São Paulo – The Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has officially launched a bid for Belém to host the COP30 international climate summit in 2025. The information was confirmed by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to Pará governor Helder Barbalho during a meeting on Wednesday in Brasília. The northern city was chosen as the official candidate to host the conference.
President Lula said in a video that Belém’s bid fulfills a promise he made during last year’s conference, COP27. “In Egypt I made the pledge that Brazil could host COP30, and I am happy to know that our (Foreign Relations) minister Mauro Vieira has formalized Belém’s bid,” Lula said in the video alongside Pará governor Helder Barbalho.
During the COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, in addition to invite Lula as president-elect to be part of the delegation of Amazônia Legal, governor Barbalho delivered a public letter in the name of the governors of the Legal Amazon Consortium calling for Lula to apply for a COP in Brazil, particularly the Amazonian region. On the occasion, Lula said he would apply Brazil as a host for COP30 in the Amazon, in the state of Pará or Amazonas.
Read more: Brazil’s Lula wants to host COP30 2025 in the Amazon
“The president has just announced Belém as the city chosen by Brazil to host COP30 and sent it to the Foreign Affairs Ministry the officialization for Brazil to reinforce its bid – a historic moment when the Amazon would host the world’s largest climate event,” Barbalho said in a press conference following the meeting with the president.
On January 4, Belém mayor Edmilson Rodrigues met with Brazil’s Foreign Affairs minister Mauro Vieira in the Itamaraty Palace in Brasília. Rodrigues delivered a letter to the minister showing Belém’s intention of hosting 2025’s climate summit. Helder Barbalho participated in the meeting, too.
Rodrigues argues for the COP to be held in Belém with the purpose of making the city the world capital of the climate talk. The letter also points out the prime location of the city, which is close to the meeting of the Amazonas River to the Atlantic Ocean, between the Americas, Europe and Africa. As a territory that comprises 39 islands, Belém is the synthesis of the Amazon: it brings together a urban center with riverside fishing communities and gatherers of fruits such as açaí, the letter went on.
Brazil’s Legal Amazon Consortium is comprised of nine states that hold 59% of the geographic territory of Brazil with around 29.3 million people. The consortium aims to boost the sustainable development of the Legal Amazon in an integrative and cooperative way, taking into account the regional opportunities and challenges. Its purpose is to be a global reference in dialogue, strategy and governance to make the Legal Amazon a competitive, integrated and sustainable region by 2030.
*With information from Agência Pará and Agência Belém.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
