Climate Group has welcomed the election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as President of Brazil this week, and urged him to keep his promises on fighting climate change and enhancing biodiversity.
Executive Director Angela Barranco said:
“Today’s election result gives us cause to hope that meaningful steps will now be taken by Brazil to protect the natural environment. President-elect Lula da Silva has promised to stop all Amazon destruction and act on climate change. We urge him to uphold this pledge and upgrade Brazil’s NDC to show a greater level of ambition. We are running out of time to halve emissions this decade and so stay within the 1.5 degree upper limit laid out by scientists. As a consequence of inaction, we must now move further, faster.
“Brazilian members of the Under2 Coalition of states and regions have long been calling for – and taking – action on the climate crisis where they are. However, they have been doing this against the backdrop of a national government promoting environmental destruction. With a supportive President, we hope that they can elevate their efforts on both climate change and biodiversity loss in the coming months.
“There is no time to waste in stopping and reversing the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. At the UN's Biodiversity COP in Montreal this December we, and our state and regional partners, will be pushing for urgent, concrete action to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. There can be no more important call to action than protecting Amazon for future generations.”
