🎙️ COP30: Are locals ready to shape policies?

Amid preparations for this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), to be held in November in the Amazonian city of Belém, much of the news has focused on how infrastructure works are (or are not) coming along in a part of Brazil fraught with logistics bottlenecks and not accustomed to hosting major global events.

However, the preparations that matter most go beyond the number of available hotel rooms. Regardless of how comfortable the stay is for dignitaries from around the world, Brazil’s goal at COP30 is not only to regain its leadership in the climate debate, but also to ensure that local communities and scientists are finally heard by international players. But how prepared are they for this unique opportunity?

Reporter Isabela Cruz sat down with Lise Tupiassu, Pro-Rector for International Relations at the Federal University of Pará, in Belém, to hear directly from someone on the ground. Coordinator of the Amazon Human Rights Clinic, she gives her view on what COP attendees should really be paying attention to.

On the post-Baku agenda, the global conference in Brazil is expected to address issues such as adaptation targets, a further increase in climate finance, the phasing out of fossil fuels, and the strengthening of global climate governance. But the question remains: who is going to be heard?

📚 Background content

• The remaining hurdles before hosting a COP

• How land ownership chaos affects REDD+

• The plans for oil drilling off the Amazonian coast

• Indigenous rights: negotiating the non-negotiable

• Brazil's climate puzzle amid changes and crises