Q&A: Brazil's COP30 CEO on Trump’s impact and forest arson

RIO DE JANEIRO - As fossil fuel burning and global temperatures continue to reach records, Brazil is preparing to host the COP30 U.N. climate change conference in November in Belém in the Amazon rainforest, which is suffering its third year of drought.

It comes a decade after talks in Paris reached a landmark global agreement to limit climate change, which U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to leave for the second time.

COP30 will happen almost 30 years after 1992's Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, which established the international convention to address climate change.

It is the first COP summit in four years in a country with freedom to protest after meetings in Azerbaijan, the UAE and Egypt. The government has expressed concern that arsonists could set off fires in the Amazon rainforest in opposition to government policies against deforestation.

In Brazil, natural areas are often illegally burned by land-grabbers and farmers to convert land for real estate speculation and agriculture.

The conference organisers have also faced criticism for cutting down trees to build a highway to Belém.

Context spoke to Ana Toni, Brazil's National Secretary for Climate Change and the executive director of COP30, about U.S. participation at the summit and the significance of holding it in the Amazon.

How does the context for climate discussions now compare to 1992, when the U.N. Climate Convention was agreed upon in Rio?

Back then, who mobilised for the climate change issue? There were very few actors. The North-South divide at the time meant environmental and climate issues were seen as a luxury for many developing countries.

Today's geopolitical challenges with Trump are different.

There is a saying: 'First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.' I'd say that at ECO-92 [the Rio Earth Summit], they were ignoring us.

Now we're in the third stage, where there's logically an escalation, because the transition is seen as inevitable, and the forces wanting to maintain the status quo are fiercely resisting, trying even harder to slow down the transition process.

But eventually, it is absolutely inevitable.

What are your expectations for U.S. participation at COP30?

There hasn't been a clear indication from the Trump administration regarding their participation or non-participation. [The United States] remains in the Paris Agreement until next year.

At the same time, the attending delegations are already aware of President Trump's stance; they know the U.S. has initiated the process to leave the Paris Agreement. And this has happened in the past.

So if the United States comes, countries will likely pay less attention, because [the United States] doesn't want to be engaged in the process, and that's clear.

But America is much more than the federal government. We see that state governments, civil society and the American private sector do want to engage with COP30, and they are very welcome.

Last year saw a surge in Amazon fires, and Environment Minister Marina Silva said there were signs of political motivation. Are you monitoring the potential for such attacks at COP30?

This worries us a lot – any illegal action of setting fire to the forest is a criminal action, and we are monitoring this in great detail.

These people, they aren't just against the COP, they are against Brazil and they are against humanity, because deliberately setting fire to a forest is being against life.

This is really very serious, but far beyond being against a COP that Brazil is hosting. It's very serious because it's against all of Brazil.

Brazil's image is at stake – not just this government's, but Brazil's, the Brazilian private sector's, Brazilian agriculture's. It's an act against humanity, at this moment.

Does holding COP in the Amazon risk diverting focus from the need to reduce fossil fuel use?

No. On the contrary, I think it brings it even more into the debate, for various reasons. It's an emblematic COP, particularly as we grapple with exceeding the 1.5°C threshold [of limiting global warming] in various ways.

It will be the first COP held in a region acutely representing a potential tipping point.

And the second message is that forests can be part of the solution through reforestation and conservation. We have to listen to Indigenous peoples, understand how Indigenous territories and the bioeconomy are part of the solution.

This doesn't detract from the focus that we also need to decarbonise and make the energy transition, on the contrary. It pragmatically complements both debates in a region that holds all the symbolism of the Amazon.

This interview has been edited for length and consistency.

(Reporting by Andre Cabette Fabio; Editing by Jack Graham and Ayla Jean Yackley)