Latest news with #climateconference
CTV News
16-07-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Brazil scrambles for rooms to host COP30 in Amazon
FILE - A boy kicks a soccer ball near signage for the COP30 U.N. Climate Conference in Belem, Brazil, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz, File) BRASILIA, Brazil — Brazil insisted Wednesday it will have enough rooms for the tens of thousands of people expected to attend the COP30 UN climate conference in the Amazonian city of Belem in November. After complaints about sky-high room prices in the far-flung destination, organizers said they would guarantee affordable accommodation for delegates and participants from poor countries. At least 40,000 people are expected to attend the November 10-21 event in Belem, known as the gateway to the Amazon rainforest, according to government estimates from the start of the year. Around 30,000 potential rooms have been 'identified' for use during the conference, the event's secretary Valter Correia said, including 3,900 on two cruise ships. There will also be rooms in hotels, private homes, and at universities and schools to be converted for the first-ever climate COP to be held in the Amazon. They will include 1,500 rooms priced at no more than $220 per night for delegates from 98 developing and island nations, Correia said. Another 1,000 rooms will be priced at no more than $600 per night, and the government was negotiating with the private sector to set 'reasonable prices' for other accommodation, said Correia. 'We will have sufficient accommodations for everyone, have no doubt about that. We just need to set appropriate prices,' Correia told journalists. At a preparatory meeting in June, several countries raised concerns over eye-watering lodging prices in Belem, a northern city of 1.3 million inhabitants with limited hotel capacity. More than 50,000 people attended the last COP, held in Azerbaijan in 2024, some 30,000 fewer than COP28 in Dubai. In recent months, some hotels have been offering rooms at $1,400 per night.
The Guardian
27-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Albanese will need to resolve the standoff with Turkey if Australia is to host Cop31
The Australian government's bid to host a major global climate conference in Adelaide next year wasn't supposed to go like this. A two-week meeting of diplomats at the UN climate headquarters in Bonn, Germany, failed to resolve what has become a long-running issue: whether the summit known as Cop31 would be held in Australia or Turkey, the only other nation vying for the rights. At a final plenary session on Friday morning Australian time, delegates from several European countries – Germany, France, Norway and Switzerland – sounded slightly frustrated as they backed the event being hosted by Australia in partnership with Pacific island countries. The UK, Iceland and New Zealand voiced their support earlier in the conference. No countries in the group of 29 nations that will decide the 2026 venue – known as Western Europe and Others – have backed Turkey's bid. But under the UN's consensus decision-making process the issue cannot be resolved while the Turkish government, led by president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, remains in the race. The delayed decision has potential ramifications for the organisation of an event that the climate change minister, Chris Bowen, has said would be the largest ever hosted in Australia. For two sleepless weeks in November, it would draw tens of thousands of people from nearly 200 countries – and the world's attention – to the host city. It is a major political and logistical exercise. The annual Cops – short for Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – are the major event on the climate diplomacy calendar. If the Adelaide bid is successful, Bowen has said the focus of the negotiations between government officials should be on implementation: how to turn new national pledges for 2035 that are due to be submitted this year into concrete, rapid – and belated – global action. The diplomatic negotiations would run alongside a massive trade fair for green industries. Out on the streets, activists would call for Australia and other fossil fuel nations to do much, much more to back up their climate rhetoric. There had been expectations since before last year's Cop29 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, that Turkey would eventually bow to the inevitable and withdraw. But there was no sign in Bonn of that eventuality. Instead, Turkey launched a renewed pitch to win the rights, holding a reception to lobby delegates with a presentation on why Cop31 should be held in the southern resort city of Antalya. It argued that, compared with its rival, it was geographically central – and not a major coal and gas exporter. Observers at the talks said countries did not appear to be swayed. Turkey's case has weakened since Baku after Erdoğan's main political rival was arrested in March, prompting widespread anti-government protests and clashes with police. And its record on climate action is not strong. Its resistance to pressure to exit the race means countries missed a deadline set in Azerbaijan that a decision should be made no later than the Bonn mid-year meeting so that the successful host had time to prepare. It has widely been assumed Turkey would be open to dropping out if the terms were right. It has argued that it should be removed from the list of 'annex 1' developed countries that since the 1990s have been expected to act first in combating the climate emergency. But there has been little appetite from other countries to allow this change. The Bonn meeting agreed the stand-off needs to be resolved as soon as possible. At the latest, it will have to happen by the Cop30 conference in Belém, a Brazilian city on the Amazon River, in November. The new host will then assume the Cop presidency, a global leadership role that lasts through the year. Observers in Australia are increasingly calling on the government to step up its campaign to get the issue resolved. The chief executive of the Smart Energy Council, John Grimes, is among those urging Anthony Albanese to get more involved. Albanese has not attended a Cop since becoming PM. 