COP27: Lula cites "relentless combat" against environmental crimes
The president-elect of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, promised to "fight relentlessly" against environmental crimes in the country, while speaking at the Conference of the Parties (COP27). To achieve this goal, he again cited the creation of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, in addition to strengthening enforcement organizations and environmental monitoring systems.
"These crimes affect indigenous peoples in particular. That is why we are going to create the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, so that they themselves can present government proposals that guarantee them peace and survival. They will be the first partners, agents and beneficiaries of a local development model", he said, commenting on the possibility of these communities using their natural wealth to produce medicines and other products that are not harmful to the environment.
Lula also mentioned investments in the country's energy transition to wind and solar sources, biofuels, and also to the production of green hydrogen, a 100% renewable fuel that has increasingly aroused the interest of other countries.
International Cooperation
The president-elect gave the tone of how his government will be, starting next year: "I want to say that Brazil is back to reconnect with the world; to help again to fight hunger in the world; and to cooperate with the poorest countries, especially in Africa and Latin America," said Lula.
"The phrase I have heard most from the world leaders I have met with is: 'the world misses Brazil,'" said the president-elect. "We return to a new peaceful order of dialogue, multilateralism and plurality. For fair trade and for peace among peoples," he added.
Lula then went back to defending the urgent need for financial mechanisms to remedy losses and damages caused due to climate change. "We cannot postpone this debate. We cannot continue in this race towards the abyss."
He reiterated the proposal made earlier, that Brazil, through an Amazonian state, host the COP30 in 2025, and invited South American countries to meet to discuss "in a sovereign way the integrated development of the region with social and climate responsibility."
The president-elect also advocated a reform of the United Nations (UN), in order to adapt to a world that is already far removed from the context of its creation. "It is not possible for the UN to be run under the same logic of World War II geopolitics," he said.
"The world and countries have changed and want to participate more, and we need global governance, especially on the climate issue. If there is something that needs global governance it is the environmental issue. We need a world forum for that. It is with this objective that I came back to run, and this is why I say that I came back not to do the same, but to do more."
Climate emergency
While speaking in the Blue Zone, a United Nations (UN) area at CO27, the president-elect commented on the consequences of climate change, which affect all countries. Among the effects, he mentioned the increasingly frequent tornadoes and tropical storms in the United States; the fires and meteorological phenomena in Europe; and the droughts and floods that have affected Brazil.
He also cited the damage caused to poor countries. "Despite being the continent with the lowest emissions rate, Africa has been suffering extreme weather effects. Rising sea levels could be catastrophic for Egyptians in the Nile Delta." "Island countries are threatened to disappear. The climate emergency affects everyone, although its effects are most noticeable among the poorest."
To corroborate the argument, Lula said that 1% of the countries - in this case, the richest - emit 30 times more carbon dioxide gas than the least developed, and that this will contribute significantly to making the increase in temperature intensify even more, making it impossible to comply with what was agreed in previous editions of the COP.
"Therefore, the fight against global warming is inseparable from the fight against poverty, and for a less unequal and fairer world," he added, recalling that climate security is directly related to the protection of the South American Amazon - which is why he committed himself to "not measuring efforts" to stop the deforestation of this and other Brazilian biomes.
Lula reiterated the importance that all the participants of the Conference of the Parties comply with agreements made in previous editions of the meeting: "we cannot keep promising and not comply because we will be victims of ourselves", he added, remembering the commitments made at the COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009, in which the richest countries committed to allocate, starting in 2020, US$ 100 billion per year to help the least developed countries to face climate change. "My return is also to collect what was promised," he added.
Agribusiness
About agriculture, Lula said that the goal of his government will be balanced production, sequestering carbon and protecting biodiversity, with increased income for farmers and ranchers.
"I am sure that agribusiness will be a strategic ally in the search for a regenerative and sustainable agriculture, with valorization of technology in the field. There are several successful examples of agro-forestry in Brazil. We have the technological knowledge for this, so as not to deforest even one meter. This is the challenge facing Brazilians and other food-producing countries", he said, while reiterating the purpose of reducing hunger in Brazil and in the world.
According to him, the election results showed that Brazilians made a choice for peace, for well-being, for the survival of the Amazon "and, therefore, for the survival of our planet.
"At every moment the planet warns us that we need each other to survive and that alone we are vulnerable to climate tragedy. We ignore these warnings by spending trillions on wars that only bring death, while 900 million people have nothing to eat." "Between 2030 and 2050, global warming could result in 250,000 more deaths a year from illnesses due to excessive heat, and the economic impact of this process is estimated to be between $2 and $4 billion annually. No one is safe," he argued.
