaders
Belém airport has little space for parking planes. Presidents of several countries stopped going to the COP30 Summit, which is the conference, because they did not agree to send their planes to other airports while they were in Belém.
The President of France, Emmanuel Macron (Renaissance, center), went to Belém on Thursday morning (Nov 6) and left the city at the end of the day. It was not until the conclusion of the meeting and on Friday (Nov 7).
The Summit in Belém registered more heads of state and government in COPs than the previous 4 COPs. Presidents Donald Trump (Republican Party), of the United States, Xi Jinping (PCCH, left), of China, Javier Milei (La Libertad Avanza, right), among others, did not participate.
The conference was attended by North American executives, for fear of retaliation from the Trump administration, which views the climate issue with a bad eye.
Expensive food, long line
In the event’s food court, a restaurant with typical Pará food is a duck rice dish for R$110.
In the press room, in Zona Azul, an espresso R$25. Dining Roomnorth of Zona Azul, a meat skewer with vinaigrette and farofa cost R$79. That’s triple the prices in restaurants and cafes in Belém.
The event organizers did not allow the consumption of food that did not come from accredited establishments, for safety reasons.
Even with the high food prices, there were queues of up to an hour at restaurants at lunchtime.
Leaks and drips
On the 1st day of COP30 (10.nov), a corridor in the media center, where journalists were staying, was subject to rainwater that leaked from the roof. There is heavy rain, typical of the Amazon region, almost every day in Belém.
The carpet in the hallway hit by the water was soaked. The section was isolated with plastic tape. The corridor served as access to the event’s image transmission center.
Protest and attempted invasion
On the night of the 2nd day (11.nov) of the event, a group entered the COP30 Blue Zone, where diplomatic negotiations are taking place, without authorization. An X-ray machine was damaged. Two security guards from outsourced companies, under the responsibility of the UN (United Nations), were injured in the act. Not arrested.
The majority of protesters were indigenous people and political activists. They called for, among other issues, the taxation of billionaires, the reduction of deforestation and more effective actions against global warming, including a veto on oil exploration. Some protesters wore Psol t-shirts.
On the 5th day of COP30 (14.nov), indigenous people gained access to the conference in another protest.
Structural problems
During the Leaders’ Summit, which precedes the actual start of COP30, there was a lack of water. On the 1st day of the COP30 Summit (6.nov), the entire corridor that connects the main entrance area to the Blue Zone, the area restricted to COP30 government delegations, was under construction. The Blue Zone country pavilions were unfinished.
The was a problem in the pavilion area. Participants complained that the air conditioning was not coping with the high temperatures. They used fans distributed free of charge in the pavilions. Portable fans were installed in the pavilions.
There was a lack of water in the bathrooms at several times throughout the duration of the conference. There were interruptions in the power supply, disrupting activities.
German chancellor’s criticism
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attended the COP30 Summit. On November 13, back in Germany, he made a statement with implicit criticism of the discomfort in Belém. that he and German journalists had been “happy” to leave the capital of Pará on November 7th.
Janja with highlights and faux pas
The first lady, , occupied a place at the COP30 Summit than presidents of Powers, ministers and the president of the COP, Andre Corrêa do Lago.
Janja made a mistake in an interview with the word “actor”, which does not exist in the standard language of the Portuguese language.
Fire in the Blue Zone
On Thursday (Nov 20), 1 day before the scheduled closure, one reached the pavilion area of countries in the Blue Zone of COP30. Journalists, negotiators and ministers who participated in the activities had to leave the place immediately. There were no serious injuries. But diplomatic negotiations had to be interrupted.
“Biblical” trials
UN photographer Kiara Worth, who photographed the fire and the entire conference, COP30 as “biblical” on their social networks in reference to the difficulties that the participants had to face.
Tourists fall into manhole
A man and a woman, foreign tourists, in an open drain on Brasília beach, close to the cruise ship terminal, on Friday night (Nov 21). They were removed from the hole without serious injuries.
Frustration with text
Governments, scientists and representatives of organizations the final text of COP30. There was no mention of a deadline for the end of the use of fossil fuels and deforestation. Without this, the declaration remained anodyne, without significant progress in relation to previous COPs.
Diplomatic negotiations for the final text have been tense in recent days. Lula returned to Belém on Wednesday (Nov 19). He talked to diplomats so that the mention of fossils was included. But representatives from several countries criticized Lula’s intervention and said it contradicted the negotiations. The text only came out on Saturday (Nov 22). Delayed the closing of COP30 by 1 day.
The Brazilian government tried to at least achieve symbolic gains, such as the inclusion of the word “joint effort” in reference to the global effort to mitigate global warming and adapt to inevitable changes. But the term, of indigenous origin, cannot be translated accurately into the languages of countries that participated in COP30. The idea was to adopt the word without translating it. But this ran into another difficulty: the pronunciation is difficult for foreigners.
