The choice of Belem, Brazil, as the host city for global climate talks is a powerful and deliberate one. As a gateway to the Amazon rainforest, the city’s location serves as a constant, living reminder of what is at stake: the “lungs” of the planet.
It is in this symbolic setting that Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is pushing his most ambitious climate proposal. He is seeking to mobilize global funding to halt the destruction of tropical forests, which are crucial for absorbing the carbon dioxide that is heating the globe.
Lula’s plan is the “Tropical Forests Forever Facility,” a new fund to pay 74 developing countries to protect their forests. The goal is to prove that preservation offers “richer rewards” to the world than the short-term profits of deforestation.
The fund is designed to be financed by interest-bearing loans from wealthy nations and commercial investors. This model has already attracted $5.5 billion in pledges, including $3 billion from Norway, and has earmarked 20 percent of its funds for Indigenous peoples.
The urgency of the Belem talks is contrasted by a worrying lack of global unity. The absence of leaders from the top three polluting nations (US, China, India) and stark warnings from the UN chief about “moral failure” highlight the immense challenge of turning the summit’s symbolic location into a site of real action.