“Brazil is back! The elected president of the Latin American giant, Lula, proposed this Wednesday to organize the world climate conference in 2025 “in the Amazon”, a green lung essential to the balance of the climate and global biodiversity. An announcement that comes to reinvigorate a COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, bogged down in disagreements, just like the reaffirmation by the G20 summit in Bali of ambitious climate objectives.
“We are going to talk to the UN secretary general and ask him to take COP30 to the Amazon,” said Lula, who will take office on January 1 and is making his first trip abroad to COP27 since his election at the end of october. “Brazil should not be isolated” on the international scene, he stressed. “Brazil is back” and “will be a positive force in meeting global challenges,” he had already tweeted on Tuesday, upon his arrival in Egypt.
Goal of “zero deforestation”
Under the mandate of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil had been effectively sidelined, in particular because of the policies of the far-right president favoring agribusiness and the mining sector, with a massive increase in deforestation. 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 late afternoon.
Lula met Tuesday evening with US Special Envoy for the Climate John Kerry, who promised that “we will work diligently to achieve this goal. [de préservation de l’Amazonie] together “. He also met the Chinese envoy for the climate at the COP.
The largest carbon sink in the world
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.
The protection of 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, assured Sharm el-Sheikh. elected and approached to take over this ministry.