Logistical challenges in the Amazon city of Belém have made the participation of business leaders at COP30 “very difficult”, according to private-sector representatives, as Brazilian government officials urged companies to show up to the UN climate summit in November.
The costly accommodation offer in the city has made planning “difficult to navigate” for businesses, said Ricardo Mussa, chair of a private-sector initiative called Sustainable Business COP (SB COP) led by the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry (CNI).
“Especially for CEOs from large corporations, it has been very difficult to make plans to come to Brazil without having 100% certainty about what they will find here,” Mussa told Climate Home News. “That clearly didn’t help.”
COP30 president André Corrêa do Lago issued a new public letter last week urging companies “to attend and engage through solutions, partnerships, investments, and ideas”. At the same time, he conceded: “We recognize that traveling to Belém presents logistical challenges.”
Speaking to journalists, COP30 CEO Ana Toni rejected concerns that some businesses could stay away, and said the presidency’s call for them to show up in Belém had “nothing to do with logistics”. “We have heard from many private-sector leaders that they will be coming to Belém. We’re not concerned about that,” Toni added.
Nonetheless, Maria Mendiluce, CEO of the We Mean Business Coalition, told Climate Home that her organisation is also endorsing events happening in other Brazilian cities like Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. “It is just ‘come to Brazil’ – that’s the right message for business,” she added.
In Belém, limited accommodation options and astronomical prices for rooms have made it difficult for companies from developing countries to attend COP30, Mendiluce said. “Some of the prices are so high that businesses cannot afford or justify them,” she explained.
The week before COP30, São Paulo will host the Climate Implementation Summit on November 8 and the Climate Action Innovation Zone from November 6 to 9. Both events are aimed at the private sector, and seek to build collaborations around climate solutions.
Mussa said many companies had decided to come to São Paulo and Rio in the week leading up to COP30, before negotiations start on November 10. “We are seeing a lot of confirmations already for the previous week in São Paulo and Rio, with the option to be in Belém depending on who they can meet from the government there,” he added.
Mendiluce argued that “logistics cannot become a barrier for companies to show up at COP as they have always done”.
Bureaucracy stops Belém residents from listing rooms on official COP30 platform
Corporate climate action under pressure
Climate action by the private sector has faced headwinds around the world after the Trump administration took over in the US, with some of the world’s top banks dropping their climate commitments and some multinationals scaling back their climate and sustainability talking points. The US has also imposed tariffs on clean energy imports from some Asian countries.
“In the US, they are trying to navigate very carefully the wording and exposure,” said Mussa. “When you talk to CEOs, the direction hasn’t changed, but they are very careful about how to portray what they’re doing. They don’t want any visibility.”
“That’s not good, because fewer leaders will be speaking out,” he added. “We cannot sugarcoat it – the environment now is much tougher. I would rather have a COP in Brazil in a different environment, but it is what it is.”
Despite the negative mood on climate in the US, Asian and European businesses have taken the lead and are pushing forward on their climate investments, both Mendiluce and Mussa said.
A recent report by the International Energy Agency shows that investments in renewable energy so far in 2025 are double those made in fossil fuels, led by Chinese and European investors. Taken together, China and Europe make up about half of the world’s new spending on clean energy this year, the data shows.
Emerging regions like Africa have also continued to advance, with the continent recording booming solar panel imports from China so far this year, representing a capacity increase of 60% on last year.
Businesses want to see policy coherence and certainty from governments at COP30 “more than ever”, said Mendiluce, who noted that changing policies on climate are a barrier to investment. “We live in a world that’s a little bit upside-down but we need to elevate ourselves from that,” the business leader added.
Sebastian Rodriguez
Read More