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STORY: BARCARENA / COP30 DISASTER RESILIENCY SCHOOL
TRT: 02:57
SOURCE: UN NEWS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / PORTUGUESE / NATS
DATELINE: 13 NOVEMBER 2025, BARCARENA, BRAZIL / 15 NOVEMBER 2025, BELEM, BRAZIL
13 NOVEMBER 2025, BARCARENA, BRAZIL
1. Various shots, views from motorboat on the Amazon River
2. Wide shot, view from boat as it approaches school on the riverbank
3. Pan left, from school sign to a group of children
4. Med shot, group of children
5. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Jader Barbalho Filho, Minister of Cities, Brazil:
“For all resilience works, the adaptation that we need for the cities, decarbonization, whether in our construction of our buildings, as well as in our fleets or wastewater treatment, pollution in our rivers; we need to bring resources exactly where life actually happens.”
6. Wide shot, school exterior
7. Wide shot, school interior, children and visiting delegation
8. Various shots, visiting delegation listening to Barcarena Mayor Renato Ogawa
9. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Jader Barbalho Filho, Minister of Cities, Brazil:
“It’s crucial that examples like Barcarena may be applied not only in the Brazilian Amazon, but wherever tropical forests may occur. An example also that we just saw, an example that can be repeated in cities around the world. The work they are doing is important to raise children's awareness so that we can see the next generations, realize the importance of taking care of our environment.”
10. Various shots, children’s musical performance
11. Various shots, Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction Kamal Kishore, writing on a board
15 NOVEMBER 2025, BELEM, BRAZIL
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Kamal Kishore, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction:
“I also had the opportunity to do a field visit in the Amazonia to the Barcarena municipality and see what is it that the local level actors, particularly the mayoralty is doing in terms of investing in resilience at the local levels in schools and communities and working with them to prepare them for multiple risks.”
13 NOVEMBER 2025, BARCARENA, BRAZIL
13. Pan right, children’s art
15 NOVEMBER 2025, BELEM, BRAZIL
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Kamal Kishore, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction:
“If we come together and systematically begin to address risk and begin to invest in locally led disaster risk reduction, locally-lead climate change adaptation, we can have a situation where communities across the world are better prepared to deal with the emerging impacts of climate change.”
15. Various shots, children, teachers and visiting delegations
For the past three years, a school in Barcarena, a municipality on the outskirts of Belém, on the Amazon River, has been putting into practice one of the central themes of the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), adapting to a world increasingly shaped by dangerous climate events.
The school, modest white-and-blue structure on the riverbank, crowned by a triangular roof lined with solar panels, is an effort to prove it is possible to shield children in remote communities from the harshest impacts of the climate crisis.
Brazil’s Minister of Cities Jader Barbalho Filho was part of a delegation that visited the school in a field trip with other participants of COP30, taking place in Belém.
Barbalho Filho said, “for all resilience works, the adaptation that we need for the cities, decarbonization, whether in our construction of our buildings, as well as in our fleets or wastewater treatment, pollution in our rivers; we need to bring resources exactly where life actually happens.”
The school is built with flood- and erosion-resistant masonry, insulated roofing that moderates extreme heat, solar-powered energy systems and satellite internet. And unlike many schools in the region, children have access to clean water thanks to a 150-meter well drilled into the property.
Barbalho Filho said, “it’s crucial that examples like Barcarena may be applied not only in the Brazilian Amazon, but wherever tropical forests may occur. An example also that we just saw, an example that can be repeated in cities around the world. The work they are doing is important to raise children's awareness so that we can see the next generations, realize the importance of taking care of our environment.”
During his visit, the head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, UNDRR, Kamal Kishore, described the school as a guiding light, capable of inspiring adaptation efforts far beyond the Amazon.
Kishore said, he had visited Barcarena municipality to “see what is it that the local level actors, particularly the mayoralty, is doing in terms of investing in resilience at the local levels in schools and communities and working with them to prepare them for multiple risks.”
He said, “if we come together and systematically begin to address risk and begin to invest in locally led disaster risk reduction, locally-lead climate change adaptation, we can have a situation where communities across the world are better prepared to deal with the emerging impacts of climate change.”
Recognizing Barcarena’s efforts to confront these threats, the United Nations designated the municipality in 2023 as the world’s 25th Resilience Hub — and the first in the Amazon region.
