'Potent Metaphor': Fire Forces Evacuation of UN Climate Conference

Delegates at the United Nations Climate Change Conference being held in Belém, Brazil were forced to evacuate after a fire broke out at the Hangar Convention and Exhibition Center on Thursday.

Brazilian government officials told BBC that the fire, which broke out early in the afternoon, is now under control.

BBC climate editor Justin Rowlatt, who was covering the conference, described seeing "huge columns of smoke rising up into the air through the hole that's been burnt in the top of the conference center," and said that there was "a huge panic, people have been running out of here."

Officials do not yet know what caused the fire, but the Guardian reports that Brazilian Minister of Tourism Celso Sabino cast doubt on any suspicions that the blaze could have been set deliberately.

"You’d have to be a really awful person to set fire to a COP," he said.

Some climate activists argued that the fire at COP30 could be seen as an ill omen for the conference's outcome, especially given criticisms over the conference being packed to the brim with fossil fuel lobbyists.

US-based activist Jes Vesconte told the Guardian that the COP30 blaze was "a potent metaphor" for what's been happening at the conference.

"As capitalist fossil fuel companies, imperialist countries, and militarist powers block the talks here (or in abstentia in the case of the US)," Vesconte said, "they are putting profits over planet and people, profiteering off ecocide, genocide, and countless deaths, at the expense of all life on Earth, and pouring fuel on the fire of the burning planet."

Emily Pontecorvo, staff writer at Heatmap News, also picked up on the symbolism of the fire.

"A literal fire has erupted in the middle of the United Nations conference devoted to stopping the planet from burning," she wrote in a post on Bluesky.

Climate reporter Amy Westervelt noted that the fire wasn't the only disaster to befall COP30 this week.

"Between the booths flooding and a fire breaking out in the Blue Zone, feels like maybe someone is trying to tell us something at COP30," she observed.

A report released last week by the Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) coalition said it tallied the “largest ever attendance share” for fossil fuel lobbyists, dimming hopes of reaching a breakthrough agreement to curb emissions. In total, KBPO counted 1,602 fossil fuel lobbyists at the climate summit, representing roughly 1 out every 25 participants at this year's conference.