By Adilson Vieira

In recent months, we’ve witnessed a wave of criticism against the choice of Belém do Pará as the host city for the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP30. Interestingly, the loudest voices come from sectors that claim to be progressive, many of them based in urban centers in the Southeast of Brazil, such as São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Brasília. Among the criticisms are the supposed lack of infrastructure in the city, the idea that it will be a "luxury COP" due to public investments, the alleged lack of adequate accommodations, and the difficulty of access for delegation participants.

It is, however, necessary to look at these criticisms with attention and honesty. Yes, we acknowledge that Belém — like other capitals in the North — faces structural deficits. But this is not the fault of the city or its people. It is the direct result of a historically exclusionary development model that concentrated investments, infrastructure, and opportunities in the South and Southeast while marginalizing the North. To point out these challenges without acknowledging their historical roots is to reinforce stigma and inequality without naming the real issue.

What is most troubling is that this perspective is being reproduced even by those who claim to fight capitalism and its oppressive systems. Is it really Belém’s infrastructure that’s being questioned? Or are we facing a form of structural prejudice that persists even in the most “progressive” discourses? As Pierre Bourdieu reminds us, “symbolic violence is exercised with the complicity of those who suffer it and those who exercise it” — and often this complicity is so naturalized that it goes unnoticed.

The choice of Belém as the COP host is not only geographical: it is symbolic, political, and historical. It is a chance to put the Amazon at the center of climate decisions — not as an exotic landscape or a natural resource, but as a living territory, inhabited, producing knowledge, resistance, and alternatives.

It is also a time to remember that COP should not be, or should not become, a political visibility festival or a new version of Woodstock. What has become the norm in past editions is a distortion: conferences with more than 50,000 attendees, many of whom are lobbyists for industries that block climate negotiations, such as oil companies. It is at the very least contradictory to criticize Belém’s infrastructure while normalizing the massive presence of economic interests that sabotage the very solutions COP is supposed to promote. How did we normalize such absurdity?

It’s worth noting that past COP editions also faced similar challenges. In Egypt and Baku, social movements reported serious issues with accommodation, transportation, and organization. In Baku, there were even cases of social movement representatives being expelled from hotels to make room for other groups, despite having prepaid reservations. These problems are recurring in conferences of this scale. They are not exclusive to Belém.

So why such selective outrage toward the Amazonian city? Why do we tolerate failures in Middle Eastern or Eastern European countries, but preemptively condemn a Brazilian city in the North with arguments often laced with prejudice and misinformation?

It’s time for progressive sectors to look in the mirror and ask themselves: by criticizing Belém in this way, are they not reinforcing colonial, racist, and elitist stereotypes against Northern Brazil? Are they not reproducing, in practice, the very exclusions they claim to fight? As the sociologist says, “there is no global social justice without global cognitive justice.” And that begins with recognizing the knowledge and territories that have been systematically marginalized.

The Amazon does not need condescension — it needs respect, listening, and recognition. The COP in Belém is a milestone, not a mistake. And it is up to social movements across the country to break with the historical prejudices that still seek to divide us.

*Featured image: Lula visits the construction site of Parque da Cidade, the venue for COP30 programming (Ricardo Stuckert/PR)