Part of the organisation of the landmark 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro that established a framework for global climate action, André Corrêa do Lago is now president of the 30th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be held in the Brazilian Amazon’s 17th century heritage city of Belém from November 10-21. Since becoming COP30 president, Corrêa do Lago has addressed the international community, including businesses and the wider private sector, for addressing priorities such as reinforcing multilateralism and climate change regime, connecting climate regime to people’s real lives and to the real economy, and accelerating implementation of the Paris Agreement.
Brazil’s Ambassador to India between 2018 and 2023, Corrêa do Lago is convinced about India’s leading role on the climate front. In India recently, he spoke with Faizal Khan about the challenges facing COP30. Edited excerpts:
What is the importance of choosing Belém as the COP30 venue, beyond its symbolic significance as a city in the Brazilian Amazon? How would the choice help promote justice for indigenous people around the world?
Belém is a city of a million-and-a-half inhabitants in the Amazon, symbolising the difficulties that surround a developing-country city. We are not doing COP30 in a resort or city that is lying about the state of the country. Brazil is a developing country with lots of challenges, and Belém shows it. On top of it, Belém is in the Amazon, which is one of the most important areas of the world because of its positive impact regarding climate change, but also its biome that can be very much affected by climate change. It thus symbolises the challenges of developing countries that we need to find solutions to.
What is different about the Tropical Forests Forever Fund, which promises to be a highlight of COP30, to provide performance-based funds to countries to preserve and expand forest cover, and climate finance?
It is a very different fund because the Tropical Forests Forever Fund is concentrated on conservational forests. Most other funds are working either on the restoration of forest or on avoiding deforestation. The preservation of forests, the conservation of forests, is a great economic challenge because you need to prove that keeping the forest as it is, with the people that live in it, is better for the local population than cutting trees and having other activities. So this fund will provide resources to make sure that conservation is the best thing that the locals can do with the forest.
What about climate finance? How is COP30 going to further advance it?
Climate finance is an enormous challenge. Last year we approved that developed countries would provide investment, grants and resources worth $300 billion dollars a year starting 2035. But most economists say the real number would be $1.3 trillion. So that’s what we are going to bring to the COP, a report showing how we can reach $1.3 trillion by 2035. And the challenges for it, because obviously it’s a huge sum. I believe that this report will show that the solution is not to have two parallel economies — the real economy and the climate economy. We have to integrate climate into the mainstream economy.
What are the major challenges COP30 would be addressing in the context of Donald Trump in America and geopolitics?
I think that every COP has huge challenges because of the realities of the moment. In the case of COP30, there is a questioning of the economy of climate change. I think the science cannot be disputed anymore because there are so many things happening everywhere in the world and people are seeing the impact of climate change. But now the dispute is about, is it worth fighting climate change? Is it worth mitigating or should we only adapt? So this is a new kind of discussion that will be very strong at COP30. There are no simple answers. We can’t simplify this debate as something that is right or something that is wrong.
As a former ambassador of Brazil in New Delhi and a seasoned climate negotiator, how are you going to represent the Global South in Belém?
Well, obviously, because of my years in India, I am convinced India has an amazing role to play and is already a leader in that fight. I think Brazil and India together can have a very strong impact. The recent state visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Brazil showed how our leaders are very close and how they can together show many paths towards an economy that integrates climate change.
How would an Amazon conference involve the voice of the indigenous people?
The indigenous people and the local population in the Amazon have been proving that human life and nature can be balanced. They say that the answer is ‘Us’, and it’s true, because they have proved we have to incorporate traditional knowledge of the original peoples together with science. This is something that Brazil very much supports, to have science and traditional knowledge together. I believe the COP will highlight that.
How is civil society, especially artists, going to be part of COP30?
President Lula very much wants international civil society to be present at the COP. The civil society in Brazil is very much involved and I think is organising very well how to welcome global counterparts. I hope the Indian civil society will also be present and active.
Faizal Khan is a freelancer