The Brazil That COP30 Needs to See

COP30 is not just the COP in the Amazon, but the first in the rainforest. This carries powerful symbolism. For the first time, debates about the future are taking place where nature's heart beats. The challenge is to give a voice to the populations that live there, to understand their ways of life, and find out how they can follow the path to development. 

As an Amazonian, daughter of a rubber tapper, born in Acre and the youngest of 15 siblings, I know what it means to live from the forest, with the forest, and how much traditional communities depend on it to survive. But the sustainability challenge is enormous and requires investment. After all, sustainable development comes at a high cost. 

Brazil has become an agribusiness powerhouse not only because of fertile land, but also because of decades of public investment that have boosted the sector. Similarly, sustainability in the forest needs to be sustained, because keeping it standing requires research and development and of course, the active participation of the industrial sector.

Actually, industry is not the villain when it comes to global warming. On the contrary: great transformations come from it. The decarbonization process begins on the factory floor. At the Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (ABDI), we show that it is possible to align sustainable development with innovation, technology, and job creation.

In Belém, we are showcasing examples that come directly from the Amazon. One of them is the mapping of the region's bioindustry, which has already identified over 11,000 businesses that transform forest products into local development. We are identifying where these businesses are located, how many families depend on them, what they extract, and what are their potential and bottlenecks. This information allows us to measure how much income is generated by these supply chains, thus, contributing to more effective public policies. 

Of course, there are still challenges to overcome: infrastructure, market access, investment, and adequate regulations. Today, for example, we use less than 20% of the açaí fruit — the rest is discarded. With the right investments, we can develop technologies that take advantage of this waste, turning it into new products and opportunities for the population. 

Our pavilion at COP will showcase to the world a coffee produced in the far west of the Brazilian Amazon by a cooperative of family farmers, who use solar energy and cultivate on previously degraded areas. With support from ABDI, the Juruá Coffee Industrial Complex adds value to the local product and is an example of how, when we combine innovation and public investment, we can create real opportunities, strengthening an entire chain.

Another highlight is Recircula Brasil, recognized by the UN as the only platform capable of tracking the entire plastic cycle — from origin to its return to industry. Through electronic payment invoices, the platform has already certified over 50 thousand tonnes of plastic. Now, we are expanding this experience to other materials, like aluminium, glass, fabrics, and paper, showing that it is possible to engage in Cradle to Cradle (C2C) circular economy.

These are examples of Brazilian efforts to make industry more sustainable. COP30 is taking place in an Amazon made of people: of women and men who grow crops, of communities that preserve, of peoples who carry ancestral knowledge about the balanced use of natural resources. These Amazonian voices want – and deserve – to be at the centre of decision-making, building inclusive, not excluding development pathways.

Perpetua Almeida
Director of Sustainable Economics and Industrialization at ABDI