Cop30, the UN climate summit scheduled to take place this November in the Brazilian city of Belém, is embroiled in a controversy that has nothing to do with solving the planet’s environmental problems. Currently occupying debate about the conference is what Brazil’s press is calling the “hosting crisis”.
André Corrêa do Lago, president of Cop30, said that countries have been pressurising Brazil to move the UN climate conference from Belém to another city because of the “exorbitant prices” being charged for hotels. Some governments have even considered not taking part in the conference or reducing their delegations. But the Brazilian government has dismissed this possibility.
How did this happen? A very low number of available beds, the raising of room rates to a premium by hotel chains, and historical prejudice have all led to the perfect storm of the current crisis.
At the end of the 17th century, Belém had three times as many inhabitants as São Paulo. The state capital of Pará was also one of the first cities in the country to have public energy, powered by gas. The city was also experiencing the first rubber extraction boom.
But with the subsequent decline of rubber, Belém and other cities in the Amazon lost their prominence. Today Belém is a city of the developing world which, like many others, including Baku in Azerbaijan which hosted the Cop29 summit last year, faces a host of infrastructure problems.
In addition to the obvious lack of urban infrastructure which generates and deepens social inequalities, there are other problems. The hotel network is too small to accommodate a demand for more than 50,000 beds, the amount of people expected for Cop30.
The problem has been cascading, but it all started with the city’s hotel chains. From the start of the year, hotels began to increase the prices of accommodation, and raise prices even higher for the period of the event.
The problems with lack of affordable hotel accommodation and the state of the city’s infrastructure are of great concern. But any public and media discussion of the issues tends to end up belittling the city and the entire Amazon region, revealing an internal colonialism that has always existed in Brazil.
Behind the criticism of infrastructure and hotel prices often lies an enduring and historic prejudice that assumes that an Amazonian city could never host an event of this size and importance.
Possible solutions
It could be argued that there has been a historical inertia, or even lack of oversight on the part of national and state governments for not having foreseen these issues and taking steps to pre-empt them.
In the short term, price regulation is necessary, which the state can’t impose because it lacks the legal authorisation to do so. The consumer secretariat even requested that hotels provide information on room rates. But this request was ignored, with chains claiming that this is a market issue, a view endorsed by the Brazilian Hotel Association.
The federal Brazilian government has responded by bringing two ocean liners to the city, which will provide around 6,000 beds. The government has also created an online accommodation platform which will make 2,500 rooms available.
There are other options available. The UN could, for example, offer a greater subsidy to delegations from developing countries, in order to guarantee a greater number of participants. Accommodating delegates in neighbouring cities is another alternative.
With time running out, there is a risk that the event won’t be attended as well as it is hoped. And the presence of the largest number of countries and delegates at Cop30 is fundamental to legitimise the decisions that will be taken.
The people of Pará are hospitable and enjoy receiving visitors, and the area is rich in culture, architecture and cuisine. This is not a time for greed, but for welcoming people and showing them the city, its way of life and what the Amazon needs. After all, the people who understand the Amazon best are the Amazonians.
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