Countries remain at loggerheads with the Brazilian government team organising COP30 logistics in the Amazon city of Belém, after concerns that some delegations, especially from poorer countries, will not be able to afford to attend the annual UN climate talks in the numbers they view as necessary.
A meeting of the COP bureau – which has 11 members from different countries and advises on COP organisation – took place on Friday after being postponed twice. It followed an emergency session of the committee at the end of July, where African and Pacific delegations raised concerns to the COP30 presidency about the cost and conditions of accommodation in the city on the edge of the rainforest.
Aiming to get the pulse of the logistics woes, the UN climate change secretariat at the start of August circulated a survey to all countries. Nearly three-quarters responded and the overwhelming majority indicated they had not yet booked their accommodation because of exorbitant costs and minimum booking periods imposed on the official COP30 platform, according to the survey data seen by Climate Home News.
129 delegations said they had not yet booked accommodation, most of them developing countries, the survey showed. In the case of Least Developed Countries (LDCs), 90% of respondents said they had not yet booked rooms. 94% of respondents from small island states also said they had not booked.
When asked about the main reason for not securing accommodation so far, 87% of respondent delegations said it was due to “prices significantly higher” than their available resources. 57% also said it was because of the minimum booking periods required by the official platform.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell then laid out a series of recommendations to the Brazilian presidency, including offering better financial incentives to bring down the cost of lodgings, especially for the world’s poorest nations, Climate Home has learned.
In response to the COP bureau’s initial questions, the presidency issued a Q&A document in mid-August in which it made clear that the summit will take place in the Amazon city of Belém as planned, despite growing calls to move it to a bigger city in Brazil. It also outlined the arrangements it was putting in place to ease worries about the number of affordable beds, transport and security for COP delegates.
Its core position has not changed since, though it has made adjustments to some criteria such as shortening the minimum booking period.
Taskforce set up to help LDCs and SIDs
This Friday after the meeting, the COP30 presidency issued a statement saying that Brazil’s federal government, in coordination with the state government of Pará, had reaffirmed that “all the logistical, infrastructure and security conditions are ensured for the realisation of the COP30”.
It added that Belém has the capacity to accommodate delegates for COP30, with a total offer of 53,000 beds, a number higher than the estimated 50,000 participants in the event.
Pará’s governor Helder Barbalho said the state was mobilising a working group “to curb abusive lodging practices”. “We knew the logistical challenge of holding COP30 in the Amazon, but this choice is symbolic and strategic: it demonstrates to the world the central role of Brazil in preserving the forest and leading the climate agenda,” he added in the statement.
COP30 president André Corrêa do Lago said that the federal government was also establishing a taskforce of various ministries that will help delegations, starting with least-developed countries and small island states, to get the accommodation they need.
“In order for this COP to be remembered as the most inclusive COP, we must ensure the participation of all UNFCCC member countries. After securing the accommodation for these two groups, the taskforce will support the other delegations,” he said.
Panama says conditions ‘exclude participation’
These efforts, however, were not enough to ease the concerns of some COP bureau members.
In an indignant post on LinkedIn, its vice president, Juan Carlos Monterrey Gómez of Panama, said he wanted to know how the bureau could formally ask the COP30 presidency to change the host city. “Because we cannot host a COP under conditions that exclude participation and violate the core principles of multilateralism,” he wrote.
He noted that more than 70% percent of delegations have not yet booked their accommodation, adding: “That single number says it all: the current arrangements are impossible.”
On Friday, Brazilian newspaper Globo reported that only 47 out of 196 countries have booked rooms and confirmed their presence at COP30, with only 80 days left until the start of the event.
Calls for a higher daily allowance for delegates
The COP30 presidency said in its statement on Friday that it supports a request by countries in the COP bureau that the UN should raise the daily subsistence allowance (DSA), a payment given by the UN to subsidise the costs of participants from some developing countries to attend COP talks.
For Belém, Brazil said this was now set at US$144, but could be adjusted higher in line with values for other Brazilian cities such as Rio de Janeiro (US$229), São Paulo (US$234) or Paraty (US$435).
The current DSA for Belém is significantly lower than nearly all of the cheapest rooms available on the official accommodation booking platform.
But raising that allowance could be tricky, as it would involve the International Civil Service Commission, which sets the rates – and might not fully resolve the issue given the wide price gap.
Brazil pushed back against suggestions it could subsidise rooms for delegations other than the poorest and island countries. “Expanding subsidies for delegations from countries with income similar to or higher than in Brazil would not be justified for Brazilian society. The focus remains the inclusion of countries with lower income,” Friday’s statement said.
Climate Home understands there is a significant risk that countries will have to send fewer representatives to Belém than they would judge necessary to properly participate in the negotiations.
China, for example, is expected to halve the size of its delegation in Brazil compared to last year’s COP29 in Azerbaijan, Brazilian newspaper Folha reported on Friday.
This story was edited to add data about the UN climate change survey seen by Climate Home.
