We have entered the thick of Cop30. The second week is traditionally the most complex, the week of political decisions. Andrea, what is the air in Belém these hours?
“We are in the second week, the most fluid week of the negotiations. The political week is the week when everything can change overnight. Yesterday began with a huge acceleration by the Brazilian chair, who shared a tight road map to arrive ready as early as the afternoon with the first drafts. But the truth is that the COP president’s announcement left us all a bit shocked.”
You are referring to the new approach of the final document. You talk about a “negotiating shock” because you are no longer working on a single text. What changes concretely?
“That’s right, we are no longer talking about one cover decision but two different texts, two separate packages. In the first text, the more political one, the most important issues will come together: climate justice, finance and, according to some, the plan to phase out fossil fuels. The second, more technical text, on the other hand, will bring together all the issues on which global agreement cannot be reached. The goal of this approach is to please everyone, or basically to please no one, so that we can come out of this COP with concrete results.”
While this difficult diplomatic balance is being sought inside, outside the negotiating rooms the situation looks very different. Belém is the gateway to the Amazon, yet there are those who speak of a great contradiction with respect to the indigenous presence.
“It is a paradox. Indigenous people are the primary custodians of an endangered ecosystem that regulates the health of the planet, but they are not included, as all countries are, with their official representatives at the negotiating tables. They are taking to the streets because they are demanding to be involved: they want to make decisions on a negotiation that is fundamental for them, for their lands and that, paradoxically, paints them as the custodians of the Amazon rainforest but does not give them a voice, a right to vote, at the negotiating table.”
You attended the big march that brought more than 70,000 people to the streets. Compared to the climate demonstrations we are used to in the West, did you notice any differences in the manner of protest and demands?
“What I personally notice is, on the part of the protesters, a greater awareness of their own capacity. The activism that has crossed the streets of Belém is completely different from the previous one: it is an activism that asks with great determination to take part in the transformative process of society. Here there is a tangible demand to no longer be spectators of one’s own destiny.”
