Brazil’s Lula saving Amazon

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Brazilian president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is expected this week at the United Nations climate summit in Egypt to pledge to reverse the environmental policies of his right-wing predecessor and protect the Amazon rainforest.

Lula's trip Monday to the COP27 talks in Sharm el-Sheikh will be his first international visit since beating Brazil's far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in the 30 October runoff election.

The 77-year-old, who promised on the campaign trail to work towards zero deforestation, will address the conference on Wednesday, his press team said.

In a nod to Lula's victory speech, in which he pledged to end Brazil's "pariah" status, his team said he had wanted to hold "more talks with world leaders in a single day than Bolsonaro had in four years."

But according to Brazilian newspaper O Globo, the incoming president has not been able to line up most of the dozen or so high-level meetings he had requested.

Lula might, however, meet with United States climate czar John Kerry and announce that Brazil is willing to host the COP30 summit in 2025, the newspaper said.

Latin America's most populous country grew more isolated under Bolsonaro, analysts say, in part due to his permissive policies towards deforestation and exploitation of the Amazon, the preservation of which is seen as critical to fighting global warming.

If Lula — who served as president from 2003 to 2010 — manages to curb deforestation and illegal mining, he would make a major contribution to the global fight against climate change, Francisco Eliseu Aquino, a climate expert at Rio Grande do Sul University, said.

"Lula knows the COP talks well. He was always proactive in international discussions and kept a high international profile" during his first two terms, Aquino said.