(Sao Paulo) Brazil’s left-wing president-elect, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is due to travel to COP27 in November in response to the Egyptian presidency’s invitation to the 27e UN climate conference, the president of Lula’s Workers’ Party announced on Tuesday.
Posted at 3:46 p.m.
“He’s going to go […] He is studying the best week to go,” Gleisi Hoffmann told reporters after meeting PT co-founder Lula in Sao Paulo.
A spokesperson for Lula first said that the president, elected on Sunday against outgoing far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, “was thinking about going to COP27”, but “had not yet made his decision”.
Lula will not yet be president of Brazil, as he is only to be enthroned on the 1er January.
In a statement on Monday from Egyptian presidential spokesman Bassam Radi, “President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi congratulates President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on his election […] and invites him to attend COP27”.
“It is certain that Brazil has a positive role to play in this conference which aims to strengthen climate action at the global level”, adds the text.
Many climate activists had said they hoped for a victory for Lula, the left and center candidate who will officially take office on 1er January, to advance their cause in Brazil and at COP27.
Under Jair Bolsonaro’s tenure, which began in 2019, annual deforestation in the Amazon has increased by an average of 75% compared to the previous decade.
Sunday, the evening of his election, Lula affirmed that “Brazil is ready to resume its leadership in the fight against the climate crisis”.
“Brazil and the planet need a living Amazon,” added the president-elect as, according to a recent study, the Amazon, long a precious “carbon sink”, now emits more CO2 than she absorbs.
These emissions doubled during the first two years of the Bolsonaro government.
Egypt is hosting more than 90 world leaders from November 6-18, according to COP27 organizers, including US President Joe Biden.