Belém, Brazil — Day 2 of the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP3, ended with a bang as Indigenous protestors stormed the venue, causing some structural damage and leaving at least one officer injured. The morning of Day 3 continued business as usual, however.
We spotted Susan Biniaz, former lead climate negotiator for the United States, surrounded by students from her current role as a lecturer at Yale University. We also chatted with Ali Mohamed, Kenya’s special climate envoy and the former chair of the Africa Group of Negotiators. They both seemed a bit more relaxed this year. We also spotted the glamorous queen of Denmark — can’t blame her for escaping the frigid northern European November. The venue is sure to miss the star power of California Gov. Gavin Newsom after his parade of events yesterday. But hey, maybe the toilets will work all day!
Today is the day that consultations on those tricky bits of the agenda are set to end. That includes the provision of finance from high-income to low- and middle-income countries; the European Union’s carbon border adjustment, or CBAM; deforestation cash; ambition towards 1.5 degrees Celsius; and emissions reporting. Let’s see if Brazil can keep everyone happy and move forward with the main agenda.
About the author
Jesse Chase-Lubitz
Jesse Chase-Lubitz covers climate change and multilateral development banks for Devex. She previously worked at Nature Magazine, where she received a Pulitzer grant for an investigation into land reclamation. She has written for outlets such as Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and The Japan Times, among others. Jesse holds a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics.
