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“Brazil is back. With these words spoken at the climate summit in Egypt, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva returned to the world stage. Lula is the new president of the South American country from January 1. It will take a greener course, Lula said at the climate summit. With the help of an international fund, deforestation in the Amazon must be stopped by 2030.
“We will do everything we can to stop deforestation by 2030,” Lula said. In doing so, he underlined Brazil’s new commitment to the climate.
He is seen as a bright spot in the tough climate summit. Brazil is back; not only as a country, but also in person. Lula’s predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, denied climate change, ignored climate summits and pledged to deforest the Amazon rainforest, leading to high CO2 emissions.
Lula has a better track record. During his previous presidency between 2003 and 2010, he succeeded in curbing deforestation in the Amazon. He now wants to devote himself once again to the protection of the forests.
The 2025 climate summit is to be held in the Amazon
Lula hailed the importance of UN climate summits. “We can’t do it alone. We also need more leadership to stop global warming.” He underlined the great responsibility of the rich countries. According to him, they have not kept the promises of the climate summit in Copenhagen (2009).
Brazil’s president-elect on Wednesday proposed holding the 2025 summit in the Amazon region. There is the largest remaining rainforest in the world. “Then people will be able to get an idea of the importance of this part of the world.”
The UN climate negotiations have a special relationship with Brazil. Thirty years ago, the Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro, which, in retrospect, can be considered the first UN climate summit. There, it was decided to create the UNFCCC, which has since organized the climate summits.
International Forest Protection Mechanism
The success of Lula’s climate policy also depends on the rest of the world, Bas Eickhout told NU.nl. MEP GroenLinks is present in Sharm-el-Sheikh as Head of Delegation of the European Parliament.
“The European Union also wants to fight deforestation, and the election and re-dedication of Lula presents an opportunity. But so far, the fight against deforestation has yielded little financial return. There must be a better mechanism to reward her,” Eickhout said.
It is also a subject that has been debated at UN climate summits for more than ten years. Stopping deforestation reduces CO2 emissions. You could convert them into so-called carbon rights, which can be traded. This should offset the revenue from deforestation.
Brazil must further tighten its climate target
There is also a small disappointment: Lula did not mention in his speech a stricter emissions target for 2030. Last year, countries agreed at the climate summit in Glasgow that they would make a final attempt in 2022 to tighten these objectives. In this way, they would stay close to the agreements of the Paris Agreement.
Before Bolsonaro’s election in 2018, the country had more ambitious climate goals than it does now. Along with Turkey, Saudi Arabia and China, Brazil is one of the countries lagging behind on this point.
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