The COP30 climate summit will take place in the Amazon city of Belém as planned, despite a shortage of affordable rooms, the Brazilian organisers have told concerned governments which fear the problem may limit participation in the UN negotiations.

Officials from different governments elected to the 11-member COP bureau, which advises the COP presidency, asked in late July whether steps had been taken to identify an alternative location for COP30 if the accommodation crunch does not improve.

“There will be no alternate location, as COP30 will not be moved from Belém,” the COP30 Presidency replied in a document seen by Climate Home that responds to a range of questions on logistics from the COP bureau. This sentence was highlighted in bold for emphasis.

Another section of the document asks whether the COP’s annual gathering of countries’ political leaders might be moved to another city. The COP30 presidency replied simply: “No”.

Governments – especially from the Global South but also European countries – have expressed concern that the scarcity and high cost of rooms for the November summit would exclude many delegates, especially from poorer countries.

At an emergency meeting two weeks ago, the COP bureau asked the Brazilians to come up with solutions to the accommodation challenges. Bureau member Richard Muyungi – a Tanzanian diplomat who chairs the African group of negotiators at the climate talks – told Climate Home at the time that some delegates were questioning why Brazil does not move the COP to a bigger city.

The Brazilian presidency is due to present their response at the next bureau meeting, which was originally scheduled for August 11 and then moved to August 14 before being postponed again. It is now expected to be held on August 20, 21 or 22, sources told Climate Home.

The Q&A document suggests that the Brazilian government will not take any major measures to reduce accommodation prices other than those already announced, as it says this is a matter for the market.

The last two COP summits in Baku and Dubai were attended by 56,000 and 83,000 people respectively. The COP presidency said it expects over 50,000 people at COP30 and “53,000 beds are mapped in Belém and its metropolitan region”, without specifying whether double beds count as one bed or two.

These beds include roughly 22,000 on Airbnb, 15,000 in hotels, 10,000 in “holiday homes through real estate companies” and 6,000 aboard two cruise ships, it added.

After weeks of delay, the COP30 presidency launched a public accommodation platform on August 1, with the cheapest rooms going for around $300 a night. Climate Home identified one room in a love motel advertised at nearly 30 times its normal price.

Cheaper rooms for some countries

As previously annou