A fire Thursday afternoon at the UN Climate Conference (COP30) venue in Belém, Brazil, led to delays in the crucial final stage of climate negotiations as discussions in the plenary paused for much of the penultimate day. 

The talks were at a contentious stage when the fire happened and remained so Friday’morning, when talks resumed again. 

Over 80 countries have called upon delegates at the climate talks to make reference to a roadmap for transitioning away from fossil fuels in the COP 30 outcome document. But host Brazil, under heavy pressure from petro-states, is not in favor.  And the latest text released by the COP Presidency failed to include even a reference to “fossil fuel transition”, as per the COP28 outcome of Dubai.  Brazil itself is also expanding its exploration and production of oil.

The talks, officially due to end Friday evening, are widely expected to continue into Saturday as delegates debate the contentious issue of a fossil fuel transition. COPs typically run into overtime, although this year host country Brazil had hoped to reach an agreement as early as Wednesday, November 19, which did not happen. 

Fire began in official Blue Zone pavilion

The fire started  Thursday in the pavilion area of the Blue Zone, where access is restricted to official delegations from member states and UN observer groups. This is also where the core negotiations happen. The Green Zone, which is open to the public and displays new climate tech innovations by the private sector as well as civil society exhibits, remained unaffected. 

The entire Blue Zone was evacuated quickly and safely according to officials. Thirteen individuals were treated for smoke inhalation, and the fire was controlled in “approximately six minutes”. The cause of the fire has not been officially stated yet, but an electrical malfunction is suspected.

“The flames were really high,” Ornella Punzo, who was sitting nearby, told Health Policy Watch. Describing what happened, Punzo, a senior researcher at the Italian Public Health Institute, said a group of colleauges had just begun a side event at the WHO Health Pavilion when they heard a lot of noise and people shouting. Wearing headphones, they mistook the noise for protests. 

“But then the technical staff at the pavilion waved at our facilitator and pointed at the flames direction behind us, so she grabbed the microphone from the speaker and told everybody that there was an emergency and we needed to evacuate. So we grabbed our stuff, clothes, backpacks, PCs and so on and walked away very fast.”

Outside, the thousands of people evacuated – at one of the largest attended COPs ever -then encountered rain. Organisers later began offering help to those who had left valuables like laptops and passports while being evacuated. 

Fire as a metaphor for the urgency of climate action

The fire at the COP led to all sorts of metaphors – one of them being how collective action helped save lives Thursday afternoon and this same sort of collective effort is needed against global warming.  But whether the fire will ultimately increase pressure on negotiators to at least reaffirm previous COP agreements on fossil fuel “transition” remains to be seen.  The outcome document of COP 28 in Dubai included a reference to fossil fuel “transition” after language referring to a “phase out” was panned by negotiators.  

COP26 in Glasgow included a commitment to “phase down unabated coal power.” That was a historic first for a UN climate agreement – although that language was also watered down from the original “phase out” proposal as a result of pressure from India, among other countries.

The Paris 2015 goal to try and limit global warming to 1.5° above pre-industrial times is now virtually impossible in current scenarios, given the pace of how emissions have grown annually since 2020. The aim of the UN’s COP process now, is focused on halting and reversing greenhouse gas emissions, including shorter-lived super pollutants such as methane, thus reducing global warming.

Image Credits: Marcelo Rocha , Marcelo Rocha, Carbon Brief .