The Brazil climate summit in Belem presents a stark contradiction. On one front, there is significant financial momentum, with $5.5 billion pledged for a new forest protection fund. On the other, there is a worrying political vacuum, with the leaders of the world’s top three polluters—the US, China, and India—failing to attend.
The positive momentum comes from Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his “Tropical Forests Forever Facility.” This fund, backed by a $3 billion pledge from Norway, aims to pay 74 developing nations to halt deforestation by making preservation economically profitable.
This “pay-to-preserve” model, financed by loans rather than aid, is a novel approach to tackling the drivers of deforestation like logging and ranching. The fund also allocates 20 percent of its resources to Indigenous peoples, the long-time stewards of the Amazon.
However, the “reduced participation” from the world’s biggest economies casts a long shadow. This division prompted UN Secretary-General António Guterres to deliver a blistering speech, warning of a “moral failure” and “deadly negligence” if the 1.5-degree warming goal is abandoned.
Guterres blamed “fossil fuel interests” for holding world powers captive, a critique that highlights the deep ideological and economic rifts that Lula’s financial proposal must navigate to succeed.