In Ireland, the term is meitheal; in Brazil it’s mutirão, and both mean collective effort and neighbourly support.
But after a week at Cop30 when there was much talk of the convivial spirit of the mutirão, now is the point where the samba Cop turns sombre.
The change in tone is evident in the large numbers of soldiers and police at the climate summit venue in the Amazonian city of Belém.
Protesters from indigenous groups forced their way into the venue on Tuesday night, prompting the ramping up of the armed presence.
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Demonstrators used a different strategy yesterday morning staging a sit-down that blocked the entrance for several hours.
Eventually, Cop30 president, André Correa do Lago, emerged offering to meet for talks with representatives, and his entreaties succeeded in gaining admission for the long lines of delegates left stranded in the searing sun.
Little of the mutirão spirit remained among the stressed and sweltering officials jostling to gain an inch in the queue as meeting times came and went without them.
[ Cop30 seeks to tackle the ‘information crisis’ on climate issuesOpens in new window ]
Margarete Barbosa, a Brazilian climate activist, said she understood the frustration of protesters who were promised an inclusive Cop30 but feel left out of key discussions on managing the rainforests and investing in their protection.
“We wanted more people in the talks where we can be heard,” she said.
“They’re discussing more plans and more plans. We’re done with plans and promises. We want to see action.”
The changing mood was also apparent in the notices issued on Thursday advising that negotiation sessions were being extended into the late evenings.
Officials are getting into the meat of the talks and it shows.
What they’re talking about essentially comes down to fossil fuels, money and equity.
At Cop28 in Dubai, countries agreed to “transition away” from fossil fuels but little progress has made since.
Brazilian president Lula da Silva at the start of the Belém summit signalled a roadmap might be drawn up to get countries moving on the pledge.
No roadmap has been sketched in recent days but the idea of at least agreeing to one has been floated.
Whether it will be included in any overall agreement reached at the end of the summit next week is not yet clear.
There are 1,600 fossil fuel delegates among the 40,000 people at Cop30 and they are here to try to influence the talks.
Another roadmap has also been discussed – the Baku to Belém Roadmap.
Published just days before Cop30 began, it is intended to show how an agreement reached at Cop29 in Azerbaijan can be turned into action in Brazil.
The Baku agreement pledged to increase climate finance – money from richer countries to help poor nations adopt renewables and protect themselves from escalating extreme weather events.
How to increase it is the conundrum as wealthy nations have insisted it can’t come solely from the public purse and that the private sector and investors must be part of the picture.
The roadmap contains a variety of ideas but the least developed countries told negotiations over the past week it came too late for them to scrutinise in time for Cop30.
They also oppose reliance on private finance unless it comes through wealth taxes or levies.
They have argued that if it comes in the form of loans, that would only create an additional burden on receiving countries caught in a debt repayment cycle.
The Baku agreement was reached without reference to a clause in the Paris Agreement on climate action that campaigners argue makes it a clear obligation that climate finance come from countries, not corporates.
That clause, Article 9.1, has been keeping negotiations lively over the past week.
“There’s still a huge amount of work to be done,” said Ross Fitzpatrick of Christian Aid Ireland.
“Little to no progress has been made in the negotiating rooms in Belém and countries remain fundamentally divided over how much money is needed and who should be paying the bill for climate action.”
Equity is at the heart of this issue – poor countries have done least to cause the climate crisis yet get hit hardest by it and are least equipped to protect themselves.
Equity also comes into play where climate and trade collide. Some countries want a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) – a levy on imported goods that have a high carbon footprint.
However, poorer countries fear their exports would be decimated, leaving less revenues for them to make the clean, green transition required.
Talks have also taken place on Lula da Silva’s flagship initiative, the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, but so far pledges to the fund have hit just $5.5 billion (€4.73 billion) – far short of the $25 billion wanted.
A “stocktake” is scheduled for Saturday to check with all countries how talks are going so the state of play will become clearer then but the Brazilian hosts presented an upbeat account yesterday.
Senior official Ana Toni said the number of countries submitting new climate action plans had risen to 115 out of 197, representing around 80 per cent of global emissions.
“We are moving forward,” she said.
