COP30 Fire. Source BBC, Fair Use, Low Resolution Image to Identify the Subject

Did a Battery Fire Just Kill the COP30 Climate Conference?

Essay by Eric Worrall

“… One eyewitness told the BBC that he believes an electrical fire was the cause. …”

COP30 climate talks evacuated after fire breaks out

Georgina Rannard and BBC climate team in Belém, Brazil

The talks were in the final hours of trying to agree on next steps to tackle climate but the fire has disrupted negotiations.

“It was climbing the walls and onto the ceiling. People were screaming,” Dr Harshita Umesh, who was giving a talk next to the place where they fire broke out, told BBC News.

“Then I ran, I think I tripped and fell.”

“People are pretty traumatised and shocked,” she added.

“There’s a huge panic, people have been running out of here, it’s a very dramatic moment… UN security guards are telling us to leave,” said BBC Climate Editor Justin Rowlatt.

“It looks actually as if they are beginning to get it under control but you can see huge columns of smoke rising up into the air through the hole that’s been burnt in the top of the conference centre.”

One eyewitness told the BBC that he believes an electrical fire was the cause.

Read more (includes video): https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce9d9p5jrjgo

The article doesn’t say it was a battery fire, but from the video in the BBC article above, it was a pretty impressive blaze for a simple electrical fault. Of course the intensity of the fire might have been caused by all the disposable single use petroleum based plastic used to construct the climate conference pavilion.

The UN seems determined the conference will continue, but with the conference almost at its end, no significant leaders in town, and many conference center evacuees likely relocating to the nearest wine bar to calm their nerves, there is a good chance a lot of people will pack up and go home early.

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Scissor
November 20, 2025 2:07 pm

According to witnesses, Al Gore could be seen…

Mr.
Reply to  Scissor
November 20, 2025 2:17 pm

Well, they would have needed panorama settings on their cameras to get a pic of him.

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  Mr.
November 20, 2025 2:58 pm

Fisheye lens.

Mr.
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
November 20, 2025 5:13 pm

The main reason greenies are against fishing is because they heard that Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes.

(not that liberals condemn bestiality per se, but fishies are already having to deal with boiling oceans)

Reply to  Mr.
November 20, 2025 9:58 pm

Panorama would have spliced in footage of Al Gore changing into his Superman outfit and rescuing the world

Reply to  Scissor
November 21, 2025 9:02 am

I would have expected Gavin, not Al, given it was a fire…

Reply to  Scissor
November 21, 2025 9:06 am

As an, ahem, inconvenient truth, assuredly there will be be no permanent ice in Belém, Brazil, by the year 2026.

Reply to  Scissor
November 21, 2025 9:32 am

How inconvenient.

November 20, 2025 2:08 pm

OK – I will start the obvious funny side.

The globe is boiling – that was the perspective from Belem during COP30.

Reply to  RickWill
November 20, 2025 2:34 pm

CO2 can do anything !!! 😉

Tom Johnson
Reply to  bnice2000
November 20, 2025 7:53 pm

Unfortunately, the session organizers didn’t allow the use of the CO2 fire extinguishers that were required to be there.

Russell Cook
Reply to  Tom Johnson
November 21, 2025 7:38 am

 – ( of course, none of us wants anyone to be hurt or killed by fire )

But if the only harm done was to the pride of the enviro-zealots demanding that the planetary fire be quenched …
I don’t care who ya are, that’s funny right there!!

SxyxS
Reply to  RickWill
November 20, 2025 2:51 pm

The funny side is that indios(original ones – with the George Soros seal) have been protesting
and doctors have been dancing to summon the fire.

Scissor
Reply to  SxyxS
November 20, 2025 4:04 pm

Quick, sacrifice some virgins.

Mr.
Reply to  Scissor
November 20, 2025 5:15 pm

good luck finding some, without resorting to extreme pedophilia.

Reply to  Scissor
November 21, 2025 5:27 am

Sacrifice some virgin, climate-change deniers?

Reply to  RickWill
November 21, 2025 9:10 am

“The globe is boiling – that was the perspective from Belem during COP30.”

