'Shocking' COP30 lodging costs heap pressure on Brazil

"'BELEM is ready,' Brazilian officials have insisted ahead of the COP30 gathering in November - but eye-watering lodging costs in the northern city have panicked many would-be attendees.

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President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has personally championed the symbolic choice of holding the major UN climate conference in the Amazon.

And with months to go before the November 10-21 meeting, work is in full swing, witnesses say.

But members of national delegations, civil society, and the media have been faced with a major dilemma: how to find a room at a decent price?

"I've never seen anything quite like the situation unfolding in Belem. The soaring accommodation prices, which mean it will now cost thousands of dollars a night for even basic rooms," Mariana Paoli, with the NGO Christian Aid, said.

The steep rates are "not just shocking, it is exclusionary," said Paoli, a Brazilian who has attended several UN climate summits before.

"Delegates from across the Global South, particularly grassroots activists, Indigenous leaders, and civil society groups, already face immense barriers to participation... Now, they're being priced out entirely."

In recent months, hotels have been offering rooms at $1 200 a night. On short-term rental platform Airbnb, some rates were even higher.