Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced on Friday that the UN has chosen the city of Belém, in the Amazon, to host the COP30 climate conference in 2025. “It will be an honor for Brazil to receive representatives from the whole world in our Amazon,” Lula wrote on social media.
“I have already taken part in the COP in France, in Egypt, and everyone was constantly talking about the Amazon. So I said to myself: why not hold the conference here, so that everyone knows about the Amazon? “, he added, in a video published with the message.
Capital of the state of Para (north), Belém is a city of about 1.5 million inhabitants located near the mouth of the Amazon. Alongside Lula in the video, Brazil’s Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira clarified that the UN’s choice dated back to May 18.
Brazil “back” in the fight against climate change
The country which is home to more than 60% of the Amazon forest was supposed to host the COP in 2019, but the Brazilian authorities had given up organizing it after the election of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), a climatosceptic notorious.
The left-wing president, who began his third term as head of Brazil in January, has vowed to make environmental conservation a priority and end illegal deforestation in the Amazon by 2030.
Shortly after his election at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh last November, Lula was greeted as a hero, saying that Brazil was “back” in the concert of nations fighting against climate change.