Brazil’s Belém Is Attempting a Billion-Dollar Transformation
The city aims to reinvent itself with new parks, museums and hotels to host the COP30 climate conference. But what happens when the spotlight fades?
The historic district of Belém, capital of Brazil’s Pará state and host of the COP30 climate summit.
Photographer: Alessandro Falco/BloombergBelém, the gateway to the Amazon rainforest, is alive with anticipation. Just days before COP30, the world’s largest climate summit, new venues are opening almost daily, roads are being widened, and parks, cultural centers, restaurants and bars are springing up as construction crews race to prepare the Brazilian city for more than 50,000 visitors expected for the event. Yet, many Belenenses are missing the buzz.
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The city of more than 1.3 million inhabitants in the northern state of Pará has been undergoing sweeping changes in recent years, driven by roughly $1 billion in investments to revitalize one of Brazil’s oldest — and poorest — state capitals. But an exodus of residents in search of jobs and a better quality of life has also made it one of the Brazilian cities with the sharpest population declines.