Brazil is urging companies to come to this year’s global climate talks at the edge of the Amazon as logistical and geopolitical challenges weigh on the gathering.
The invite, outlined in a letter by André Aranha Corrêa do Lago, the president designate of this November’s COP30 climate summit, comes amid concerns about the limited number of hotel rooms and other accommodations in the host city of Belém, a port with about 1.3 million people that critics say is ill prepared to oversee the world’s largest climate conference. The meeting will come as countries and some businesses have backtracked on their promises to curb rising climate pollution.
“We recognize that traveling to Belém presents logistical challenges,” the letter said. “But this is precisely the moment when the private sector could lead the way, to demonstrate that climate leadership means engaging with the real world.”
Other officials have urged the U.N. to switch venues. Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, Panama’s climate representative and vice president of a U.N. bureau that supports the climate gatherings, said in remarks posted on LinkedIn that Belém offers “impossible conditions” for a major conference.
