Post #4903

Why hosting the UN climate summit in the Amazon was so important, despite the disappointing outcome For the first time, this annual climate summit was held in Amazonia, a place at the frontline of climate change. The pivot from the two previous conferences in petrostates Azerbaijan and UAE to a base in the world's largest tropical forest (albeit in one of the world's largest oil-producing countries) was jarring. As Amazonian researchers, and past and present residents of the city, we saw the potential for COP30 to move discussions further forward than its predecessors in two key ways. First, and in contrast to many previous gatherings that have sidelined them—or suppressed them altogether—Indigenous and marginalized voices were impossible to ignore at COP30. They have helped shape media narratives and discourse in the blue zone, the venue that hosted events in hundreds of dedicated spaces for national and organizational bodies. The Belém gathering saw the largest Indigenous participation in Cop history, with around 900 registered representatives. The Cúpula dos Povos, a parallel event hosted at the Universidade Federal do Pará, gave many more Indigenous peoples and local communities a platform to argue against the status quo of relative inaction. Hosting COP30 in Belém broke down the physical travel barriers for many potential attendees from Indigenous peoples and local communities. The summit organizers went beyond the normal attempts at tokenism in engaging them in discussions. The region's extensive river networks allowed many Indigenous peoples and local communities from across Amazonia to reach Belém by boat. They held a symbolic "people's flotilla" with over 500 people in 200 vessels, sailing to demand their voices be heard in calling for climate justice and an end to mining and large infrastructure projects affecting their territories. Meanwhile, the disruptive influence of some Indigenous protesters and their allies in breaching security lines and temporarily obstructing access to the blue zone hopefully focused minds inside, in addition to garnering global headlines. The second reason to be hopeful about COP30 was that the realities of climate and land use change are jarringly obvious in Amazonia. Belém's oppressive heat and humidity were evident even within the main blue zone arenas. Many delegates were visibly uncomfortable. This catalyzed an official complaint from UN climate chief Simon Stiell about the climate conditions in the Cop venue, asking for "a clear delivery plan on how temperatures will be brought down within the next 24 hours." The parallels to the goals of the wider negotiation process were hard to miss. The city's local climate became a protagonist in its own right. A huge thunderstorm during one afternoon flooded many roads and brought down trees across the city, causing power outages. A recent study has shown that Belém is now experiencing more and more days of high "wet bulb" temperatures (which determine the comfort level of the atmosphere). Such temperatures can lead to deadly heat stress. Continued warming could make many parts of the tropics unlivable. Source:Phys.org @EverythingScience