As the world’s climate crisis deepens, the Amazon city of Belém in Brazil has become the epicenter of urgent global negotiations. On November 10, 2025, COP30, the United Nations’ annual climate summit, opened its doors to 50,000 delegates, observers, and journalists from 190 countries. The stakes have rarely been higher—or the atmosphere more fraught—as leaders grapple with the Amazon’s environmental realities, logistical hurdles, and the ever-present challenge of global cooperation.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s decision to host COP30 in Belém was more than symbolic. Despite severe hotel shortages and unfinished pavilions, Lula was adamant about bringing the world’s attention to the Amazon itself. “It would be easier to hold the COP in a rich country,” Lula declared in August, according to AFP. “We want people to see the real situation of the forests, of our rivers, of our people who live there.” The Amazon, after all, is not just a backdrop—it’s a crucial carbon sink, a biodiversity hotspot, and a region under siege from deforestation, illegal mining, pollution, and persistent rights abuses against Indigenous peoples.
The urgency of the moment is underscored by the latest scientific warnings. The Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C warming limit, once a beacon of hope, now appears almost out of reach. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently admitted that breaching the 1.5°C threshold is “inevitable,” though he urged nations to minimize the duration of this overshoot. “That means finally bringing down global greenhouse gas emissions, which come mainly from burning oil, gas and coal,” reported The Korea Times, echoing Guterres’s call for rapid action.
Yet, as the world’s diplomats gathered in the Amazon’s heavy, humid air, the logistical difficulties were impossible to ignore. Many pavilions were still under construction on the eve of the summit, and basic concerns about connections, microphones, and even food supply lingered. “There is great concern about whether everything will be ready on time from a logistical standpoint,” a source close to the UN told AFP. Still, the symbolism of convening in Belém—where locals dodge both blazing sun and sudden tropical downpours—was not lost on attendees.
But symbolism alone won’t solve the thorny issues at hand. The central uncertainty hanging over COP30 is whether nations can unite in the face of catastrophic warming projections and avoid the familiar rift between rich and poor countries. Funding is a flashpoint: how to support climate-affected nations like hurricane-ravaged Jamaica or the typhoon-battered Philippines? Lula’s newly proposed “roadmap” for fossil fuel transition is under intense scrutiny, especially as oil interests have strengthened since the 2023 Dubai agreement to transition away from fossil fuels. “How are we going to do it?” asked Andre Aranha Correa do Lago, the Brazilian president of COP30. “Is there going to be a consensus about how we are going to do it? This is one of the great mysteries in COP30.”
Meanwhile, small island nations and least developed countries are fighting to keep the 1.5°C goal at the center of negotiations, despite growing pessimism. “1.5 degrees is not just a number, not just a target, but that’s a lifeline,” said Manjeet Dhakal, advisor to the least developed countries, as quoted by AFP. “We cannot be a part of any decision where there is a discussion about (how) we can’t achieve 1.5 degrees.”
The Amazon’s fate isn’t just a local concern—it’s intimately tied to global supply chains and distant rivers. On November 9, 2025, a report from Size of Wales and WWF Cymru highlighted a “hidden link” between Amazon deforestation and pollution in UK rivers such as the Wye. The culprit? Soy imported from Brazil’s vast plantations, used as livestock feed in Wales and throughout the UK. This soy is high in phosphorus, which, when animal manure runs off into rivers, becomes a pollutant. “Every time we buy cheap chicken fed on soy or buy corned beef from South American countries linked to deforestation risk, Wales is contributing to a system that drives the destruction of the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest and harms indigenous peoples,” explained Barbara Davies-Quy, deputy director of Size of Wales, to BBC.
The report’s findings are stark: Wales imports around 190,000 tonnes of soy and 12,000 tonnes of beef annually, with nearly three-quarters of the soy coming from countries at high risk of deforestation and social issues. In western Paraná, Brazil, the Avá Guarani people have lost much of their ancestral lands to soy plantations. “Agribusiness came and destroyed everything—our rivers, our forests, our food,” said Karai Okaju, an Avá Guarani leader, as reported by BBC. “The land is sick. It cannot breathe.”
The impact is visible thousands of miles away. In Wales, about 80% of imported soy is used as livestock feed, especially for poultry and dairy farms. Excess nutrients from manure have led to phosphate pollution in rivers like the Wye, Usk, and Cleddau. The controversy is especially heated along the River Wye, where as many as 23 million chickens—a quarter of the UK’s poultry—are raised in the catchment area.
In response, Welsh councils are taking action. Caerphilly council has introduced mandatory deforestation-free criteria for food procurement, reducing ultra-processed foods and prioritizing higher welfare and organic meat and dairy. Monmouthshire council, the first Deforestation Free Champion council in Wales, has replaced chicken curry with a “deforestation-free chickpea korma” in school meals. A delegation of Monmouthshire school pupils has even been invited to speak at COP30 via video link, highlighting youth leadership in the fight against deforestation. “We want as many other councils across the UK to do the same—it makes sense for our future and it’s even better when it’s our young people who are holding us to account,” said Mary Ann Brocklesby, leader of Monmouthshire council.
Wales’ Future Generations Commissioner, Derek Walker, has called for a “deforestation-free public sector” by 2028, emphasizing the long-term costs of inaction. “The cost of not doing this is huge... to the climate emergency,” Walker told BBC, adding that shifting to local products could also benefit the Welsh economy.
The Welsh government acknowledged the challenge and stressed the need for a “whole Wales effort” to address deforestation-linked impacts, especially through supply chains and international partnerships. “However, it is a challenge that requires a whole Wales effort, and one that we must face together to protect our planet for future generations,” a spokesperson said, as reported by BBC.
Back in Belém, the absence of the United States—the world’s largest economy and second-biggest emitter—was keenly felt for the first time in the history of these meetings. Former President Donald Trump, however, still weighed in from afar, criticizing local deforestation for a new road near Belém after seeing a segment on Fox News.
As COP30 unfolds, the Amazon stands as both symbol and battleground. The world’s ability to cooperate, adapt, and act decisively—across continents and supply chains—will determine not only the future of the rainforest, but the stability of the global climate itself.
