COP30 was a full-on pressure cooker this year, with the Brazilian presidency firing off road map after letter after action plan after political package. Late-night press conferences had reporters practically tearing their hair out trying to keep track of what was what. For most of the conference, the goodwill around the Brazilian presidency and its ability to handle the negotiations didn’t waver. But on Thursday, in an unnervingly fitting metaphor, a raging fire broke out in the pavilions, forcing the evacuation and temporary closure of the venue, my colleagues Jesse Chase-Lubitz, Kate Warren, and Ayenat Mersie tell me.
In other (less dramatic) ways, COP never really let you forget where you were, Ayenat said. The constant protests reminded you that you were in a democracy, and the near-daily tropical downpours made it impossible to forget you were in the Amazon. But having the AgriZone set up a few kilometers away — and sponsored by giants such as Nestlé and Bayer — created a strange contrast, she said. At times, it almost made them forget that hundreds of lobbyists from some of the globe’s most polluting sectors were making the rounds.
It also felt like the year climate and development finally shared the same stage, they said. Multilateral development banks were busy grounding their climate strategies in development and poverty alleviation, while new blended finance schemes and private capital mechanisms cropped up everywhere. But the north-south divide was unmistakable: leaders from the global south demanded real financing at real scale for climate and adaptation — and as days passed with no new commitments, it sometimes felt like order could tip into chaos.