Belém confirmed as Amazon COP30 host

Belém, capital of Pará state, will host COP30 in 2025. Photo: Pedro Magrod / Shutterstock

The United Nations Climate Change Conference on Monday elected Brazil as the host for the 2025 edition. During a speech in Dubai, Environment Minister Marina Silva thanked member states for endorsing Brazil’s bid and confirmed her government’s plan to host COP30 in Belém, the second-largest city in Brazil’s Amazon region and the capital of Pará state.

“I am especially moved by the nomination of the Amazon, where I was born and raised, to host this conference”, Ms. Silva said.

As The Brazilian Report showed earlier this year, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva jumped the gun when he announced that Belém would host the COP in 2025. At the time, the group of Latin American and Caribbean countries at the UN had endorsed Brazil’s candidacy, but it was up to a larger meeting of all member states to take a final decision formally.

Belém’s selection was a virtual certainty, as COP hosting duties typically rotate among the UN’s five regional groups, and it will be Latin America’s turn in 2025. No other country submitted a bid.

As The Brazilian Report has also shown, Belém is far from capable of hosting major international events.

According to the most recent federal estimate from 2016, Belém had just over 15,000 hotel beds — enough for less than half of the more than 35,000 people who attended COP27, which took place in the Egyptian coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh in late 2022.

The choice of Belém to host the COP has also been criticized in Brazil, as the state of Pará has led Amazon deforestation rankings for over 15 consecutive years, even though neighboring state Amazonas is 25 percent larger.

COP30 will be held in Belém on November 10-21, 2025.

After months of geopolitical deadlock, delegations also approved Azerbaijan as the host state for COP29 in late 2024.