For the first time in its 33-year history, the annual UN Climate Change Conference will take place in the largest tropical rainforest on the planet: the Amazon.
COP30 will take place in the city of Belém, the capital of the northern Brazilian state of Pará, near the Amazon Delta.
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, wants to send a message by hosting the conference in the Amazon to remind negotiators of the urgency of adopting ambitious climate targets.
But as inspiring as that may sound, questions are being asked over the participation of civil society groups and local communities.
While overpriced accommodation jeopardizes the attendance of delegations from the Global South, infrastructure projects are deforesting the very forest hosting the summit in the first place.
These disputes threaten to overshadow the conference’s core purpose: to take meaningful climate action and protect key carbon sinks like the Amazon.
Given these obstacles, just how involved will civil society groups be at the event – and what legacy will the negotiations leave once they wrap up?
The last four UN climate summits have seen limited participation from civil society – first due to COVID-19 restrictions at COP26 in Glasgow, and then by restrictions on the right to protest imposed by host countries Egypt, the UAE and Azerbaijan.
COP30 will be different, says Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of Observatório do Clima, a Brazilian coalition of more than 130 environmental organizations, research institutes and social movements.
“COP30 comes with a lot of expectations in Brazil,” he says.
As soon as Belém was confirmed as the host city, Brazilian organizations came together to form the Cúpula dos Povos (Peoples’ Summit) – a united front of civil society groups for social and environmental justice ahead of COP30.
The coalition now consists of more than 1,000 groups, including social movements, NGOs, Indigenous peoples and traditional communities.
Astrini says the People’s Summit will organize multiple side events and actions at COP30, including reviving the March of the Peoples, which has been suspended since 2021 due to democratic restrictions in the host countries.
There are also plans for a boat pilgrimage and a banquetaço (public community meal).
“This has to happen because it will increase pressure from outside into the negotiation rooms,” Astrini explains.
Astrini says civil society groups will make their voices heard at two levels.
“The first level is the level of climate negotiations,” he explains. “But if you want to bring your agenda or your perspective into that space, you have to do it beforehand, because it doesn’t happen during those two weeks.”
The second level is outside the negotiation area, where – unlike at recent COPs – they won’t be limited to officially designated spaces.
Astrini doesn’t see the scarcity of accommodation as an obstacle for civil society groups: “People will stay in schools, churches, at friends’ homes. Social movements are used to these kinds of circumstances.”
It’s a different story, however, for official delegations taking part in the negotiations, who will need proper hotels.
“It’s an unprecedented situation – we’ve never had anything like this before,” he says. “There’s a real risk that some countries won’t be able to attend.”
Local communities, meanwhile, are getting heavily involved in preparations for the conference.
The Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, a natural history museum and research center located in Belém, will host a range of COP30 side events that will be open to the public.
“In the Amazon, expectations are very high when it comes to popular participation,” says Marlúcia Bonifácio Martins, the museum’s coordinator of research and graduate studies.
“We want to bring not only Brazilian civil society but also people from around the world. I believe this COP will be half climate conference and half World Social Forum.”
Martins also emphasizes the important role of civil society in putting pressure on their governments to start living up to their promises.
“We don’t need new agreements or new treaties – what’s needed is for existing ones to be fulfilled and for countries to demonstrate real efforts to move forward,” she says.
“This level of engagement is essential to push governments. Behind closed doors, anything can happen, but when people take to the streets and make their voices heard, that has a real impact. It’s hard for any government to remain untouched by the clamor of its population.”
UN climate conferences are typically divided into two zones: the Blue Zone, where the negotiations take place, and the Green Zone, which is dedicated to civil society and the private sector.
But COP30 will have an unofficial third zone: the Yellow Zone (Zona Amarela).
Created by COP das Baixadas, a coalition of 14 organizations working on climate justice issues in the urban peripheries of the Amazon, this zone creates a space to discuss climate solutions centered on marginalized neighborhoods.
Inspired by the yellow in the Brazilian flag, the Yellow Zone will host various events and actions across peripheral areas (baixadas) of Belém.
Jean Ferreira, one of the founders of COP das Baixadas and a resident of a baixada of Belém, said in an interview with InfoAmazonia that he created the Yellow Zone after seeing local communities largely excluded from the last three climate COPs.
“But in the Amazon, we’re not going to allow that to happen because we have a strong social movement,” he told the outlet.
The people of Belém and the Amazon will no doubt make an impact at COP30. But what legacy will the conference leave in Belém and the Amazon?
Martins notes that several construction projects are underway in the city – many of them cutting through the rainforest, such as the Avenida Liberdade, which aims to ease traffic in Pará’s capital.
“You know that when a road cuts through a [rainforest], it rarely guarantees that this [rainforest] won’t turn into a real estate development,” she says, “so that’s a major concern.”
Martins believes these projects, financed by the federal government and managed by the state of Pará, are merely designed to give Belém a glow-up without providing any long-term gains for its residents.
“Some of these projects are just makeup – they’re beautifying streets but not bringing any real benefits to people,” she says.
The Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change is also expecting lasting results from the networks it’s building ahead of COP30.
One of these is the Circle of Peoples, a space that brings together Indigenous peoples, Quilombolas, traditional communities and family farmers.
“One of the expected outcomes is a network of communities increasingly engaged in the [climate] issue, paying close attention to the implementation of mitigation and adaptation strategies, as outlined in the National Climate Plan and local adaptation plans,” the ministry said in a statement to ThinkLandscape.
Astrini believes the summit will also help galvanize local organizations around climate action.
“We’re going to have many more movements joining the climate agenda than we have today,” he says. “COP will be a catapult for social movements that have never been close to this debate.”
“Another positive legacy is that local organizations in the Amazon are organizing themselves much more intensively than in the rest of the country,” he adds.
Despite the logistical challenges, many in the region are hopeful that the conference can put the Amazon on the map for world leaders.
“The spirit of the COP is also one of accountability,” says Martins.
“Here in the Amazon, there’s a strong expectation that people will start to truly see the Amazon.”
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