As COP30 opens, urban Amazon residents swelter

"No one talks about protecting those of us who live in the urban Amazon, or about how the climate crisis affects our most vulnerable territories," said community leader Gerson Bruno, 35. Although the Amazon is synonymous with lush greenery, more than 75 percent of the 27 million people living in Brazil's share of the rainforest actually live in urban areas, according to official data. - Improved services - Vila da Barca, founded by fishermen a century ago, flanks one of the city's wealthiest areas. Many of the favela's some 7,000 residents however, struggle with poverty. The lack of basic sanitation worsens the impact of the climate crisis, residents say. The arrival of COP30, with its flurry of infrastructure projects, was a rare opportunity for Vila da Barca to pressure authorities into delivering better services. At first, they complained that affluent districts were receiving massive investment, while the mostly black and mixed-race residents of the favela were left behind. In one example, residents were angered by a plan to build a sewage pumping station inside their community to serve a wealthy neighbourhood -- not Vila da Barca itself.