Brazil brushes off UN call for hotel subsidy in tense COP30 talks

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FILE PHOTO: A drone view shows a hotel under construction ahead of the COP30 climate summit in Belem, Brazil July 16, 2025. REUTERS/Wagner Santana/File Photo

BRASILIA - Brazils government ruled out the idea of subsidizing all delegates hotel fares at the United Nations climate summit it will host in November, Brazilian officials said on Friday, after what they described as a tense meeting with U.N. officials.

The standoff comes as delegations grow increasingly panicked about the cost of accommodations in the coastal Amazon host city of Belém. Brazil is working to nearly double available hotel beds and entrepreneurs have gotten creative, converting love motels and ferryboats to receive delegations.

But supply has still fallen short of demand, sending prices soaring and stoking calls to relocate the conference, known as COP30, which Brazilian officials have rejected.

During Fridays meeting, officials linked to the Brazilian presidency said the U.N. climate secretariat, known as UNFCCC, had called for a hotel subsidy of $100 per day for delegates from developing nations and $50 for delegates from rich nations.

Miriam Belchior, executive secretary to the President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvas chief of staff, dismissed the idea.

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 journalists after the meeting.

The UNFCCC did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Belchior reiterated that changing the host city was out of