Amazon poised to host tough climate conference

An odour of oil hung over last year’s UN climate conference in Baku, capital of fossil fuel-rich Azerbaijan.

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Starting yesterday, the 50 000 participants of COP30 will instead 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.”