“Brazil will once again become a global climate benchmark,” the former and future head of state tweeted on Tuesday from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where the annual UN climate conference is being held.
Because under the mandate of Jair Bolsonaro, the largest country in Latin America has isolated itself on the international scene, in particular because of policies promoting deforestation and fires in the Amazon.
The far-right president indeed favored intensive agro-industry and the mining sector, cutting on the other hand in the budgets for environmental protection.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the contrary promised to fight for “zero deforestation”. He is due to deliver a long-awaited speech in Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday afternoon and could, according to the Brazilian daily O Globo, announce that Brazil is a candidate to host COP30 in 2025.
The president-elect had no public engagements on Tuesday, but had a closed-door meeting the same day with special US climate envoy John Kerry.
According to O Globo, a dozen requests for bilateral meetings on the sidelines of COP27 during his official stay on Wednesday and Thursday could not be met. A testimony to the aura enjoyed by the former trade unionist, seen as a possible savior of the Amazon and more attentive to the fate of the indigenous peoples who inhabit it.
– Reforestation –
He will also meet at COP27 a delegation of indigenous leaders, as well as several governors of Brazilian states also present at the conference.
The Amazon rainforest, of which Brazil is home to 60% of the total surface, is the largest carbon sink in the world, essential for combating climate change.
But under the effect of global warming and deforestation, it is now very fragile and, according to a study published in March, is approaching a “tipping point” more quickly than expected, which could transform it into savannah.
Protecting the Amazon will be a “strategic priority” after Lula takes office on January 1, 2023, former environment minister Marina Silva, a member of the president’s team, told Sharm el-Sheikh. elected and approached to take over this ministry.
And Brazil will tackle it “by its own means” with a target of reforestation of 12 million hectares, she said Saturday to the press, without conditioning this policy on a resumption of international aid, suspended by many many countries following the policies of the far-right outgoing president.
Ms. Silva was nevertheless pleased that Norway and Germany had announced, following Lula’s victory on October 30, that they were ready to resume their financial support for the Amazon Fund, cut in 2019, adding that Brazil would seek additional partners. She also invited the United States to also join this fund.
“With the prestige and influence of Lula on the international scene, and given the concerns of the whole world about the Amazon, it is very possible that bilateral agreements will be tied”, analyzes Daniela Costa, spokesperson for Greenpeace in Brazil for climate issues.