'It is time for the government to flick the switch if we are to get this done,' Grimes says. That requires a whole-of-government effort led by the prime minister, for whom the Cop will be a legacy defining opportunity, particularly in the eyes of his Pacific counterparts. Sign up to Clear Air Australia Adam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisis after newsletter promotion 'This cannot wait for a decision at the Cop in Belém. This is too important, the diplomacy too intricate, and the timeline now too tight, for there to be anything less than a full-throated Australian diplomatic effort to secure the bid by the time the prime minister goes to the United Nations (general assembly in New York) in September.' While relatively little discussed in political debate, Labor has been declaring its hope of hosting a 'Pacific Cop' since late 2021, before it was elected the following year. It has faced accusations of hypocrisy and alleged greenwashing for arguing it should lead a major climate event while it continues to back fossil fuel expansions and extensions, including a recent decision to allow Woodside Energy's North West Shelf gas plant to run until 2070. But leaders from the Pacific, green industries and climate groups have largely expressed a hope that Cop31 would spur government and business to accelerate action at home and abroad. Supporters include Palau's president Surangel Whipps Jr, who told the Guardian a successful bid would be a sign Australia was investing in its 'Pacific brothers and sisters' and 'ensuring that we have a healthy planet'. The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, has become an enthusiastic advocate, including commissioning an analysis that suggested it could attract 30,000 people and could be worth $500m to the state – more than the combined benefit of all its existing major events. Bowen makes similar arguments. Speaking at an energy conference in Melbourne last week, he said the government was 'actively campaigning' for the conference to 'attract global investment', 'supercharge our transformation into a renewable energy superpower' and 'put the Pacific front and centre on the world stage'. He said it had been 'working hard' with its international partners and Turkey to resolve the bid. On the latest evidence, it may have to step it up a bit.
News.com.au
05-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Treasurer Stephen Mullighan spends big on Whyalla steel in 2025-26 South Australian budget
The troubled Whyalla steelworks, law and order and a bold bid to bring the mammoth COP31 climate conference to Adelaide are the big winners from South Australia's pre-election budget. Treasurer Stephen Mullighan has promised $650m over six years for the steel plant as part of a $2.4bn 'sovereign steel package' backed by the federal government. In his speech to the state parliament on Thursday afternoon, Mr Mullighan outlined where the money would go and said the allocation would preserve the state's industrial capacity. 'Our unprecedented intervention to place the Whyalla steelworks into administration has protected thousands of jobs, hundreds of businesses and ensured Australia remains a country that manufactures critical steel products,' he said. 'Under this government, South Australians will not be taken for fools by fast-talking businessmen that continually break their promises to our state … the ($650m) funding is for administration costs, investment in the plant to support the sale and for a comprehensive rescue package that safeguards the Whyalla community.' The state government took control of Whyalla from British steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta in February and administrators KordaMentha are working to secure a buyer for the integrated plant. Before the shock takeover, the steelworks suffered losses for months and the government grew increasingly sceptical Mr Gupta's GFG Alliance would meet its debt obligations. The steelworks is a core economic engine for Whyalla, a town of 22,000 people, and the state more broadly. It is Australia's only fully integrated steelmaking enterprise, producing slabs, billets, hot rolled structural steel and rail products. Thursday's budget comes about nine months before the Labor government, led by Premier Peter Malinauskas, will return to the polls in March next year. In a pre-election pitch, Mr Mullighan said the budget preserved the state's industrial capacity, supported farmers battling through punishing drought conditions and demonstrated the government's 'sound financial management'. 'We are the lowest taxing state on the mainland,' Mr Mullighan said. 'And we have kept our promise not to introduce new taxes or increase existing ones. 