Amazon to host tough climate talks

AN ODOUR of oil hung over last year's UN climate conference in Baku, capital of fossil fuel-rich Azerbaijan.

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As it started yesterday, the 50 000 participants of COP30 were expected to feel the heavy, humid air of the Amazon rainforest in Belem, Brazil, where they face the daunting task of keeping global climate cooperation from collapsing.

Unfazed, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva insisted on holding the event here despite a dire shortage of hotel rooms.

His aim: to make the Amazon itself open the eyes of negotiators, observers, businesses and journalists in a city where locals carry umbrellas both to shield themselves from the blazing morning sun and from the tropical downpours that follow in the afternoon.

"It would be easier to hold the COP in a rich country," Lula declared in August.

"We want people to see the real situation of the forests, of our rivers, of our people who live there."

The Amazon rainforest, which plays a vital role in the fight against global warming through its absorption of greenhouse gases, is itself plagued by a host of ills: deforestation, illegal mining, pollution, drug trafficking, and all manner of rights abuses against locals, especially Indigenous peoples.

While the Brazilians have been active on the diplomatic front for the past year, they're lagging behind on logistics.