UN holds emergency talks over high costs of COP30 summit

The United Nations’ climate bureau held an urgent meeting on Tuesday over concerns that sky-high accommodation prices for this year’s COP30 climate summit in Brazil could price poorer countries out of the negotiations, according to diplomats and a document seen by Reuters.

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Brazil is preparing to host this year's UN climate summit in November in the rainforest city of Belem, where nearly every government in the world will gather to negotiate their joint efforts to curb climate change.

Concerns about logistics have dogged preparations for COP30. Developing countries have warned that they cannot afford Belem’s accommodation prices, which have soared amid a shortage of rooms.

In an emergency meeting of the UN climate body's “COP bureau” on Tuesday, Brazil agreed to address countries’ concerns about accommodation and report back at another meeting on Aug 11, said Richard Muyungi, chair of the African Group of Negotiators, who called the meeting.

“We were assured that we will revisit that on the 11th, to get assurances on whether the accommodation will be adequate for all delegates,’ Mr Muyungi said after the meeting.