BELEM, Brazil (AP) — As world leaders head into the second day of climate talks in Brazil, a major proposal to protect the world's rainforests is sure to be a major topic of discussion.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday tried to mobilize funding to stop ongoing rainforest destruction and fulfill many unfulfilled promises made at previous summits.
He proposes creating a fund called the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, which would pay 74 developing countries to maintain their trees, using loans from richer countries and commercial investors. Funded by interest-bearing debt rather than donations, it aims to make it more profitable for governments to preserve their trees rather than cut them down.
The location where the proposal was announced and negotiations are taking place, Belem, is significant because the city is part of the Amazon rainforest, which is critical for climate regulation.
Destruction of rainforests benefits pastoralists, miners and illegal loggers, but Brazil hopes to convince countries that preserving the forests promises richer benefits for the world by absorbing huge amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that warms the planet when it is released into the atmosphere.
As senior Brazilian officials walked reporters through the inner workings of the fund, Norway pledged $3 billion (the biggest commitment of the day), raising hopes that Lula's ambitions will become a reality. Germany is expected to follow suit on Friday when Lula meets Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Brazilian officials announced a total of $5.5 billion.
The fund's rules stipulate that 20% of the money will go to the indigenous peoples who have managed and conserved the lands for thousands of years. A large number of tribes are expected to participate in this year's climate talks, especially from Brazil and neighboring countries.
But the reduced participation in the summit highlighted differences between countries and attention to many other things going on in the world. The leaders of the planet's three biggest polluters – China, the United States and India – were absent from a preliminary meeting of world leaders ahead of full climate talks starting next week.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the meeting with harsh words for world powers, which he said “remain captive to fossil fuel interests rather than defending the public interest.”
Allowing global warming to exceed the key target of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) set in the 2015 Paris agreement would be a “moral failure and deadly negligence,” Guterres said. He warned that “even temporary excesses would have dramatic consequences… every fraction of a degree above means more hunger, displacement and loss.”
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