DUBAI: The Brazilian government has announced that the decision to host COP30 in Belém, state of Pará – between 10 and 21 November 2025 – was approved by consensus during a plenary session of COP28 on Monday. It will be the first time that the Amazon will host the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC.
After the announcement, the Minister for the Environment and Climate Change and head of the Brazilian delegation, Marina Silva, emphasised the importance of the Amazon in the fight against climate change. “The Amazon shows us the way, with its immense biodiversity and huge territory threatened by climate change. It reminds us how intertwined the three Rio Conventions are in their challenges but also in the synergistic solutions they encompass. Holding COP 30 in the heart of the forest is a powerful reminder of our responsibility to keep the planet within our 1.5 °C target,” said Marina Silva.
The Brazilian government stated that the official confirmation rewards the effort of a proposal made by the Pr
esident of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, during his participation at COP 27 in Sharm El-Sheikh after being elected to his third term. The proposal became concrete last May when the United Nations declared that Brazil had been designated to host the summit in 2025.
Before leaving COP28 in the first week of December, Lula said in a conversation with journalists that Brazil would work hard to present a meaningful event. ‘We are coming out of an international meeting that every year gains more scope, more responsibility, more representativeness. Nobody on the planet today can discuss the climate issue without taking into account the existence of our country, without taking into account our experience, and without taking into account what is going to happen in Brazil on this issue of the energy transition,’ declared Lula.
The Brazilian authorities said that the Federal government has been working with the State of Pará and the municipality of Belém since the middle of the year to prepare the city for the ev
ent. A schedule of concessions and partnerships has already begun.
Speaking to the Emirates News Agency (WAM) during his participation at COP28, the Governor of Pará, Helder Barbalho, said that COP30 in Belém would be a great stage for the environmental dimensions of the planet to value the forest – stimulating the creation of green jobs and transforming the forest into a commodity. “With this, we can reconcile the environmental, social, and economic challenges”, suggested the Governor.
Barbalho also highlighted the cooperation to be developed with the organisers of COP28. ‘We have signed an agreement with the COP28 Presidency to build partnerships that can take advantage of Dubai’s experience and bring it to Belém, respecting the singularities and peculiarities of each territory, but above all, joining forces around a cause that is the environmental cause and the social cause of the planet,’ he further added.
Also discussing COP30 during her stay in Dubai, Brazil’s first Minister for Indigenous Peoples, S
onia Guajajara, declared, in a conversation with WAM, that the event in Pará will allow visitors to get to know the actual Amazon. She also mentioned collaboration with Emirati authorities. ‘I think this diplomacy between Brazil and the UAE is important so that the UAE can also support the hosting of this COP in Brazil and continue to work together,’ she told WAM.
Source: Emirates News Agency