To host UN climate talks, Brazil chose one of its poorer cities. That's no accident

NEW YORK (AP) — When world leaders, diplomats, business leaders, scientists and activists go to Brazil in November for the United Nations' annual climate negotiations, poverty, deforestation and much of the world's troubles will be right in their faces — by design.

In past conference cities — including resort areas and playgrounds for the rich such as Bali, Cancun, Paris, Sharm El-Sheikh and Dubai — host nations show off both their amenities and what their communities have done about climate change. But this fall's conference is in a high-poverty city on the edge of the Amazon to demonstrate what needs to be done, said the diplomat who will run the mega-negotiations in Belem known as COP30, or Conference of Parties.

What better way to tackle a problem than facing it head on, however uncomfortable, COP30 President-designate André Corrêa do Lago, a veteran Brazilian diplomat, said in an interview with The Associated Press at United Nations headquarters.

"We cannot hide the fact that we are in the world with lots of inequalities and where sustainability and fighting climate change is something that has to get closer to people,” do Lago said. That's what Brazilian President President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has in mind, he said.

“When people will go to Belem, you are going to see a developing country and city with considerable infrastructure issues still with, in relative terms, a high percentage of poverty and President Lula thinks it’s very important that we talk about climate thinking of all the forests, thinking of poverty and thinking of progress,” do Lago said. “He wants everybody to see a city that can improve thanks to the results of these debates.”

The rich and powerful — as well as poorer nations, activists and media — are already feeling a bit of that discomfort even before getting to Belem. Even with two years of notice, Brazil is way behind in having enough hotel rooms and other accommodations for a global conference that has had 90,000 attendees.

The official United Nations COP30 website says Brazil would have an official booking portal by the end of April. But specific plans weren't announced till last week when Brazil said it arranged for two cruise ships with 6,000 beds to help with lodging, saying the country is ensuring "accommodation for all countries" and starting a system where 98 poorer nations have the option to reserve first.

Skyrocketing lodging costs are a problem, do Lago conceded. Some places have been charging $15,000 a night for one person and activists and others have talked of cutting back. But he said prices "are already going down," even as local media report otherwise.

Do Lago said it will be a local holiday so residents can rent out their homes, adding "a significant supply of apartments.”

Big year for climate negotiations

This is a significant year for climate negotiations. The 2015 Paris climate agreement required countries to come up with their own plans to reduce the emissions of heat-trapping gases from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas and then to update those plans every five years.

This year nearly every nation — the United States, the No. 2 carbon dioxide emitter and historically biggest polluter, withdrew from the accord earlier this year — has to submit their first plan update. Most of those updates are already late, but the United Nations wants countries to complete them by September when world leaders gather in New York. That would give the United Nations time to calculate how much they would curb future climate change if implemented — before the COP six weeks later.

UN Secretary-General Antonio-Guterres, in an interview with AP, reiterated what officials want in those plans: that they cover each nation's entire economy, that they include all greenhouse gases and that they are in line with efforts to limit long-term human-caused warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times. That target is the Paris agreement goal. And it's tough since the world is only a couple of tenths of a degree away and last year even temporarily shot past the 1.5 degree mark.

Do Lago said he expects the countries' plans will fall short of keeping warming below the 1.5 degree mark, so tackling that gap will be a crucial element of negotiations.

Some big things aren't on agenda, like $1.3 trillion for poorer nations

Some of the negotiations' most important work won't be on the formal agenda, including these plans, do Lago said. Another is a road map to provide $1.3 trillion in financial help to poorer nations in dealing with climate change. And finally, he said, Brazil “wants very much to talk about nature, about forests.”

The nearby Amazon has been an important part of Earth's natural system to suck large amounts of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, but deforestation is a major threat to that. At times, parts of the Amazon have gone from reducing carbon dioxide in the air to increasing it, a 2021 study found.

On Wednesday, the United Nation's top court ruled that a clean and healthy environment is a basic human right, a decision that may bolster efforts to come up with stronger action at the November climate conference, some activists said.

“Failure of a state to take appropriate action to protect the climate system ... may constitute an internationally wrongful act,” court President Yuji Iwasawa said during the hearing.

Do Lago said the challenge for countries is to think of these emission-reduction plans not as a sacrifice but as a moment to change and grow.

“One of the objectives of this COP is that we hope we will be remembered as a COP of solutions, a COP in which people realized that this agenda is creating more opportunities and challenges,” do Lago said.

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