Brazil & COP27: Lula vows to combat deforestation & climate change

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
16 Nov 2022 23:48

Making a presence at the COP27 where fans applauded and anticipated his vows to fight deforestation.

Lula is greeted like a rock star at the COP27. (Reuters)

At the UN Climate Conference in Egypt, crowds chanted and applauded Brazil's newly-elected president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva - this would mark his first trip outside Brazil since being elected.

"Brazil is back," Lula said repeatedly, the same words which his supporters sang during his speech at the COP27 in the Red Sea resort.

Under former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, the Amazon has suffered deforestation and other environmental hardships due to corporate greed and their corresponding projects.

At the event, Lula vowed to fight deforestation, in addition to offering to host the COP29 in the Amazon region in 2025 and pledged to make Rio de Janeiro a spearheading force in the global fight against climate change once again.

"Lula represents a political change for Latin America," said Adrian Martinez Blanco, who is attending the climate conference for Costa Rican NGO La Ruta del Clima.

"It is a shift towards the protection of the planet, the Amazon, human rights, the rights of Indigenous people," he said.

Earlier this week, Brazil, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo formally launched a climate partnership to collaborate on conservation efforts.

The vast tropical rainforests of all three countries are threatened by logging and agriculture.

The agreement calls on the international community to compensate all three for reducing deforestation, with a focus on shared issues, such as access to climate finance and the price of a tonne of carbon in the carbon-credit market.