Lula wants to demand US$ 100 billion annually from rich countries for the climate

The president of the republic Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) said this Saturday (8) that he will demand that the “richer countries” fulfill the commitment of allocating 100 billion dollars a year to climate actions. The charge is justified, according to Lula, as it was the “rich countries” that most emitted greenhouse gases in history. The speech was made during the closing session of the Technical-Scientific Meeting of the Amazon, which took place in Leticia, Colombia. The meeting is a preparation for the Amazon Summit to be held in August, in Belém/Pará.

Without mentioning which countries would be charged, Lula called on the leaders of the other Amazonian countries to support the charges. “We will have to demand, together, that rich countries fulfill their commitments, including the promise made in Copenhagen [capital da Dinamarca]in 2009 of $100 billion a year for climate action. After all, they have historically emitted most greenhouse gases. Whoever has the largest forest reserves and the greatest biodiversity deserves greater representation,” said Lula.

President Lula also criticized the fact that Brazil had to share a seat on the board of the Global Fund for the Environment. “It is inexplicable that international financing mechanisms, such as the Global Environment Facility, which was born in the World Bank, reproduce the exclusionary logic of the Bretton Woods institutions. Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador are obliged to share a chair on the Fund’s board, while developed countries, such as the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden, each occupy their own seat”, emphasized Lula referring to the Global Environment Facility (GEF), in Portuguese Global Fund for the Environment, which is one of the largest funders of environmental projects in the world.