Lula stresses the role of the Amazon as an environmental and economic asset

In line with one of the central points of the New Global Financial Pact event in Paris, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva highlighted in his speech this Friday (23rd) the government’s commitment to ending deforestation and the role of preservation of the Amazon to mitigate the climate crisis and at the same time overcome inequalities.

In a speech at the same time proposing about the role of Brazil and blunt in relation to that of rich countries in the environmental debate, Lula made it clear that it is necessary to go beyond the speeches and treaties never fulfilled by the powers, but demanded by them in relation to developing nations , as happened with the punishment rules established by the European Union as a condition for signing the agreement with Mercosur. The subject, incidentally, was one of the most criticized and addressed points by Lula on this trip to the continent.

“We want to make this (the Amazon) not only an asset for environmental preservation, but an economic asset, to help the people who live in the forest. In this Brazilian forest, we have 400 indigenous peoples. And, of these 400 indigenous peoples, we have 300 languages”, highlighted the president after talking about the dimensions and importance of the biome and the holding of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP-30 in Belém, Pará, in 2025 .

Read too: Lula classifies the EU’s demands for an agreement with Mercosur as a threat

Lula also pointed out that on August 12th, the presidents of the South American countries that make up the Amazon will also meet in the capital of Pará to finalize a common proposal to be taken at COP-28, to be held in the United Arab Emirates from November 30th to December 12th.

The president also recalled the adversities of the Amazon region, which have been fought since he took office. “We stand up to mining, we stand up to organized crime. And we often face people in bad faith wanting to try to make soy be planted in this forest, corn planted, cattle raised, when in fact it is not necessary to do that ”, he pointed out.

Lula also said that “the climate issue is not a secondary thing” and emphasized: “we are going to make it a matter of honor, of ending deforestation in the Amazon by 2030. Brazil has 30 million hectares of degraded land, you don’t need to cut down a tree to plant a soybean plant, a corn plant or raise cattle. It is just recovering the degraded lands”.

As for the iniquities that affect millions of people on the planet, Lula said: “We are an increasingly unequal world, and more and more wealth is concentrated in the hands of fewer people, and poverty concentrated in the hands of more people. If we don’t discuss this issue of inequality, and if we don’t put it as high a priority as the climate issue, we could have a very good climate and people could continue to die of hunger in many countries around the world”.

When talking about the role of international organizations, such as the UN, and the need to reform them to adapt them to the current reality, the Brazilian president declared: “if we do not change these institutions, the climate issue becomes a joke. And why is it a joke? Who will carry out the decisions made in the forums that we make? Is it the National State?”.

Read too: Lula argues that rich countries must pay historic debt to the planet

Lula continued to question the behavior, above all, of rich countries: “Let’s be frank: who complied with the Kyoto Protocol? Who complied with the COP-15 decisions in Copenhagen? Who complied with the Paris Agreement? And it is not fulfilled because there is no global governance with the strength to decide things and for us to comply”.

“If each one of us leaves a COP and returns to approve things within our National State, we will not approve. So it is necessary to be clear that if we do not change the institutions, the world will remain the same. Rich people will stay rich, poor people will stay poor. And so. And I say that with regret.”