Well, it is true that the global average temperature at Earth’s surface is above the boiling point of CO2 at STP.

mleskovarsocalrrcom
November 20, 2025 2:09 pm

First some of the most influential countries failed to show. Then many of the countries that did show failed to do their homework and announce any new virtue signaling numbers. Then locals demonstrated against the proceedings. Now a fire routed those that did come. All appropriate for a conspiracy of dunces.

George Thompson
Reply to  mleskovarsocalrrcom
November 20, 2025 4:02 pm

A confederacy of dunces-better, I think.

Reply to  mleskovarsocalrrcom
November 20, 2025 5:15 pm

Does this mean the $1.3 trillion is a no go? Ah shucks! Anybody want to buy a third world country cheap?

Reply to  OR For
November 21, 2025 9:35 am

Its time to calculate how big the refunds will be for 30 or more years of climate hustling.

Reply to  mleskovarsocalrrcom
November 20, 2025 5:54 pm

Confluence of carrots.

or

Dribble of dunces.

Bill Parsons
Reply to  mleskovarsocalrrcom
November 21, 2025 4:51 pm

Who would have thought that it would be 98 degrees and humid on the equator in November, causing multiple people to faint while others in the wrong part of the giant air conditioned pavilion shivered with cold and ran for their coats. The tropical downpour split tents of certain delegations, tore holes in the giant pavilion (77 football fields in size) and made it impossible to hear speakers.

“Parties couldn’t hear themselves,” said Injy Johnstone, a researcher on carbon markets who has been advising on negotiations. “You only had a short time to speak so there’s a pressure to talk even if no one can hear you,” she added, saying that some delegates were shouting into microphones just to be heard. (WSJ article)

TV monitors shorted out, stalls for presenters were not ready and toilets lacked soap..

Still…

“The high temperatures do help frame conversation on the reality of what we’re dealing with,” said Alex Bath, a communications director with the Global Renewables Alliance. 

JonasM
November 20, 2025 2:09 pm

From the article: “The UN said the fire was extinguished after six minutes”.

So, unlikely to be a battery (though that would have been interesting karma).

However, 6 minutes seems a bit quick for a fire of that intensity.

Stay tuned.

Bryan A
Reply to  JonasM
November 20, 2025 2:19 pm

They gave the only three Americans there, Bubba, Leroy and Billy-Bob a keg of beer … and five minutes later they pissed it out

Mr.
Reply to  JonasM
November 20, 2025 2:21 pm

The investigation into the cause will go on for as long as it takes to rule out a L-i battery being the culprit.

Bryan A
Reply to  Mr.
November 20, 2025 2:33 pm

Any other cause and they’ll be Li-ion

Mr.
Reply to  Bryan A
November 20, 2025 5:21 pm

I see what you did there 🙂

SxyxS
Reply to  JonasM
November 20, 2025 2:55 pm

6 Minutes wasn’t quick(that’s what I always say to my chicka)
but you Americans are so used to watch the fire burning for some time before you start doing a thing as we have seen in Hawaii and LA.

George Thompson
Reply to  SxyxS
November 20, 2025 4:04 pm

Ugly, but pretty accurate…a coincidence that Newsom was there?

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  SxyxS
November 20, 2025 5:00 pm

You gauge a whole country on the inactions of two whacked out states.

SxyxS
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
November 21, 2025 2:35 am

You make the wars –
we make the fun.

Would you like it if sides are changed?

Anyway,it is legitimate for me to comment that way
because all the crazy stuff , incompetence etc is coming from the USA.
But you are right – its always from 2 whacko states(NY California).

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  SxyxS
November 21, 2025 7:22 am

Hmm, all the crazy stuff? We’re talking about COP30 and the UN nutballs. That’s not US.

SxyxS
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
November 22, 2025 3:07 am

The UN ? locate in? US
Initiated by? Roosevelt
Sponsored by Rockfeller.

Origin and major pusher of climate scam?US experts.
Carbon Trade Market CCX – Chicago.

Crazy stuff?
Pronouns,Trannies(going back to Mr Money and Mr Green,NY),GND ,
Hippies,DEI etc etc.
All US Astroturf Origin.

