The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said Saturday that developed nations must compensate less developed countries to collaborate to preserve the environment.
“Rich nations need to understand that they have a debt in the emission of carbon dioxide gas, and therefore they must advance resources by paying that debt so that we can preserve our forests,” Lula assured the Brazilian press from London, where he attended the coronation of King Charles III.
Lula commented on the United Kingdom’s commitment to contribute to the Amazon Fund. This Brazilian mechanism receives resources from other countries to develop social and economically sustainable policies for the 25 million Brazilians who live in the Amazon rainforest.
Brazil, Latin America’s leading economy, has 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest territory.
The president considered it essential that “the rich countries take the climate issue seriously” and insisted on a reform of the United Nations adapted to the current global scenario and “not to the geopolitics of 1945”.
Lula assured that Brazil is a “world environmental power” by its capacity to generate clean energy and preserve the Amazon rainforest.
He recalled that Brazil’s goal is to achieve zero deforestation in the Amazon by 2030, so he reiterated the call for a meeting in August of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) countries.
ACTO comprises Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Suriname and Guyana.