Brazil is a heavyweight in the world’s climate balance, for good and for bad. The country is among the 20 largest economies worldwide, the sixth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and one of the 10 largest oil producers. At the same time, it harbors the planet’s largest rainforest and a significant share of its biodiversity. “We are certainly part of the problem, but we also have the potential to help provide quick solutions,” Natalie Unterstell, president of Talanoa Institute, a Brazilian think tank committed to climate policy, told Mongabay. After four years under the rule of the climate denialist Jair Bolsonaro (2019-22), Brazil now tries to resume its protagonist role in the climate arena with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. His first step toward showing that Brazil was back in the climate game was taken at COP27 in Egypt, even before Lula was sworn in. Once in office, he announced Pará’s capital, Belém, as the host of COP30 in 2025. Environmental agents were back on the ground to fight illegal miners and land-grabbers, and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon reached a six-year low. “The government has recovered a considerable part of the damage done by the Bolsonaro administration,” said Márcio Astrini, the executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, a network of civil society groups working against climate change. “It brought COP to Brazil, reduced deforestation and created the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples,” he told Mongabay. Lula’s administration managed to reduce deforestation by 50% and promised to zero clearances by 2030.…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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