In the heated COP30 negotiations, Brazil dismisses the UN’s demand for a hotel subsidy.

Following what they characterized as a heated discussion with U.N. officials, Brazilian authorities said Friday that their government has rejected the idea of paying for the hotel accommodations of all delegates attending the United Nations climate summit that Brazil will host in November.

The impasse occurs when delegations get more and more alarmed by the price of lodging in Belém, the host city in the coastal Amazon. Brazil is trying to almost increase the number of hotel rooms that are available, and businesspeople have been resourceful and are using ferryboats and love motels to host delegations. However, supply has yet to meet demand, which has caused prices to spike and fueled calls to move the COP30 conference—a proposal that Brazilian officials have rejected.

The U.N. climate secretariat, or UNFCCC, had demanded a $100 daily hotel subsidy for delegates from impoverished countries and $50 for delegates from wealthy countries, according to people connected to the Brazilian presidency who attended the meeting on Friday. The plan was rejected by Miriam Belchior, executive secretary to the chief of staff for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
“The Brazilian government is already bearing significant costs for hosting the COP, so there is no way to subsidize delegations from other countries, including delegations from countries that are far richer than Brazil,” she told reporters following the conference.

Belchior reaffirmed that it was not possible to switch the host city. Brazil proposed, instead, that the United Nations raise the $144 daily stipend it provides to delegates from the world’s poorest countries. In Belem, however, hotel prices have varied from twice to twenty times that amount.

Citing the time often needed to ratify such adjustments, the U.N. has resisted efforts to modify its provisions. Eight nations have negotiated directly or through other venues, while 39 have reserved accommodations thus far via the official COP30 portal.