Brazil’s Lula seeks global rainforest nation pact at Amazon summit

BELEM, Brazil (Reuters) – Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday hopes to forge a united front among rainforest nations when they engage in international climate negotiations, building on an accord a day earlier at a summit of Amazon nations.

Representatives from the eight Amazon nations gathered in the northern Brazilian city of Belem for the summit are set to meet with leaders from countries including Indonesia, Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday. The Congo Basin and Southeast Asia are home to the world’s largest rainforests after the Amazon.

Lula, a two-time former president who has long sought to build multilateral blocs with less developed nations, has repeatedly called on rich, industrialized countries to deliver on commitments to finance actions on climate change in poorer countries that did little to cause global warming.

The leftist leader aims to bring a similar message to this year’s United Nations climate summit, known as COP28, backed by a strengthened coalition.

“We want to prepare for the first time a joint document of all forest countries to arrive united at COP28, in the United Arab Emirates, that we can seriously discuss with rich countries,” Lula said last week.

The first day of the Amazon Summit resulted in a broad agreement for the region to cooperate on areas like combating organized crime and scientific research.

But environmentalists criticized the joint declaration for failing to commit to ending deforestation by 2030, while also falling short of expectations on stopping oil drilling in the Amazon and halting illegal mining.

At last year’s climate summit, Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia agreed to form an alliance to pressure rich countries to pay for conservation. Republic of Congo’s inclusion in this week’s summit marks a gradual expansion of cooperation.

Some developed nations are attending the two-day summit. Norway and Germany, major contributors to Amazon conservation in Brazil, will participate as well as France, technically a rainforest nation because of its overseas territory of French Guiana.

(Reporting by Jake Spring; editing by Miral Fahmy)