Climate talks in Amazon

Metal trees threaten to overshadow big picture at Cop30

- Jonathan Watts

Trees made of metal have been set into the concrete ground of the Amazonian host city for this year's Cop30 climate summit, while vegetation has been cleared.

But in an unlikely convergence of views, the centre-right governor of the Brazilian state and leftwing social movements insist this is a storm in a plant pot compared with the darkening geopolitical threats to the world's biggest diplomatic gathering, which will take place in Belém in November.

The tropical port, at the mouth of the Amazon river, is one of the poorest cities in Brazil and it faces mounting criticism about preparations for an international conference that is on a far greater scale than anything previously seen in the rainforest region.

A shortage of beds has driven hotel prices so high that the federal government has threatened to prosecute profiteers. Traffic congestion, already bad, is expected to worsen with the influx of 50,000 visitors during the event. Conservation groups have been shocked by the clearance of forests for new highways and there is scepticism that the city's infrastructure projects, including a doubling of the airport's capacity, will be ready in time.

But Helder Barbalho, the governor of Pará state - who says he asked the president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in November 2022 to nominate Belém as host - said everything was on track. "All the projects that were planned and structured will be ready so that we can hold a fantastic event in November."

He insisted it would be worthwhile to improve the lives of residents and for civil society to finally be given a voice after three consecutive Cops in autocratic nations: "We understand that it will be the Cop with the greatest popular participation in history and that is something we have particularly encouraged."