Brazilian president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has vowed to protect the 1.4 billion acres of the Amazon rainforest, crucial to tackling climate change and reversing the destructive policies under current President Jair Bolsonaro. Lula made his pledge to cheering crowds while attending the United Nations climate summit (COP27) in Egypt.
“We must stop this rush to the abyss. There is no climate security for the world without a protected Amazon,” he said, adding, “We will do whatever it takes to have zero deforestation and the degradation of our biomes.”
According to the United Nations, the Amazon stretches across eight countries and is home to 1.4 billion acres of thick forest – half of the planet’s remaining tropical forests – as well as 10 percent of the world’s species. The world’s largest tropical forest is also a vital ecosystem both in terms of biodiversity and climate.
Rainforests are a massive carbon sink, absorbing a quarter of the CO2 absorbed by all the land on Earth. Tropical forests also cool the planet’s air by one-third of a degree through biophysical mechanisms such as humidifying the air. Increased warmer and drier conditions will result in more degradation and loss of ecological functions. Right now, 18 percent of the Amazon basin’s forested area has been deforested, with an additional 17 percent undergoing degradation.
Lula, as he is better known by, will assume office on January 1, 2023.