'We've done all this while returning the budget to surplus and improving the state's credit rating outlook.' The budget delivers a surplus of $179m for 2025-26 and forecasts a $369m surplus for 2026-27 and $458m for 2027-28. Those figures are predicated on gross state product growth rates of 1.75 per cent for 2025-26, and then 2 per cent for both 2026-7 and 2027-28. Net debt is expected to expand from $35.5bn in 2025-26 to $48.5bn in 2028-29. Law and order is also a big winner, with the budget delivering $172m over six years to accommodate additional sworn officers. The state aspires to have a total sworn force of 5000 officers by 2030-31. 'While crime rates have fallen over the course of this government, we continue to toughen laws, expand our prisons and equip our police and criminal justice system with the resources needed to combat crime,' he said. 'This budget provides the largest boost to police funding in the state's history.' A bid to lure the COP31 climate conference to Adelaide is also a standout allocation, receiving $8.3m. A $118m cost-of-living package includes a stark boost for students. The price of student metro card 28-day passes, which are used across Adelaide's bus, rail and tram network, will tumble from $28.60 to just $10. The change means a student catching public transportation will pay the equivalent of 25 cents a trip. The Liberal Party, led by Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia, said the budget demonstrated Labor was 'out of money and out of ideas'. Mr Tarzia said the state was now confronting a 'debt iceberg', citing the $48.5bn figure as the largest in the state's history. 'The debt iceberg will sink the dreams of future South Australians' he said. 'What's abundantly clear is that Labor is completely out of touch with the needs of South Australians and instead, is frivolously whittling away taxpayer dollars on vanity projects that don't deliver any relief from sky-high energy prices, water bills and the housing crisis.
Bloomberg
29-05-2025
- General
- Bloomberg
Brazilian City Gets Rushed Makeover Ahead of COP30
This Brazilian city is getting a rushed makeover as it prepares to host COP30, the world's biggest climate conference. Peter Millard explores the major construction and a scramble for more rooms already underway. (Source: Bloomberg)
The Guardian
20-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on protecting the Amazon: forest defenders must have support
It doesn't start for six months, but the build-up to the UN's annual climate conference is already well under way in Brazil. Hosting the tens of thousands of delegates who make the trip is a big undertaking for any city. But the decision to host Cop30 in Belém, at the mouth of the Amazon river, has multiplied the complications. After three consecutive Cops in autocratic nations, the stated aim of Cop30's chair, André Aranha Corrêa do Lago, is to make this year's event a showcase for civil society, including the Indigenous groups and forest defenders who play such a vital role in conservation. But the lack of affordable accommodation and other infrastructure, as well as the distance that must be travelled to reach the Amazon port, mean this commendable ideal will be hard to realise. Dom Phillips' posthumously published book, How To Save the Amazon: A Journalist's Deadly Quest for Answers, is a compelling reminder of what is at stake. It is nearly three years since he was killed along with Bruno Pereira, a Brazilian government employee whose job was monitoring isolated Indigenous groups. The pair were on the way back from a trip to the remote Javari valley. The search and investigation were initially botched. Two men will go on trial for murder later this year. Phillips and Pereira understood the risks they ran, in struggling to document the destruction that was then taking place. Between 2019 and 2023, under the far-right presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, progress on rainforest conservation went into sharp reverse and deforested areas grew rapidly. Illegal loggers, miners and ranchers effectively had carte blanche, as the agencies tasked with upholding environmental regulations were weakened and disbanded. Over the same period, and encouraged by the government's laissez-faire approach, competition between drug traffickers over lucrative smuggling routes intensified. Owing to its remoteness, the Javari reserve, near the border with Peru, became a key battleground. Under President Lula the situation has stabilised. His environment minister, Marina Silva, is the right person to oversee the government's policy of zero net deforestation by 2030. But plans to expand the country's fossil fuel production are impossible to square with these environmental goals. The risk that global heating and deforestation could cause a mass dieback of the rainforest, triggering the release of vast stores of carbon, continues to trouble scientists. At the same time, doubts are growing about whether this year's deadline for certification of the beef supply chain as deforestation-free will be met. Under strong international pressure, JBS, the world's largest meat company, is putting new systems in place. But the huge number of farmers (Brazil has a cattle herd of 240m), the terrain, gaps in land registration, and systems set up to bypass checks, mean the prospects for success are not high. Having the global spotlight on the forest should at least focus minds. The Amazon's biodiversity, and role in climate regulation, make it too important to lose. Indigenous defenders, some of whom worked with Pereira and Phillips, continue the vital work of championing the landscape that is their home. The journalist's book, completed by his friends, shows the urgency of supporting their courageous efforts.
