If elected, top Lula aide says, the frontrunner presidential candidate plans to focus on the global carbon market and ways to finance conservation and sustainable development in rainforest regions.
Rainforests of the Amazon, Borneo and Congo basins are threatened by excessive logging, which hurts biodiversity and releases greenhouse gases that accelerate climate crisis.
(Edmar Barros / AP)
Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's aides are reaching out to Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to form a united front of countries with the most tropical rainforest at this year's UN climate talks if the leftist wins a new term.
The United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP27, will be held in November in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Lula is the frontrunner in opinion polls ahead of Brazil's October election.
Lula's idea is to build an alliance –– which could later be expanded –– to push for resolutions to help developing countries preserve their forests and pressure rich countries into contributing to the cost, a top Lula aide said on Wednesday.
Aloizio Mercadante, who is in charge of Lula's campaign programme, said the policy team is especially focused on the details of a global carbon market and ways to finance conservation and sustainable development in rainforest regions.
"The proposal is to set up a strategic alliance to address the issue of funding at the COP in Egypt," Mercadante told the Reuters news agency.
Campaigning in Manaus on Wednesday, Lula pledged to step up Brazilian conservation of the Amazon rainforest, by bolstering the environmental protection agency Ibama and increased enforcement, possibly with the help of the military, and Brazil will again have a loud voice in UN climate talks if he is elected.
"We want a stronger United Nations with greater decision-making power, especially on the climate issue, because otherwise we will keep making speeches and no one will comply," Lula said.
Alliance to protect biodiversity
Under Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who relaxed environmental protection, deforestation has surged along with illegal logging and gold mining in the Amazon, arousing international criticism of his government.
The rainforests of the Amazon, Borneo and Congo basins are threatened by excessive logging, which hurts biodiversity and releases greenhouse gases that accelerate climate change.
By uniting, the three countries can lead the charge to pressure rich countries for help with the cost of keeping the forests standing, Mercadante said.
Mercadante said it is essential to speed up the implementation of a global carbon market, which was approved at last year's COP in Glasgow but has still not been fully defined.
Lula's Workers Party has set up a working group to prepare for the UN climate talks in November, including proposals for a global market trading carbon offsets, Mercadante said.
He said Lula's advisors have made initial contacts with the governments of Indonesia and DRC. A meeting with an advisor to DRC's president should be scheduled in the next few weeks.
Tosi Mpanu-Mpanu, the DRC's chief climate change negotiator, said the proposal, while not new, made perfect sense.
"Joining their voices together would bring more weight in front of Western nations willing to provide resources for the protection of their forests," he told Reuters.
Difference in political dynamics
In 2012, the three countries had begun initial talks to win more clout in international talks aimed at giving true value to their forest resources.
The initiative did not get much traction due to political differences in Indonesia.
Mpanu-Mpanu said deforestation has a different dynamic in the three countries.
In Brazil and Indonesia it is mostly driven by aggressive agro-industry policies, such as cattle ranching and palm oil production, while in the DRC it is mostly driven by poverty, with extensive slash and burn agriculture practices and energy needs, he said.
The Indonesian embassy did not reply to a request for comment.
Mercadante said the proposed alliance could eventually include other nations with significant tropical forests, such as Brazil's neighbours in South America and other developing nations in Africa and Asia.
The proposal marks a stark contrast with Bolsonaro, who has bristled at foreign conservation efforts in the Amazon and moth-balled a billion-dollar Amazon Fund backed by Norway and Germany after taking issue with the organisations involved.
Source: Reuters
Trailing Lula in the polls, incumbent Bolsonaro, known for his brash rhetoric, is now counting on a more moderate image and a possible economic upturn to win, his communications minister says.
Brazil's general elections are scheduled for October 2.
(AP)
Former leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who spent 19 months in prison on bribery convictions, has promised to crack down on corruption if elected in Brazil's October election.
Lula said on Thursday he would create new mechanisms to investigate anyone in his government accused of corruption and punish them if proven guilty.
"Whoever makes a mistake will pay, you can be sure of that," he said in an interview with TV Globo's Jornal Nacional, a newscast with the largest audience in Brazil.
Lula, who led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, was jailed in the country's biggest corruption investigation that put dozens of politicians and businessmen in prison for graft and bribes. His convictions were later annulled allowing him to run again for office.
"I want to return to do things better this time," he said, admitting mistakes by his handpicked Workers Party (PT) successor Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached in the midst of a recession.
Lula has a double-digit lead in opinion polls over his far-right rival, President Jair Bolsonaro, in Brazil's most polarised race in decades.
Lula said Brazil's powerhouse farm sector had done well during his two terms as president when Brazil enjoyed a commodity boom. Bolsonaro, who is backed by the farm lobby, has eased environmental rules and frozen indigenous land claims.
If some farmers were against him, Lula said, it is because he opposes the destruction of the forest, but "serious" agricultural exporters were against illegal deforestation.
"What we need is to correctly tap our biodiversity and generate employment in the Amazon," he said.
READ MORE:Brazil to investigate lenders in credit card 'fraud' caseA 'moderate' Bolsonaro
Bolsonaro, who is not exactly known for mild rhetoric, is now counting on a more moderate image and economic upturn to win, his communications minister said on Thursday.
Bolsonaro's polling is bruised by a weak economy, his controversial handling of Covid-19 and what critics call his extremism. Lula leads Bolsonaro by 47 percent to 32 percent, according to the latest poll from the Datafolha institute.
Ten other contenders are polling in single digits.
