Instead, Lula said climate change would have the highest profile in his administration and he would work to strengthen oversight and monitoring systems that have been dismantled over the past four years. “I’m here to tell you all that Brazil has returned to the world,” Lula told hundreds of spectators gathered in a pavilion in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where he was met with cheers. “You all know that we are going to take a big fight against deforestation,” he said. Lula sought to reassure COP27 delegates about Brazil’s commitment to the environment [Nariman El-Mofty/AP Photo] The president-elect also called on the international community to show better leadership on climate change. He challenged rich nations to meet their pledge to provide $100 billion a year in climate finance. Meanwhile, he said the global community urgently needed “financial mechanisms to repair the losses and damages caused by climate change”. Lula also used the summit to bash Bolsonaro, who he defeated in a runoff election in October. “Brazil cannot remain isolated as it has been for the past four years. [Officials from Brazil] he did not travel to any other country and no other country traveled to Brazil,” Lula said. He was not mentioned in Brazilian news reports that have focused on a possible alliance between Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia, home to the world’s largest rainforests. The group has been dubbed the “OPEC of the Forests”, in reference to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. However, the task ahead of Lula remains enormous. Brazil’s leaders have traditionally faced enormous domestic pressures – particularly from the agricultural and mining sectors – to grow. Lula’s environmental record during his previous term as president – from 2003 to 2010 – was also mixed. While deforestation fell dramatically after he took office, critics accused Lula of increasingly catering to agribusiness interests in the final years of his presidency. As he prepares to take office again, Lula has also floated the idea of creating a new national authority to coordinate climate action among government ministries and pursue a target of reforesting 12 million hectares (over 29 million acres). After Lula’s victory, the fund’s main contributors, Norway and Germany, announced they would participate again. They froze aid in 2019 in the wake of Bolsonaro’s victory.
