In his first international appearance as president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spoke at the COP27 summit in Egypt on Wednesday, November 16, where he promised to renew Brazil’s commitment to combating the climate crisis and offered to host future UN climate negotiations.
“I am here to tell all of you that Brazil is back in the world,” he said alongside governors from the Amazon states.
Lula stated that he would seek to make Brazil the host of COP30 in 2025 and that the location would be in the Amazon rainforest, rather than the coastal region of the country.
“It is important that it be in the Amazon. It is important that the people who defend the Amazon, the people who defend the climate, get to know the region up close,” Lula said.
This would not be the first time Brazil hosted a major event on climate and the environment. The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro set the stage for all major international environmental agreements since then, with the signing of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, which aims to prevent extreme climate change and served as the basis for COP meetings.