Coordinated by researchers from Unicamp, the National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA), and the Met Office (United Kingdom's Meteorological Office), the AmazonFACE program It has its own booth and program at COP30 with exhibitions, immersive videos, lectures and roundtables. This is a groundbreaking project to assess the effects of an atmosphere with a higher concentration of carbon dioxide (CO₂) – which is the predicted scenario – on the Amazon rainforest ecosystem.
“The Amazon is not just an essential part of the global climate system — it is a living laboratory for understanding the future of our planet. AmazonFACE brings science to the center of this mission,” highlights the project's scientific coordinator, researcher David Lapola from the Center for Meteorological and Climatic Research Applied to Agriculture (Cepagri) at Unicamp.
Tropical forests, and the Amazon in particular, act as "carbon sinks," meaning they absorb more carbon into the atmosphere than they release. This property can be altered due to climate change, with drier weather and a drastic reduction in rainfall. In this sense, the knowledge generated by the project will assess the forest's resilience and guide climate mitigation and adaptation policies for the region, also considering its inhabitants.
At COP30, the AmazonFACE booth is located in the Blue Area. The project will host permanent exhibitions with photos, a model, and videos at the booth (November 10-15) and in the UK Pavilion (November 10-21), and will participate in discussions in various spaces at COP30 and in parallel events: Parque da Residência (November 12), Pavilhão das Universidades (November 13-17), UK Pavilion (November 13), Parallel Event (November 15), Pavilhão da Ciência Planetária (November 15), Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia (November 17), and Casa da Ciência (November 19).
The experiment, located at an INPA research station 80km from Manaus, encompasses six rings with 16 towers each. Within this circle formed by the towers – which are 35 meters high (exceeding the treetops) and 30 meters in diameter – there is great biodiversity. In three of these rings, air enriched with approximately 50% more carbon dioxide than is currently present in the atmosphere will be injected. The other three will serve as controls for comparison.
Learn more about AmazonFACE:
Check out the "Straight from the Source" program with researcher David Lapola:
