Manaus, Brazil (AFP) — Joe Biden will make the first trip to the Amazon rainforest by a sitting US president Sunday — but his visit will be overshadowed by incoming leader Donald Trump’s vows to roll back his green policies.
Biden is heading to Manaus in Brazil, a city in the heart of the world’s largest jungle, as part of a tour of South America that is likely to be the last major foreign swing of his single term in office.
The 81-year-old will have an aerial tour of the Amazon and visit a museum before speaking to the media, the White House said. Biden will also meet indigenous and local leaders working to protect the Amazon.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Biden was making the “historic stop in the Amazon to underscore his personal commitment and America’s continuing commitment... to combat climate change at home and abroad.”
“This has been, obviously, one of the defining causes of President Biden’s presidency,” Sullivan told a briefing on Wednesday.
“This will be the first-ever visit of a sitting US president to the Amazon.”
But Biden’s visit comes as the world braces for the return of Republican Trump to the White House on 20 January after his sweeping election victory over Democrat Kamala Harris.
Trump has pledged to reverse Biden’s policies and could pull the United States out of international efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial times.