Why hosting the UN climate summit in the Amazon was so important, despite the disappointing outcome

By Alexander C. Lees, Reader in Ecology and Conservation Biology, Manchester Metropolitan University
Joice Ferreira, Researcher in Ecology, Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA); Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa)
Jos Barlow, Professor of Conservation Science, Lancaster University

Extreme heat, fires and flooding – all hallmark consequences of climate change – directly influenced this year’s UN climate change conference Cop30 in Belém, Brazil.

For the first time, this annual climate summit was held in Amazonia, a place at the frontline of climate change. The pivot from the two previous conferences in petrostates Azerbaijan and UAE to a base in the world’s largest tropical forest (albeit in one the world’s largest oil producing countries) was jarring.

As Amazonian researchers, and past and present residents of the city, we saw the potential for

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