The UN’s 30th annual climate conference is about halfway through in Belém, Brazil, but has seen more than enough controversy for an entire summit.
Driving the news: Indigenous Brazilian protesters blocked the main entrance to COP30, objecting to the dearth of Indigenous voices in official negotiation spaces at the event. The group moved only after speaking with André Corrêa do Lago, this year’s COP president.
- Brazil’s top Indigenous organization wants the legal recognition of Indigenous land to be part of Brazil’s nationally determined contributions (NDCs) — the national plans of Paris Agreement signatories to meet climate goals like curbing carbon emissions.
Zoom out: The main goal of COP30 is getting nations to submit these new NDCs, but not everyone is taking it seriously. Only about a third of countries submitted their NDCs before COP30. And even then, many of the plans have been criticized for not going far enough.
Why it matters: The credibility of COP30 continues to diminish as countries fail to agree on commitments, major powers skip it, and the oil and gas industry exert outsized influence. This year, fossil fuel lobbyists outnumbered delegates from every country except Brazil.
- One in 25 participants are fossil fuel lobbyists, marking a 12% rise from last year and the largest share of participants since Kick Big Polluters Out began tracking in 2021.
Bottom line: Last year, a group of top climate policy experts, including the former UN secretary-general and former UN climate chief, said that COP “is no longer fit for purpose.”—QH