In Belém, Brazil, an area of rainforest is now to be cut down to make way for a new highway to a climate summit in the city.
It's hypocrisy at the top level. Yet an area of Brazil's rainforest is being cleared to make way for a highway.
The highway will be used by world leaders when they are scheduled to attend the COP30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belém.
This is reported by the BBC .
The highway is one of 30 projects that, according to Infrastructure Minister Adler Silveira, will improve and modernize the city.
– So we can leave a legacy for the population and, most importantly, serve people in the best possible way at COP30, he tells the media.
Specifically, an area will be cleared to make way for a 13-kilometer, four-lane highway. The plan for the new highway is not new. The local government of Belém already proposed building it in 2012.
But at that time the plans were shelved for environmental reasons. Those environmental concerns have now been washed away with the water, because world leaders are coming for a short visit. The summit lasts for 11 days from November 10 to November 21 this year.
Locals are now concerned that the new highway could be just the beginning of what is considered significant deforestation, something Brazil already has a dismal record in.
One of those the BBC has spoken to asks what will happen when the first gas stations and other buildings start to appear along the new route.
The authorities in Belém have already tried to defend themselves by saying that the new motorway is being built in a 'sustainable manner', without however wanting to go into what exactly sustainable means.
