- Formal negotiations
- Finance
- Global review
- Global report
- Digital sequence information
- Harmful subsidies
- Marine biodiversity
- Planning, monitoring, reporting and review
- Article 8(j) implementation
- Biodiversity and climate change
- Links with other bodies
- Around the COP
- Armenian presidency
- Protests
- Lobbying and influence
- Carbon and biodiversity markets
COP30 delegates could find themselves sleeping in converted classrooms, cruise ships or even tents as a shortage of hotel beds in the Brazilian host city of Belém forces organisers and locals to come up with creative solutions.
With about 50,000 people expected at November’s UN climate conference, the accommodation crunch has raised questions about the decision to hold it in Belém, a city of 1.3 million people that is not one of Brazil’s biggest tourist destinations.
But COP organisers have pledged to provide at least 24,000 extra beds in the Amazon city, the state capital of Pará, including about 7,300 in public schools and military barracks. The newly built “COP30 Village” will offer 400 suites for heads of state and other leaders – who are due to give their set speeches before the official start of the talks to ease pressure on logistics.
Brazil decides leaders will speak before COP30, easing logistics crunch
An official COP30 accommodation platform is due to launch in the coming weeks, and Pará’s Vice-Governor Hana Ghassan has said that this – along with the additional rooms – should help cool a surge in prices.
Meanwhile, business-minded locals are hoping to cash in on the influx by rolling out options for every budget.
Private listings on short-rental platforms including Airbnb have shot up and entrepreneurs are coming up with some novel solutions – from makeshift floating guesthouses on exclusive yachts to spruced-up love hotels.
“For us, COP30 is not going to be in November. It has already started,” Cleyson Chagas, 43, who operates river tours, told Climate Home.
His company, Lancha Nemo, normally takes tourists on river tours to the islands surrounding the city. But when Chagas saw the need to provide accommodation ahead of the two-week COP, he started to bring in yachts from elsewhere in the Amazon and is already negotiating with four groups of international delegates.
Each vessel can provide up to 10 rooms. For delegations that need more space, he is also offering accommodation on ferry boats, each with between 34 and 50 rooms.
“Everything can be adapted according to the needs of the clients,” he said. “Some clients prefer to close the deal including chefs, cleaning service and other transport, such as vans.”
Brazil’s COP30 president: Climate summits must move from words to real action
Opportunity to tackle pollution?
On laidback Outeiro island, which lies close to the city on the estuary of the Guajará-Açú River, a cargo port will be used to dock two vast cruise ships providing about 4,500 beds for delegates – a plan experts said would require major port works, environmental safeguards and improved transport links to conference venues.
Geologist Aline Meiguins da Silva, a professor and researcher at the Federal University of Pará, said significant dredging would be needed to allow the transatlantic vessels to dock safely.
She urged authorities to take the opportunity to clean up Outeiro’s contaminated beaches and crack down on pollution from boats. “Public authorities need to take care to provide a quality environment for the arrival of cruise ships and to leave a legacy of COP30,” she said.
Six months before the event, some Outeiro residents said they knew little about the conference or what to expect, calling for the government to do more to help them prepare and ensure benefits for local businesses.
“I heard some talk about some works, but I haven’t seen any movement so far,” said Socorro Soares, 54, who runs a restaurant in front of the port, which is mainly used for cargo at present. “Right now we are not prepared,” she said.
The Brazilian government’s COP30 secretariat did not respond to a request for comment on the port preparations.
Comment: Why accusations of Brazilian hypocrisy on climate are ill-judged
Building bridges
Some key infrastructure projects are on track. Work on a bridge that will connect Outeiro with the COP venues in downtown Belém started in January 2024 and is now two-thirds complete, according to the state government.
The bridge, which is a short walk from the port, will dramatically shorten travel times into the city centre and make it easier for locals to access shops and other services in Belém long after the delegates leave.
“Today, we have to cross by boat,” said Eliesio Furtado, 38, as he sold pureed açaí berries at his stall close to the bridge construction site. “With the bridge, everything will be quicker and more convenient.”
Close to conference venues, the state government is overseeing work on the 19,000-square-metre (205,000-square-foot) COP30 Village, the cost of which has not been disclosed.
After the climate conference, the state government plans to use the site to accommodate state secretariats that are currently in rented buildings.
No time for lunch?
In Outeiro, however, some people are sceptical over whether the conference will bring significant or lasting benefits for the local community. “I don’t really know what this COP is going to be about,” said Furtado, the açaí vendor.
“I just know that there’s going to be a lot of movement, but I don’t know if it’s going to involve us here that closely,” he said, suggesting many attendees will head straight from their hotels to the conference venues – without stopping for lunch or a snack.
At the shoreline near the new bridge, Raimundo Maciel, 49, ferries people in his small boat across the water. About 30 families have made a living by providing the service for generations.
Maciel said the bridge was a positive development for the community, but worries about losing his sole income. “It’s going to make it easier for (my son) to get to school more quickly, but for me it’s going to turn my life upside down,” he said.
The post Brazil’s Belém races to make room for COP30 influx appeared first on Climate Home News.
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Prepared by a coalition of nine Western Australian union, industry, conservation, and community organisations—including UnionsWA, the Conservation Council WA, and the Smart Energy Council—the WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan provides a practical roadmap to transform Western Australia into a clean energy powerhouse while creating thousands of secure local jobs.
Western Australia stands at a pivotal crossroads: lead the global clean energy economy or watch investment, future industries, and secure jobs go elsewhere. The WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan outlines a transformative blueprint to harness the state’s world-class solar and wind resources. Discover how legislated renewable targets, green iron manufacturing, and a dedicated regional training strategy can generate tens of thousands of local jobs, lower household bills, and build a resilient, net-zero future for all Western Australians.
