The COP30 climate summit will take place in the Amazon city of Belém as planned, despite a shortage of affordable rooms, the Brazilian organisers have told concerned governments which fear the problem may limit participation in the UN negotiations.
Officials from different governments elected to the 11-member COP bureau, which advises the COP presidency, asked in late July whether steps had been taken to identify an alternative location for COP30 if the accommodation crunch does not improve.
“There will be no alternate location, as COP30 will not be moved from Belém,” the COP30 Presidency replied in a document seen by Climate Home that responds to a range of questions on logistics from the COP bureau. This sentence was highlighted in bold for emphasis.
Another section of the document asks whether the COP’s annual gathering of countries’ political leaders might be moved to another city. The COP30 presidency replied simply: “No”.
Governments – especially from the Global South but also European countries – have expressed concern that the scarcity and high cost of rooms for the November summit would exclude many delegates, especially from poorer countries.
At an emergency meeting two weeks ago, the COP bureau asked the Brazilians to come up with solutions to the accommodation challenges. Bureau member Richard Muyungi – a Tanzanian diplomat who chairs the African group of negotiators at the climate talks – told Climate Home at the time that some delegates were questioning why Brazil does not move the COP to a bigger city.
The Brazilian presidency is due to present their response at the next bureau meeting, which was originally scheduled for August 11 and then moved to August 14 before being postponed again. It is now expected to be held on August 20, 21 or 22, sources told Climate Home.
The Q&A document suggests that the Brazilian government will not take any major measures to reduce accommodation prices other than those already announced, as it says this is a matter for the market.
The last two COP summits in Baku and Dubai were attended by 56,000 and 83,000 people respectively. The COP presidency said it expects over 50,000 people at COP30 and “53,000 beds are mapped in Belém and its metropolitan region”, without specifying whether double beds count as one bed or two.
These beds include roughly 22,000 on Airbnb, 15,000 in hotels, 10,000 in “holiday homes through real estate companies” and 6,000 aboard two cruise ships, it added.
After weeks of delay, the COP30 presidency launched a public accommodation platform on August 1, with the cheapest rooms going for around $300 a night. Climate Home identified one room in a love motel advertised at nearly 30 times its normal price.
Cheaper rooms for some countries
As previously announced, 72 governments – classified as Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States – have been offered 15 individual rooms each priced at $100-200 a night. All other governments will be offered ten rooms each for prices ranging from $200 to $600 a night.
These rooms “are not intended to accommodate” countries’ leaders, the COP30 presidency says in the new document, adding that separate arrangements will be made for them and their entourages later this month.
In response to the bureau’s fears about the safety of delegates who will stay on on two cruise ships being brought in to host them at a nearby port, and as they commute back to their rooms late at night, the Brazilian government said police and private security will patrol the area, while two warships and smaller security vessels will be stationed on the river.
If rooms booked through the official COP30 online platform are not available or differ from what is advertised, the Brazilians say “immediate measures will be taken to offer another room similar to the one advertised”.
Questioned about the capacity of the Amazon city’s airport, the COP30 presidency says Belém International Airport has long-distance flights to and from Lisbon in Portugal and Fort Lauderdale and Miami in the US state of Florida – as well as to major Brazilian cities and neighbouring Guyana and Suriname.
It adds that Brazilian law does not allow the government to interfere with airlines’ pricing, but efforts have been made to increase the number of flights to and from Belém during the COP and to spread out demand to avoid expensive peaks. The airport has been improved, the document says, with an upgraded air conditioning system, modernised signage and infrastructure and expanded terminals and taxiways.
Unlike previous COPs, the leaders’ summit will be held before the main COP negotiations and accompanying side events start. This move was designed partly to flatten the peak in demand for accommodation.
