Amid the bustling discussions at the COP30 climate summit in Brazil, a stark contrast unfolds just a short distance away. Delegates gathered in Belem, the gateway to the Amazon, are met with the sight of plastic bottles and other waste floating through the city’s intricate network of rivers and canals.

As over 200 officials from the UK and countless others from around the globe converge to deliberate on environmental preservation and improvement strategies, this scene serves as a poignant reminder of the challenges they face.

The annual summit, drawing more than 50,000 participants, represents the UN’s pressing call for global dialogue on achieving Net Zero and combating climate change.

However, Belem’s selection as the host city has faced criticism. Concerns have been raised about the city’s accessibility and ongoing issues such as inadequate sanitation and homelessness.

Delegates, stepping beyond the well-secured confines of the ‘Blue Zone’—the designated area for the conference—would encounter the stark realities of poverty and environmental neglect just moments away, a sobering juxtaposition to their climate-focused agenda.

Delegates taking a step out from their cosseted purpose-built ‘Blue Zone’, the sealed off area in the city where COP30 is taking place, would be left shocked at the scenes of squalor just a few minutes away.

Groups of homeless people – mainly indigenous groups from local tribes – take shade under delivery trucks from the merciless sun as temperatures top 36C.

And the irony is that trees were chopped down in the city for building projects – some connected to COP30 – meaning that in poor neighbourhoods there is no natural shade.

Many have criticised the choice of Belem for COP30 as the city is difficult to get to and beset with problems including poor sanitation and homelessness. Pictured: Indigenous homeless people take shade from the searing heat under trucks

Trees were chopped down in the city for building projects – some connected to COP30 – meaning that in poor neighbourhoods there is no natural shade

The scenes of squalor are just metres away from the city’s only five-star hotel, the Tivoli, where Ed Miliband and his entourage are staying

A report last month in the Brazilian news outlet Sumuma said that 55 per cent of Belem’s inhabitants live on streets without a single tree – while the national average for Brazil is 34 per cent.

Elsewhere, in heartbreaking scenes, people – sometimes children – scamper in and out of rubbish piles collecting scraps of cardboard or tin cans that they can sell on for a few Reals.

Menacing vultures in large flocks hover over the bins picking at scraps of waste food – adding to the feeling of degradation.

While as soon as you park your car you are ‘assaulted’ by someone offering to look after your vehicle even when there are no restrictions.

At the city’s famous Ver-o-Peso fish market, people wash their clothes in the sea – as well as themselves – oblivious to floating rubbish in the water.

Experts have said that despite the infrastructure projects being built in the city they do not offer sustainable solutions to Belem’s water and sewage crisis – despite the good intentions of COP30.

Prices in hotels have shot through the roof as 50,000 delegates scramble for a place to stay in a city with only a handful of hotels and 25,000 rooms available – many are staying on two cruise ships anchored nearby or in local schools.

The lucky ones – such as Net Zero minister Ed Miliband and his entourage – have places in the city’s only five-star hotel, the Tivoli, which is still being built and where rooms cost £1,250 a night during the two-week summit.

Menacing vultures in large flocks hover over the bins picking at scraps of waste food – adding to the feeling of degradation

A report last month in the Brazilian news outlet Sumuma said that 55 per cent of Belem’s inhabitants live on streets without a single tree. Pictured: A homeless man uses a bench as shade from the searing temperatures

Prices in hotels have shot through the roof for delegates, as local people live on the streets

Delegates to this year’s COP conference will be staying just metres away from scenes of degradation in the city of Belem

Meanwhile, just a few miles away in the shadow of the Tivoli, famished children rifle through rubbish looking for food.

One local hotel worker, who asked not to be named, told the Daily Mail: ‘If you ask me COP30 is a huge waste of money – I don’t know how many Reais are being spent but it must be millions.

‘Great that we may have a lovely park or some new spaces, but what about the real problems the city is facing, like sanitation, water and the homeless problem?

‘That’s what we should be spending the money on – most people don’t have proper plumbing in their houses, and the rubbish situation is awful especially by the rivers and canals.

‘We also have the highest electricity prices in the country which makes it even harder for people to live.’

The employee explained she earned 1,500 Reals (£216) a month, but had to take a second job just to make ends meet.

Belem is home to nearly 1.4 million people and half of them – around 57 per cent – live in low lying, densely populated, low income areas, that have limited sewer and electric systems.

It’s location just below the equator means the city is also prone to Biblical downpours at least twice a day – causing roads to flood and water cascading through homes and businesses.

Life for the majority of Belem’s inhabitants is tough and marked by extreme poverty

Locals have been reduced to washing themselves and their clothing in the Guama River

A study by the Instituto Trata Brasil showed that 76.8 per cent of Belem’s inhabitants have access to clean drinking water – while many use the Guamo River to wash themselves

People can be seen throughout the city living on the street. Slum living conditions not far from the COP30 venue

Slum living conditions can be seen throughout the city and not far from the COP30 venue

Local inhabitants can be seen sifting through rubbish piles on the river bank in Belem

And when it rains it means waste water from the poor sewage floods into the open and into rivers and canals creating an awful stench – made worse by the soaring temperatures.

A study two years ago by the Instituto Trata Brasil showed that 76.8 per cent of Belem’s inhabitants have access to clean drinking water, while only 17.1 per cent were connected to a sewage system.

Officials say they have ploughed 4.8 billion Reals (£691 million) to improve the city’s infrastructure, but only eight of the projects planned have been completed and 37 still underway.

In a press release, the COP30 organisers said: ‘More than just hosting a global event, Belem is prepared for the future.

‘The infrastructure projects – funded and implemented by federal, state, and local governments – are part of a long-term strategy to leave a meaningful legacy for the city and its residents.

‘Above all they reflect a firm commitment to making COP30 a historic milestone for Brazil and the Amazon.’

Perhaps the most controversial project is the construction of a four-lane, eight-mile highway cutting through forests in the Belem Environmental Protection Area on the east of the city.

The idea was to ease the traffic flow through the city, but in reality it is still bumper to bumper with jams clogging roads around the COP30 Parque da Cidade venue thanks to streets being closed off for the summit.

But the COP 30 delegates sitting in their air-conditioned cars speeding through specially-built lanes have no idea of what life is really like in Belem.