WA needs a clear and forward-thinking plan if it is going to become a competitive renewable energy powerhouse and maintain its economic strength through the energy transition.
“Western Australians know a faster renewable energy transition will lower their household expenses and prevent harmful climate pollution. But the community also needs clear direction to ensure this transition will create jobs, lower costs and not cause undue environmental harm.
“Here, sectors representing a broad range of interests have laid the groundwork for those outcomes, clearly outlining what is needed to create a future for WA that is good for the environment, for the climate, for workers and for the economy.
Summary
The WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan sets out a strategic roadmap to position Western Australia as a global clean energy superpower while creating thousands of secure local jobs.
The report establishes three overarching goals:
- Creating local employment.
- Maintaining industrial competitiveness.
- Lowering household energy costs
To realize this vision, the framework details actionable measures to follow on from the recent WA Government announcement of a 75% Renewable Energy Target by 2031 for the South West Interconnected System. This includes developing a statewide Renewable Energy Target, coordinating statewide workforce and training pipelines, strategically planning regional infrastructure to safeguard high-value biodiversity and cultural heritage, and ensuring equitable benefit-sharing through household electrification incentives and First Nations equity partnerships. Ultimately, the plan highlights that establishing clear policy and regulatory certainty will unlock lower energy bills, boost power reliability, and secure the state’s global competitiveness in emerging green commodity export markets.
Key Findings
- Statewide Renewable Energy Target and Emissions Reduction Targets: The report calls for a statewide RET and 1.5°C aligned emission reduction targets to remove policy risk, lower capital costs, and attract clean energy investment.
- Transformative Job Creation: Accelerating the transition offers massive employment prospects, including up to 8,800 solar and battery jobs by 2050, as well as 24,000 ongoing and 11,000 construction jobs in a commercial green iron industry.
- Industrial Electrification & Competitiveness: Requiring large gas users to adopt binding electrification timetables and providing concessional financing will protect existing energy-intensive manufacturers from rising energy costs and impending domestic gas shortfalls.
- Green Commodity Export Leadership: Western Australia can build new export markets in green iron, green ammonia, and offshore oil/gas decommissioning by constructing shared common-user infrastructure and setting dedicated Green Commodity Export Targets.
- Coordinated Workforce & Training Pipeline: To address critical skill shortages the plan recommends establishing a WA Clean Energy Jobs Plan 2050, three regional training hubs, and dedicated pathways for female and under-represented apprentices.
- Environmental Safeguards & Community Benefits: Fast-tracked development must be paired with State Planning Policies that avoid high-biodiversity and cultural heritage lands, mandate new data centres to run on additional renewable power, and deliver household electrification rebates and First Nations equity partnerships.
What you can do
WA has an opportunity to lead on sustainable, clean energy and associated industries. You can help by:
- Sending an email to Environment Minister Murray Watt and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, calling on them to reject Browse.
- Sharing this story to help more Australians understand what’s at stake.
- Encouraging your friends and family to take action.
Countries have completed the first “global review” of their progress towards reversing nature loss by 2030 at the COP17 biodiversity talks in Yerevan, Armenia.
The review “notes with deep concern” that, unless action is “rapidly accelerated”, the goal to reverse nature loss and meet a set of 23 targets by 2030 “will not be achieved”.
It “urges” countries to accelerate action, including by “increased ambition in addressing the gaps”.
Much of the discussions in Yerevan focused on how to raise the necessary funds to help developing countries protect nature.
Some major economies pushed to expand the range of nations that are expected to provide finance, with countries agreeing at the end of the two weeks of talks that non-donors that want to contribute can “signal interest” before COP18.
This came after developed countries failed to meet a target to significantly ramp up nature finance over the last few years.
It also came as a landmark fund agreed at COP16 in Colombia to pay communities for the genetic resources derived from nature stands nearly empty two years on.
The Yerevan talks marked the halfway point of the “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (GBF), the “Paris Agreement for nature” first made in 2022 and due to be achieved by 2030.
During the nearly 12-hour-long final plenary, countries voted for Quito, Ecuador, to host the COP18 nature talks, which will be held in 2028.
Countries managed to sign off on all the major negotiation texts, marking a stark contrast to COP16, which ran so far over time that the Colombian presidency lost “quorum”, forcing talks to resume in Rome months later.
Below, Carbon Brief has detailed analysis of all of the key outcomes from COP17.
Formal negotiations
Finance
Finance, predictably, was at the heart of the discord and deadlock at the Yerevan talks.
At COP17, discussions on finance had to achieve several outcomes.
The first part – to take stock of biodiversity finance mobilised so far to meet the nature deal’s goals – fell under the global review.
As the global report noted, developed countries failed to meet their commitments to raise “at least $20bn a year by 2025” for nature. Delegates pointed to falling aid levels and a sharp 27% decline in environmental funding for the 2026-30 period.
The second part was to agree on how to mobilise resources for the next four years, to meet the GBF’s goals and targets.
Calls to “broaden the contributor base” of who pays to protect nature – and whether that should include emerging economies – became the most fraught element of the talks.
Eventually, countries agreed on what Switzerland described as a “super, mega-delicate” text. It hinged on major “political compromises”, with “no major winner or loser”, according to Kenya.
Per the decision, countries that want to be included on a list of developed country donors can “signal interest” through bilateral, confidential consultations before COP18 and every alternate COP after.
Finally, countries also agreed on criteria to shape and resource a new, permanent financial mechanism to protect n