Reply to  SxyxS
November 23, 2025 8:22 am

The UN was a Soviet project. The bankers cheered it on because they figured they would come out on top of any international construct. Alger Hiss, the US co-architect of the UN, was a Soviet agent, and it was actually Woodrow Wilson who facilitated the fraud and made the first attempt at such a global body.
I would say that the formation of the Federal Reserve, in concert with the other central banks of the world, and the imposition of fiat currency they promoted, was the real culprit. That was hardly a US original but rather a European design.

Sure, the US is a sponge for crazy, but socialism/communism originated on the other side of the Pond, and we certainly did not invent war and conquest, though we may have perfected the art of concealing it as foreign “aid”.

We did invent freedom and individuality as an end unto itself, and a model for prosperity unlike previous forms. That is admittedly a risky venture. Mixed with the Old World urge to dominate, it has presented a curious mix of weird and wicked as a byproduct.

Reply to  SxyxS
November 21, 2025 9:37 am

Ever heard of China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and Islam in general?

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  JonasM
November 20, 2025 3:12 pm

Probably started by a trans “woman” using hairspray and smoking a big old stogie.

Scissor
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
November 20, 2025 4:08 pm

Then it would have been an LGBTBBQ.

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  Scissor
November 20, 2025 4:17 pm

Ew.

Edward Katz
November 20, 2025 2:11 pm

It’ll be a good thing if this fire causes the early termination of COP 30 since all indications show it will have achieved even less than its predecessors. It will be an even bigger accomplishment if it causes them to be terminated permanently since they’ve already wasted too much money with too few results.

Bryan A
Reply to  Edward Katz
November 20, 2025 2:20 pm

Its scheduled to end tomorrow anyway sooo…fire sale at the venue, get your souvenirs while their Hot

Bryan A
Reply to  Bryan A
November 20, 2025 2:22 pm

I imagine t-shirts with burn holes in them and printed on the front…my liberal associate went to COP 30 and all I got was this lousy shirt

iflyjetzzz
Reply to  Bryan A
November 20, 2025 4:12 pm

But it’s a holy shirt!

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  iflyjetzzz
November 20, 2025 4:18 pm

Wholly holey.

Bryan A
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
November 20, 2025 5:36 pm

Holy Wholly holey shirt Batman

Reply to  Bryan A
November 21, 2025 6:05 am

From the gift shop…

BurntT
Bryan A
Reply to  Mumbles McGuirck
November 21, 2025 6:25 am

Datsa perfect!!!

bobclose
Reply to  Edward Katz
November 21, 2025 5:45 am

I’me celebrating, because we poor folk in Australia don’t have to pay for the next COP
our deluded Net Zero government wanted to have here. Let the real believers in Bonn have what we hope is the last of these boy scout jamborees. They can burn their economies to death on the alter of climate change, but it won’t improve our weather one iota. The jungle drums of science and engineering reality are catching up with this Back to the Future mob of dodos.

twobob
November 20, 2025 2:13 pm

More power to the guy with the hand held fire extinguisher.
Was it Co2 powered….

Mr.
Reply to  twobob
November 20, 2025 2:19 pm

Oh how inconvenient.

Bryan A
Reply to  twobob
November 20, 2025 2:23 pm

Get the CO2 fire extinguishers from the school…CO2…it’s Cold
CO2, Dave, CO2! It hates cold!

D. J. Hawkins
Reply to  twobob
November 21, 2025 10:03 am

Nope. Based on the size, as best I can tell from the picture, it’s a standard 10lbm (or metric equivalent) ABC extinguisher. It will be loaded with ammonium monophosphate and charged with nitrogen.

Bryan A
November 20, 2025 2:14 pm

The cause is currently thought to be either a Microwave Oven malfunction or a Generator. Since it is in an indoor space, I would think the Generator possibility would be ludicrous since you don’t operate a Generator indoors. Although this is Brazil so…

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  Bryan A
November 20, 2025 3:03 pm

And it looks like the booths were for some African Nations. I see Rwanda in the left foreground, but can’t make out the next booth, which looks like the one that’s on fire. Republic something.

