Belém – The new climate capital of Brazil

Marina Marçal, Specialist in Climate Policy, Washington Brazil Office Research Fellow and National Rapporteur on Human, Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights of the DHESCA Brazil Platform).

Headquarter of the future COP 30 - UN Conference on Climate Change - which will take place in 2025,  Belém will host this August a series of events on Climate and Environment. 

Undoubtedly, it is a reflection of the announcements made in the President Lula's third term, who, in addition to bringing the climate debate to the center of government policies, signed up the capital of Pará to host the next conference of the parties for the climate in Latin America, in 2025.

The first event is the “Amazonian Dialogues” that will take place between the 4th and 6th of August, at the Hangar Centro de Convenções de Belém. The meeting precedes the “Amazon Summit” and promises to discuss the formulation of new strategies for the region.

The program is divided into plenary sessions, where broad social participation is expected in self-organized activities by civil society entities, academia, research centers and government agencies, who signed up through a call from the Brazilian federal government through the Participa + Brasil Platform.

Between the 4th and 5th of August, Belém will also host the 1st Judicial Environmental Summit of the Amazon – “Judges and Forests” that will take place at the Court of Justice of the State of Pará (TJPA). The purpose of the event is to discuss issues related to environmental judicial action in the Amazon and, despite the name, its target audience is not only magistrates, but Judiciary servants, members of the Public Ministry, public defenders and other operators of environmental law, in addition to students and professionals working in the area. In the two days of the event, names such as Ministers Flávio Dino, Marina Silva, Sônia Guajajara will be present, as well as representatives of the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court such as Ministers Rosa Weber, Barroso and Carmem Lúcia, as shown in the official program. Entries can be provide using a form available online and the event will also be broadcast on the CNJ's YouTube channel.

The big event expected to take place in the capital of Pará is the “Amazon Summit”, which will happen between the 8th and 9th of August. It will be a meeting between Brazil and the heads of state of 7 other countries that have the Amazon rainforest in their territory. Representatives from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela are expected.

The 'Amazon Summit' should result in a mutual position of the Amazonian countries on the region's economic development associated with environmental preservation, which will be taken to the United Nations Climate Conference, COP-28, in the United Arab Emirates that will happen between November 30 and December 12, 2023.

After the ‘Amazon Summit’ the event “Innovation, Finance & Nature” takes place on August 10th, promoted by the Amazon Legal Consortium in partnership with Nature Finance, Amazon Concertation and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The event is part of the context of the Amazon Summit and how the bioeconomy connects with topics such as the G20 and COP30. In-person registrations will be accepted by email and the event will be broadcast online on Youtube.

Topics such as the participation of indigenous peoples, the role of technology, banks and financial actors will be addressed, as well as the necessary investment strategies. The international launch of the final recommendations of the Task Force on Nature Markets is also expected, in addition to a panel with governors of the Amazonian states.

Parallel to the activities of the Summit, for the first time, an edition of the National Meeting of International Relations Students in Brazil (ENERI) will be held in Belém. The event will occupy Campus V of the University of the State of Pará between the 3rd and 6th of August. I will participate in the panel 'Advances in Debates on Race, Gender, Human Rights and Sexuality in International Relations', on the 6th, at 10 am, alongside Brenda Castro, Tel Guajajara and Brenda Marques.

The series of events, which will bring a lot of media attention to Belém in the coming days, and take place in preparation for the future COP28 and COP30, demonstrates the Lula government's attention to the restructuring and advancement of the environmental and climate agenda, after harsh criticism of the actions of the Ministry of the Environment during the Bolsonaro government. It is worth remembering that Bolsonaro rejected hosting the COP-25 that would take place in Brazil in 2019 and ended up being held in Madrid.