Indigenous leaders listen to Cop30 president Andre Correa do Lago during a meeting within the UN Climate Change Conference in Belem, Brazil, on Friday. Photograph: Mauro Pimentel/AFP/Getty Images
In Ireland, the term is meitheal; in Brazil it’s mutirão, and both mean collective effort and neighbourly support.
But after a week at Cop30 when there was much talk of the convivial spirit of the mutirão, now is the point where the samba Cop turns sombre.
The change in tone is evident in the large numbers of soldiers and police at the climate summit venue in the Amazonian city of Belém.
Protesters from indigenous groups forced their way into the venue on Tuesday night, prompting the ramping up of the armed presence.
Demonstrators used a different strategy yesterday morning staging a sit-down that blocked the entrance for several hours.
Eventually, Cop30 president, André Correa do Lago, emerged offering to meet for talks
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