Roma, 10 Nov. (askanews) – Two large cruise ships stand out in the small Brazilian port of Belém, the Amazonian city that hosts COP30the United Nations climate conference.
They are used as huge floating hotels, they can accommodate up to 6,000 people, to accommodate the hundreds of arriving delegates. Belém has around 1.4 million residents, more than half of whom live in slums, and conference organisers, with little availability of traditional hotels, rushed to find alternative accommodation in private homes, universities and schools and on ships. A choice, however, criticized by environmentalists who polemically joke about the fact that the giants of the seas that consume a lot of fuel and pollute are used for the environmentalist cause.
But for some it’s an experience: “You know, in most of the countries we go to, in most of the workshops, in most of the conferences that we attend, we stay in hotels or apartments,” said Bereng Mokete, an official with Lesotho’s forestry department, “we wanted something different.”
To welcome the giant ships that arrived from Europe a few days before the opening of COP30 significant modernizations of the port were necessary, welcomed by the inhabitants of Belem as necessary infrastructure investments: “This is a project initially conceived to meet the needs of COP30, but which will leave an important legacy for the region,” explained Rosandela Barbosa, director of port management.
“There is no risk to the environment because it is all monitored, they have systems, technologies and indicators to monitor and manage it,” he said.
Many had questioned the choice of Belém as the host city, but Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva insisted that the conference be held in the Amazon, as a powerful symbol, he said, of the importance of carbon-absorbing terrestrial forests for the planet.
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