Two months before COP30, only 79 of 198 countries have booked accommodation

With less than two months to go until COP30 in Brazil, authorities reported this Wednesday (17) that only 79 of the 198 invited countries have booked accommodation in Belém (PA), where high prices have complicated the organization of the event.

With 50,000 participants expected, the United Nations climate conference will be held between November 10 and 21 in the capital of Pará, which has been questioned as the venue by some delegations who consider the accommodation costs to be excessive.

After a virtual meeting with the UN office for the conference, the Extraordinary Secretariat for COP30 of the Civil House announced that “79 countries have already confirmed accommodation in Belém, […] while another 70 are still in negotiations.”

In July, a group of negotiators asked the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to transfer, at least partially, the event to other cities with greater capacity.

COP30 could be “the most exclusive in history” because of prices, warned in August the Climate Observatory, a network of environmental organizations from Brazilian civil society.

To ease the pressure, the UN will increase the daily allowance in Belém for delegates from 144 developing countries, from 144 to 197 dollars (from 763 to 1,044 reais, at the current exchange rate), a UN spokesman confirmed on Wednesday.

The federal government considered this adjustment as “a step forward to facilitate participation,” but warned that “the amount remains below the average practiced in other Brazilian capitals and does not fully cover local costs.”

Brazil suggested to the UN that it provide additional economic support exclusively for this event.

Lula conceived the COP30 in Belém to raise awareness of the Amazon, the largest tropical forest on the planet, which is essential for combating global warming.

To alleviate demand for accommodations, Brazil scheduled the summit of heads of state for November 6th and 7th, before the conference. But this was not enough: average prices remained above the UN requirements.

In August, the government launched a working group to help delegates obtain better prices and conditions in Belém.

To strengthen the offer, it also contracted two private cruise ships that will offer 6,000 beds, although 20 kilometers from the negotiation center.

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