Reply to  Bryan A
November 20, 2025 5:21 pm

Maybe they were just trying to burn up all that toilet paper in the bins, and it got out of control?

Reply to  Bryan A
November 20, 2025 5:25 pm

These days, a battery with inverter is often described as a generator.

D. J. Hawkins
Reply to  RickWill
November 21, 2025 10:05 am

Yes, ridiculous, but there you are.

Pop Piasa
November 20, 2025 2:24 pm

Wow! What a show! Loved the pyrotechnic effects this year. I hope that ‘Nature’s Way’ by Spirit, followed by ‘Animal Zoo’ was playing during the flaming spectacle.

November 20, 2025 2:34 pm

The UN seems determined the conference will continue, but with the conference almost at its end,”

They still have to get the “selected few” together to come up with a trite, meaningless “statement”.

November 20, 2025 2:46 pm

Guy in the pink shirt with the lanyard round his neck, demanding people do what he says to save their lives.

No doubt a climate delegate doing what just comes naturally.

And everyone ignores him. 🤣

Jeff Alberts
November 20, 2025 2:56 pm

next steps to tackle climate”

So it’s not just climate change they’re trying to “tackle”, they want to get rid of climate altogether.

sherro01
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
November 20, 2025 3:25 pm

Many Australians lust for not only to reduce debate and laws about “climate change”, but also to get rid of childish politicians like our Minister for Energy who is now a special international appointment to implement COP30 actions. Three more long years to endure before he and mates can be voted out. We have not yet reached peak stupidity, alas. Geoff S

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  sherro01
November 20, 2025 4:16 pm

The fact that these people are voted in in the first place does not bode well for any of us.

Peter Barrett
November 20, 2025 3:19 pm

Oh no! What a terrible shame!

KevinM
November 20, 2025 3:53 pm

“Certified Public Health and Disaster Medicine Trainer” was next scheduled speaker for a conference on a computer modeled change that takes 100 years to be a problem?

George Thompson
Reply to  KevinM
November 20, 2025 4:07 pm

Just what in the Hell does that “Trainer” do, anyways?

Bob
November 20, 2025 4:07 pm

My first reaction is ho hum but I hope nobody got hurt and everyone was evacuated safely.

iflyjetzzz
November 20, 2025 4:09 pm

A fitting end to COP30…

Ron
Reply to  iflyjetzzz
November 20, 2025 5:22 pm

A fitting end would have Trump attend and tell them all its a big scam!

Reply to  iflyjetzzz
November 20, 2025 5:31 pm

Are we sure it wasn’t a dumpster fire ?

ResourceGuy
November 20, 2025 4:16 pm

Let it burn so we can watch which media groups conduct noncoverage operations on it.

William Howard
November 20, 2025 4:26 pm

probably one of the 330,000 Jeeps that are being recalled because of the potential for the lithium battery to catch on fire and burn down your house

Bruce Cobb
November 20, 2025 4:27 pm

So it went from clown show to shit show to dumpster fire. Perhaps the Universe is trying to tell them something, eh?

ResourceGuy
November 20, 2025 4:38 pm

Did the extinguishers do any good?

Mr.
Reply to  ResourceGuy
November 20, 2025 5:28 pm

couldn’t be deployed because –
CO2
(aaarrgggh, we’ll all be fried!)

ResourceGuy
November 20, 2025 4:40 pm

It was a reenactment of a car carrier fire.

Nik
November 20, 2025 5:04 pm

It was stillborn from the get-go.

David Wojick
November 20, 2025 5:21 pm

Fewer delegates might make it easier to get final decisions on the numerous issues.

Reply to  David Wojick
November 20, 2025 5:32 pm

David, you know that “final decisions” were made ages ago !! 😉

Alan
November 20, 2025 6:28 pm

The fire was the direct result of climate change. If there was no climate change, there would have been no Cop 30, therefore no fire. Mother Nature may be behind it also. She’s mad about that useless road bulldozed through her jungle.

November 20, 2025 6:31 pm

GAIA has sent a message to stop fooling with her.

observa
November 20, 2025 7:13 pm

Phew! From Adelaide.
‘Really disappointing’: SA fumes over COP
So much for the great burning question of our time turkeys.