Crowds march on doorstep of UN climate talks in Brazil

Marching to the beat of pounding sound systems, thousands of climate protesters have been bringing their message to the gates of the COP30 climate talks in Brazil.

Chanting and singing “free the Amazon”, demonstrators in host city Belém have been carrying three giant coffins reading Oil, Coal and Gas flanked by two grim reapers.

Indigenous groups displayed signs reading “the answer is us” as an inflatable elephant and anaconda weaved through the crowd under the hot sun.

It is the first time since 2021 that protesters have been allowed to demonstrate outside the UN climate talks. The last three took place in countries that do not permit public protest.

“Fossil fuels are still being burned. We know all too well what it’s like to live on the frontline of climate change,” Brianna Fruean, a climate activist from Samoa, a low-lying island extremely vulnerable to climate change, told the BBC.

“We are here after so many COPS, marching for justice, for the end of fossil fuels,” Ilan, from the non-governmental organisation 350, who lives in Brazil, said.

Indigenous communities, Brazilian youth groups, and activists joined the march in their thousands.

Some carried signs reading “demarcation now”, calling for indigenous groups to be given legal ownership of their territories.

Hundreds of indigenous groups live in the Amazon and are regarded by experts as the best protectors of biodiversity and forests.

Smaller sister protests have taken place around the world including in the UK.

It comes after protesters carrying signs broke through security lines at the summit on Tuesday, with the incident causing minor injuries to two security staff and some limited damage to the venue.

Meanwhile, further north Belém, negotiations continued at the COP30 talks on Saturday. Nearly 200 countries are meeting to try to make progress on tackling climate change.

Little progress was made in the first week of the talks, although some delegations say they are pushing for an agreed strategy to deliver on past promises to move away from using planet-warming fossil fuels.

President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva of Brazil is hosting the talks and chose the city of Belém to put the world’s focus on the Amazon and indigenous peoples.

But shortly before the talks opened last week, his government granted permission to the Brazilian state oil company to explore for oil at the mouth of the Amazon.