A fire broke out on Thursday at the COP30 site in Belém, without causing any injuries, bringing the UN climate conference to a halt at a time when the hardest part remains to be done to bring positions between countries closer together by the end on Friday evening.
This is the third serious incident since the start of the UN conference launched last week in this city in the Brazilian Amazon. The previous two were linked to indigenous protests.
Large flames appeared around 2:00 p.m. (local time, 5:00 p.m. GMT) in the area of the national pavilions. Smoke spread inside and outside the site, mostly installed under huge tents, triggering a panic, AFP journalists noted.
Part of the roof burned in this area, although it was not immediately possible to determine precisely where the fire had started. Several people with fire extinguishers in hand tried with difficulty to contain the disaster which was spreading very quickly on the fragile structures of this space located in the “blue zone” of the COP30 site, where the negotiations are taking place, according to videos consulted by AFP.
Unknown cause
The fire was “under control”, Brazilian Minister of Tourism Celso Sabino said a few minutes after it broke out on Brazilian television, adding that “the firefighters of the State of Para are on site”, and that there were no injuries to report.
The site will not reopen before 8:00 p.m. (local time, 11:00 p.m. GMT), said the UN Climate, reporting “limited damage”. The cause of the incident remains unknown. The Brazilian minister mentioned “perhaps a short circuit, a phone charging”. “This could have happened anywhere in the world,” assured Celso Sabino, still present on the COP30 site.
A participant present at the time of the fire reported to AFP that no alarm sounded at the time of the first flames, and several people present at the COP reported electrical wiring systems having already caused problems in recent days. AFP also noted water leaks following heavy tropical rains.
People in shock
Tens of thousands of COP participants were evacuated outside, waiting quietly and in light rain for instructions near the conference center which released a faint smell of burning plastic into the air. The firefighters intervened quickly.
“A number of patients inhaled smoke and required oxygen and had to be taken to hospital, and (there were) people in emotional distress and shock who we stabilized before transferring them to hospital,” Kimberly Humphrey, emergency medicine specialist, attending the COP with Doctors for the Environment Australia, told AFP. However, no patient suffered a burn, she said.
Un «moment crucial»
While the difficult negotiations are due to end on Friday evening, this fire raises serious uncertainties. “This will delay the process” while this is the “crucial moment” when “we have to make decisions,” Windyo Laksono, an Indonesian delegate, told AFP outside the site.
Thursday morning, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was convinced that a “compromise is possible” to meet the needs of developing countries to adapt to climate change and the decline of fossil fuels.
“Commit in good faith to reach an ambitious compromise,” launched the UN chief as the Brazilian presidency of the Belém summit is engaged in intense consultations.
At the heart of these discussions, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva put the very sensitive issue of phasing out fossil fuels back on the agenda on Wednesday, advocating a “road map” to achieve this by letting each country go at its own pace.
According to a negotiator who wished to remain anonymous, China, India, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Russia opposed such a road map during consultations on Thursday.
