RIO DE JANEIRO — When the summer heat hits the Arara district in northern Rio, it lingers, scorching the red brick and concrete that make up many of the buildings long after the sun has set. Louis Cassiano, who has lived here for more than 30 years, says he is concerned that heat waves are becoming more frequent and severe.
In poor areas such as Arara, those who can afford air conditioning (Cassiano is one of them) cannot always count on it due to frequent power cuts in the overloaded system. Cassiano gets some relief from the green roof he installed about a decade ago, which can keep his home's temperature 15 degrees Celsius (about 27 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than his neighbor's, but he still struggles to stay comfortable.
“The sun in the summer is scary right now,” Cassiano said.
Like world leaders come to Brazil for climate talkspeople like Cassiano are at greatest risk. Poor communities are often more vulnerable to hazards such as extreme heat and severe storms, and are less likely to have the resources to cope with them than wealthier countries.
Any help from climate negotiations doesn't just depend on countries laying out promises and plans to reduce emissions. They also need to find the political will to implement them, as well as come up with billions of dollars needed adapt everything from crops to homes to better withstand man-made climate change.
These are all desperately needed by the 1.1 billion people around the world living in extreme poverty, according to the United Nations.
That's why many people praise Belem's choicea relatively poor city in which to conduct these negotiations.
“I'm glad we're going to a place like this because it's where climate meets poverty, meets demand, meets financing needs and meets the reality of the majority of people in this world who are affected by climate change,” said Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Program.
It is not only poor people in poor countries who suffer from the collision of poverty and climate change. A report by the United Nations Development Program states that even in highly developed countries82% of people living in poverty will be exposed to at least one of four climate hazards: extreme heat, drought, floods and air pollution.
People living in poverty are more vulnerable to climate change for several reasons, said Carter Brandon, a senior fellow at the World Resources Institute who studies the economics of climate change and the finances of adaptation.
They may not have enough money to leave areas such as flooded deltas or floodplains, hillsides prone to landslides, or farmland that regularly suffers from drought. Nor recover from a disaster. And these financial hits can be compounded by other problems, such as health problems, lack of education or lack of social mobility.
“It's not just that climate is destroying buildings or bridges or property. It's destroying families' livelihoods. And if you don't have savings, it's really devastating,” Brandon said.
According to a UNDP analysis of global agriculture, under various warming scenarios, even in relatively developed countries that have greater capacity to adapt, some farm yields will decline significantly.
But poorer countries will be hit harder, said Heriberto Tapia, head of research and strategic partnerships adviser at UNDP's Human Development Report Office.
Tapia said Africa, where more than 500 million people live in poverty, was a major concern. The income of many people depends on the productivity of agricultural crops.
Most of the world's 550 million smallholder agricultural producers are in low- or middle-income countries, operate in marginal conditions and are more vulnerable to climate hazards, according to Ismahan Elouafi, executive managing director of CGIAR, the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research.
Elouafi believes technology can help ease climate pressures on many of these farmers, but also notes that many cannot afford it. She's not sure the COP will provide enough money this year to help with that.
Brazilian officials believed that Belem, located on the edge of the Amazon and not a wealthy city, would be a powerful reminder to negotiators of the difficulties that climate change and increasing extreme weather bring to millions of people every day.
“I heard that there were a lot of negotiators who complained about being put in a bunk bed or sharing a room, but that is the reality of most people around the world,” said Nafkote Dabi, climate policy director at global development organization Oxfam. “So I think that makes things real.”
But some experts were skeptical, despite a recent UNDP report saying the need for action was urgent.
“I wish they would say more about what kind of quick action needs to be taken, because I don't think quick action is going to be the result of the COP,” said Kimberly Marion Suiseya, an assistant professor at Duke University who studies how international policies affect people in rural and forested areas.
While the public has long argued that humanity as a whole has made progress in the fight against poverty, the numbers show there is now a “stagnation,” said Pedro Conceição, director of UNDP's Human Development Reporting Unit. “The numbers are high and they are not budging.”
In a reminder before COP30Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates called for a shift away from prioritizing cutting emissions and focusing on reducing human suffering. On climate change, “there is no apocalyptic story for rich countries,” he said. “The place where it gets really tough is in these poor countries.”
But Conceição said it was wrong to think of poverty reduction and climate as a trade-off.
The idea that climate is just a future problem, “or it's about things like melting glaciers, should be completely abandoned and replaced with the idea that these two programs are actually the same thing,” he said.
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Associated Press journalists Jennifer McDermott and Seth Borenstein contributed to this report.
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Follow Melina Walling on X on @MelinaWalling and on Bluesky @melinawalling.bsky.social.
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