The UN is asking Brazil to reduce accommodation prices, raising tensions ahead of COP30.

With less than three months to go until COP30, the crisis caused by accommodation prices in Brazil is increasing. The UN asked the country this Friday (22) to reduce the price of accommodation, according to the government.

Brazil will host the United Nations climate conference in November, in the city of Belém, Pará, where the exorbitant increase in prices is worrying both the invited countries and the organization.

A group of 25 negotiators from COP countries asked Brazil weeks ago to at least partially relocate the event's venue to cities with greater hotel capacity. The conference could be the most exclusive in history due to high prices, warned the environmental network Observatório do Clima.

The office of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the body that administers the COP, today asked Brazil to guarantee daily allowances of US$100 (R$544) for low-income countries and US$400 (R$2,200) to US$500 (R$2,700) for others.

Currently, it's hard to find room rates for less than US$300 (R$1,600) on the official accommodation platform, which launched this month. Of the 198 countries invited to COP30, 47 have already paid for their reservations in Belém, according to the Brazilian government.

The UNFCCC office sent a letter to Brazil yesterday that included "a request for a subsidy" to reduce accommodation prices, said Miriam Belchior, Executive Secretary of the Civil House. The letter requested subsidized prices for "delegations from countries even richer than Brazil," which "would not be justifiable for Brazilian society," the government argued.

Brazil today supported a motion by low-income countries asking the UN to increase its financial support to delegations. "Today it became very clear that COP30 will be held in Belém," said the event's president, André Corrêa do Lago, after a meeting with the UNFCCC office.

Panama's representative to the UNFCCC, Juan Carlos Monterrey, shared his remarks during the meeting on social media: "Our words seem to fall on deaf ears. This isn't a minor logistical problem, but rather madness and an insult."

Brazil considered the Panamanian's statement unacceptable.

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