Sharm El-Sheikh – Brazil’s president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spoke in the plenary session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP27, this afternoon (16) in Egypt. Lula said his administration will “resume its ties and once again fight hunger in the world.” He said he wants to cooperate once again with the poorest countries — above all Africa — with investments and technology transfers, to “build a better future for our peoples.” “We are back to help build a peaceful world order based on dialogue and multilateralism,” he said.
Lula said the country is open to international cooperation to conserve its biomes. “But always under Brazilian sovereignty. We will never give it up,” he said. He added that efforts to fight climate change will have the highest profile in his next administration. “We will prioritize the fight against deforestation of all of our biomes,” he said.
The president-elect believes that the world needs a just and equitable energy transition, and investing in wind power, solar, power, green hydrogen and biofuels is the only way to achieve this. “These are areas that Brazil has a huge potential in, particularly in the Brazilian Northeast, which just started being tapped.
He added that the world needs new global governance. “The veto power of the UN Security Council must be ended for true peace,” he said.
The president-elect proposed to hold the Summit of the Member Countries of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty. “So that Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guiana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela can for the first time discuss their integrated development in a sovereign way, with social inclusion and climate responsibility,” he said.
Another proposal is for Brazil to host COP30 in 2025, as he had already said in an event this morning. “We’ll be increasingly affirmative in the face of the challenge of tackling climate change, in line with the commitments agreed upon in Paris and guided by the search for decarbonizing the global economy.”
Lula emphasized that when Brazil chairs the G20 summit in 2024, the climate agenda will be one of the main priorities.
He pointed out that in 2009, rich countries said they would raise USD 100 billion at COP15 in Copenhagen to help the less developed countries to face climate change. “This has not happened. That is what leads us to another important theme of this COP. We need financial mechanisms to remedy loss and damage caused by climate change.”
This debate cannot be postponed, Lula said. “We need to deal with the reality of countries that have to protect the territorial integrity of their countries threatened. It is time to act. We cannot live with this rush towards the abyss.”
Today, I am here to say that Brazil is ready to join once again the efforts to build a healthier planet, a fairer world and a more effective humanity,” he said.
Planet security
Fighting the global warming, Lula said, is inseparable from the fight against poverty for a fairer world, and there is no planet security without a protected Amazon. “We will do whatever it takes to have zero deforestation and degradations of our biomes by 2030.” The proposal was initially floated during last year’s climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.
Environmental crimes will be punished, Lula said, adding that he will strengthen oversight bodies and “punish illegal activities: gold miners, loggers, farmers. These actions affect native people above all,” Lula said, announcing a Ministry for Indigenous Peoples.
Agroforestry
Lula said that agricultural output without environmental balance is something from the past. His government will pursue a balanced production, carbon sequestration, biodiversity protection, soil regeneration in all Brazil’s biomes, and increased income for farmers.
“I am sure that Brazilian agribusiness will be a strategic ally in our government looking for regenerative and sustainable agriculture, with investments in rural science, technology and education, and valorization of the knowledge of indigenous peoples and local community. Brazil has several successful examples of agroforestry,” he said.
He said that Brazil has 30 million hectares of degraded lands.” We don’t need to deforest one square meter to be one of the largest food producers in the world,” he said.
That’s Lula proposed a world alliance for food security and the reduction of inequality, with full climate responsibility.
Egypt
Lula thanked the invitation by Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah Al Sisi to participate in COP27 and said that the Arab country is “cradle of civilization that played an extraordinary role in the history of humankind.”
“This invitation made to a president-elect even before their inauguration is the recognition the world is ready to see Brazil participating again in discussions about the future of the planet all beings that live on it,” he said.
“If we can boil down to one single world Brazil’s contribution now may that world be the one that supported the Brazilian people in the darkest times: Hope. Hope combined with immediate, decisive action for the future of the planet and the humanity,” the president-elect said.
Lula t COP27
The presence of the Brazilian president-elect at COP27 packed two conference rooms to accommodate all those wanting to watch his speech, and many stayed outside. Both the Brazilian delegation, which is the second largest of COP27, and foreigners stopped to hear Brazil’s leader at the climate summit. He was applauded in the plenary in several times.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