But his charismatic, cool-tempered communications chief, Fabio Faria, said he is confident a critical mass of Brazilians will ultimately pick Bolsonaro over four more years of the PT.
Surging onto the national scene in the wake of that triple crisis, Bolsonaro won the presidency in 2018 with broad support, taking 55 percent of the vote.
And though some of those voters are disillusioned today, Bolsonaro's camp is confident the incumbent will win them back with a softer tone and an improving economy, Faria told the AFP news agency in an interview at the presidential palace in Brasilia.
Known for downplaying Covid-19 as a "little flu," urging Brazilians to stop being "sissies" about the pandemic, and attacking institutions such as the Superior Electoral Tribunal, whose new chief he once called a "scumbag," Bolsonaro has been dialling his rhetoric down a notch, Faria said.
"The president's more moderate tone speaks to voters who had turned against him because they felt the president's style could have been more moderate," said the telegenic 44-year-old brought in to give the administration a communications makeover in June 2020.
As evidence of Bolsonaro's softer touch, he offered the incumbent's prime-time interview on Monday on TV Globo, the biggest broadcaster in the country of 213 million people.
Despite being a fierce critic of Globo, Bolsonaro was less aggressive than usual during the interview.
But he drew criticism for casting doubt on whether he would accept the election result if he loses.
Bolsonaro said he would respect the outcome "as long as the elections are clean and transparent."
Like many countries, Brazil is suffering from surging prices, fuelled by the effects of the pandemic and Russia's offensive in Ukraine.
But prices posted a record drop of 0.68 percent in July, thanks partly to government fuel tax cuts.
Bolsonaro has also passed a massive social spending programme that recently began making welfare payments of around $110 a month to some 20 million families.
READ MORE:Brazil police raid Bolsonaro allies reportedly over 'coup' texts
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
Trailing Lula in the polls, incumbent Bolsonaro, known for his brash rhetoric, is now counting on a more moderate image and a possible economic upturn to win, his communications minister says.
Brazil's general elections are scheduled for October 2.
(AP)
Former leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who spent 19 months in prison on bribery convictions, has promised to crack down on corruption if elected in Brazil's October election.
Lula said on Thursday he would create new mechanisms to investigate anyone in his government accused of corruption and punish them if proven guilty.
"Whoever makes a mistake will pay, you can be sure of that," he said in an interview with TV Globo's Jornal Nacional, a newscast with the largest audience in Brazil.
Lula, who led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, was jailed in the country's biggest corruption investigation that put dozens of politicians and businessmen in prison for graft and bribes. His convictions were later annulled allowing him to run again for office.
"I want to return to do things better this time," he said, admitting mistakes by his handpicked Workers Party (PT) successor Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached in the midst of a recession.
Lula has a double-digit lead in opinion polls over his far-right rival, President Jair Bolsonaro, in Brazil's most polarised race in decades.
Lula said Brazil's powerhouse farm sector had done well during his two terms as president when Brazil enjoyed a commodity boom. Bolsonaro, who is backed by the farm lobby, has eased environmental rules and frozen indigenous land claims.
If some farmers were against him, Lula said, it is because he opposes the destruction of the forest, but "serious" agricultural exporters were against illegal deforestation.
"What we need is to correctly tap our biodiversity and generate employment in the Amazon," he said.
READ MORE:Brazil to investigate lenders in credit card 'fraud' caseA 'moderate' Bolsonaro
Bolsonaro, who is not exactly known for mild rhetoric, is now counting on a more moderate image and economic upturn to win, his communications minister said on Thursday.
Bolsonaro's polling is bruised by a weak economy, his controversial handling of Covid-19 and what critics call his extremism. Lula leads Bolsonaro by 47 percent to 32 percent, according to the latest poll from the Datafolha institute.
Ten other contenders are polling in single digits.
But his charismatic, cool-tempered communications chief, Fabio Faria, said he is confident a critical mass of Brazilians will ultimately pick Bolsonaro over four more years of the PT.
Surging onto the national scene in the wake of that triple crisis, Bolsonaro won the presidency in 2018 with broad support, taking 55 percent of the vote.
And though some of those voters are disillusioned today, Bolsonaro's camp is confident the incumbent will win them back with a softer tone and an improving economy, Faria told the AFP news agency in an interview at the presidential palace in Brasilia.
Known for downplaying Covid-19 as a "little flu," urging Brazilians to stop being "sissies" about the pandemic, and attacking institutions such as the Superior Electoral Tribunal, whose new chief he once called a "scumbag," Bolsonaro has been dialling his rhetoric down a notch, Faria said.
"The president's more moderate tone speaks to voters who had turned against him because they felt the president's style could have been more moderate," said the telegenic 44-year-old brought in to give the administration a communications makeover in June 2020.
As evidence of Bolsonaro's softer touch, he offered the incumbent's prime-time interview on Monday on TV Globo, the biggest broadcaster in the country of 213 million people.
Despite being a fierce critic of Globo, Bolsonaro was less aggressive than usual during the interview.
But he drew criticism for casting doubt on whether he would accept the election result if he loses.
Bolsonaro said he would respect the outcome "as long as the elections are clean and transparent."
Like many countries, Brazil is suffering from surging prices, fuelled by the effects of the pandemic and Russia's offensive in Ukraine.
But prices posted a record drop of 0.68 percent in July, thanks partly to government fuel tax cuts.
Bolsonaro has also passed a massive social spending programme that recently began making welfare payments of around $110 a month to some 20 million families.
READ MORE:Brazil police raid Bolsonaro allies reportedly over 'coup' texts
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
