Brazil’s president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has vowed to fight deforestation as he made a series of public appearances and attended meetings at the UN climate summit in Egypt.
Mr da Silva, who in the past year has made an extraordinary political comeback after being convicted of corruption and jailed a few years ago, was one of the events that brought the most energy at the Cop27 conference.
As president between 2003 and 2010 he oversaw a large reduction in the deforestation of the Brazilian rainforest, and has promised to do so again.
After meeting several Brazilian governors, including from important rainforest states like Amazonia and Para, he addressed a cheering crowd with a short speech, six weeks before he takes power.
“You all know that we are going to undertake a big fight against deforestation,” said Mr da Silva to cheers.
He said he would recommend that the UN put the 2025 climate conference in the Amazon, adding it was time that “people who defend the Amazon and defend the climate get to know the region close up”.
He took several swipes at President Jair Bolsonaro, who pushed development of the Amazon. Mr da Silva beat Mr Bolsonaro in October’s elections and will assume power on January 1st.
“Brazil can’t remain isolated like it was these last four years. (Officials from Brazil) didn’t travel to any other countries, and no other countries travelled to Brazil,” said Mr da Silva.
On Tuesday night, he met US climate envoy John Kerry and they discussed action to combat climate change and deforestation, according to a statement from a State Department spokesperson.
Under Mr Bolsonaro, elected in 2018, environmental agencies that regulate the Amazon were weakened. The former Army captain also appointed forest managers from the agribusiness sector, which opposes the creation of protected areas such as Indigenous territories and pushes for the legalisation of land robbing.
The deforested area in Brazil’s Amazon reached a 15-year high from August 2020 to July 2021, according to official figures. Satellite monitoring shows the trend this year is on track to surpass last year.
Mr da Silva did not address news reports in Brazil that have focused on a possible alliance between Brazil, Congo and Indonesia, home to the largest tropical forests in the world.
Nicknamed the “Opec of the Forests” – in reference to the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the way they regulate oil production – the general idea would be for the three countries to co-ordinate their negotiating positions and practices on forest management and biodiversity protection.
The proposal was initially floated during last year’s climate summit in Glasgow, according to the reports.
Despite Mr da Silva’s promises, the task in front of his incoming administration is huge. While many people, particularly environmentalists and officials at a climate conference like this, celebrate promises to protect the Amazon, Brazilian leaders face huge pressures to develop.
Those pressures come from sectors like agriculture and mining, along with many people who live in the Amazon who feel it is for them to decide how it is used.
There is also the reality that Mr da Silva’s environmental record is mixed. Deforestation dropped dramatically during the decade after he took power, with Marina Silva as environment minister.
But in his second term, Mr da Silva began catering to agribusiness interests, and in 2008 Ms Silva resigned. She is also attending Cop27 and is a contender for the top environmental job again.
