Thousands of people gathered in the streets of the Amazonian city hosting COP30 talks on Saturday and danced to the sound of speakers in the first mass protest at a UN climate summit in years. “We are here to try to put pressure so that the country fulfills its promises and we do not accept retreat,” prominent indigenous leader Texai Surui, 28, told AFP.

It was the first major protest outside the annual climate talks since COP26 in Glasgow four years ago, as the previous three gatherings were held in places with less tolerance for demonstrations – Egypt, Dubai and Azerbaijan.