Belém, a vibrant and challenging city in the Brazilian Amazon, recently hosted the COP30 climate negotiations. In this interview, Mayor Igor Normando shares his vision for a world where climate and early childhood agendas make progress hand in hand.
For parents in the Amazon, the legacy of the Belém COP promises hope for a safer future, providing more opportunities and prioritising the development of their children. For Mayor Normando, the future of the planet and the future of children are intimately linked and his work continues.
Parents often worry for their children’s future. What have you heard from mothers and fathers about how they are living with climate change?
I ran for Mayor because I believe Belém is a city of extraordinary potential, an Amazonian metropolis that has the mission of showing the world that it is possible to build a sustainable and fair future. My candidacy was motivated by the desire to transform Belém to be more inclusive, resilient and attentive to people, especially children and their caregivers.
Listening to our families is the starting point of our policymaking and management. What we perceive is that mothers and fathers yearn for a city that offers safety, access to quality services, and leisure spaces. They care about climate, worry about floods and fires, but they also need daily support. Access to quality childcare is equally a key priority for them.
How has the city responded?
Belém faces challenges but we are learning. We look for solutions that address environmental and social needs together, such as expanding urban greening, increasing the provision of basic sanitation, and developing a bioeconomy to improve quality of life for children, parents, everyone.
We acknowledge that we have significant challenges, including the low coverage of daycare centres, which currently serve only 15% of children between birth and 3 years, and the lack of green areas in early childhood education centres. This is a reality that also affects many other Brazilian cities.
To face this scenario, we are moving forward with the Green Schools for Resilient Cities programme, which will naturalise schoolyards in three public schools. This programme also creates Early Childhood Squares, which integrate natural materials that encourage nature-rich play and support climate adaptation. It is important that parents have nearby spaces where they can take their children to play. Our focus is to bring environmental education and leisure spaces to the peripheries, where access to green areas and quality play equipment is scarcer.
Why was hosting the COP30 in Belém significant? How did families with young children living in the city experience it?
The Amazon helps the whole world to breathe. Hosting the COP in Belém gave recognition to the Amazon’s importance in the global climate agenda. We Pará, Belenenses and Amazonians took this opportunity to offer the world the best we have – our humanity, our welcome and our love.
We believe supporting families, climate resilience, and environmental education go hand in hand. The Amazon is not just a landscape, it is an intrinsic part of our identity. Parents and children in Belém understand the value of the forest, rivers, biodiversity and our culture, preserving our knowledge and our relationship with nature. At the COP they got to share their wisdom with others.
We made efforts to ensure the COP was not restricted only to high-level decision makers. We made it a unique learning experience for children. We invited them in, listened to their voices and found educational ways to engage them in environmental preservation and sustainability. For families from the North Region of Brazil, it was an opportunity to show the world the climate change realities we face. Our families got the chance to be true protagonists in the construction of transformative public policies and climate action.
We also maintained constant dialogue with entities that defend children’s rights, to ensure that the agenda of early childhood and caregivers was prioritised among the other critical COP discussions. This is how we can ensure that climate adaptation and resilience policies are built with a humane and inclusive vision.
What comes next for Belém? Where do you see opportunities to bring climate action and early childhood development agendas together?
The COP was a springboard for sustainable growth in Belém, but we never lost our focus on our essential commitment: to take care of the families of Belém.
Investing in children and parents is investing in resilience and adaptation. When we guarantee access to health, education and wellbeing during the first years of life, we build a fairer and more equitable society, capable of deep resilience in the face of future challenges.
Our strategy is based on three pillars.
- The first is Integral Development, which aims to strengthen human capital. To this end, we are implementing the Unified Citizenship Centers (CUCA) pilot programme, which integrates health, education, and social assistance services.
- The second pillar is Child-Friendly Urban and Environmental Infrastructure. We are implementing Nature-based Solutions (NBS) to create safer and more resilient urban environments for child development.
- The third pillar is Data Governance and Use. For more transparent and evidence-based management, we are structuring a Unified Early Childhood Information System.
Climate justice does not exist unless there is also social justice. It has become essential that we look at those who live in the forests, the families of Belém. Early childhood is our starting point when it comes to climate action.
