President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) met on Tuesday night (15), at local time (afternoon in Brazil), with the United States special climate envoy, John Kerry, and with Xie Zhenhua , envoy from China to COP27, the United Nations climate conference, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The talks took place at the hotel where Lula’s entourage is staying in the resort on the Red Sea.
On his official Twitter account, Lula published photos with the two representatives of the two largest economies in the world. The meetings, confirmed by the PT’s advisory earlier in the day, were expected to define future help from both countries for preservation actions in the Amazon.
Before the meeting with Lula, Kerry told BBC Brazil that he was “excited” to talk to the PT and that he expects a “total turnaround” from Brazil on environmental issues.
Before receiving Kerry and Xie Zhenhua, in the afternoon, Lula met with Marina Silva, with whom he also took a photo and posted it on social networks.
THE Sheet found that Marina, elected federal deputy (Rede-SP) and former Minister of the Environment, one of the most sought-after names for the position in the new government, gave the PT party a summary of the bilateral meetings she had throughout the first week of the COP with countries such as the United States, Japan and Germany.
Lula’s agenda for this Tuesday also included a call to the president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and a meeting with Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), president of the Senate.
The invitation to Lula to participate in COP27 came from the re-elected governor of Pará Helder Barbalho (MDB) and also from President Sisi — accommodation in the resort where the conference is held is the responsibility of the Egyptian government, says the PT’s advisor.
Lula’s official agenda at the conference begins, however, only this Wednesday (16th), with an event alongside the governors of the Amazon, followed by a speech in the UN area. The following day, he meets with representatives of Brazilian civil society and participates in the International Forum of Indigenous Peoples/Peoples Forum on Climate Change.
The president-elect arrived at the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday night (14th; early Tuesday, 15th, in Egypt) aboard a plane belonging to businessman José Seripieri Junior, founder of Qualicorp and owner of Qsaúde. In his entourage, among others, is Janja, his wife, who this Tuesday visited the stand of Brazilian NGOs at the COP and met with female leaders.
Amid growing expectations about what PT should present at the conference, socio-environmental organizations from Brazil and abroad are hoping and also suggesting new commitments that he could bring to the COP.
In addition to the promise made in the campaign to eliminate deforestation in the Amazon —which will probably be reinforced—, some announcements could be made more easily, without compromising the construction of the government. Among them is the possibility of communicating that you intend to take the COP to Brazil in 2025.
The presidency of the Climate COP has regional rotation and will return to a Latin American country in 2025. The conference would have taken place in Brazil in 2019, but was canceled by Bolsonaro in 2018, shortly after his election.
Part of the Brazilian organizations also hopes to hear from Lula a commitment to correct the Brazilian climate target in the Paris Agreement, which suffered a “climate pedal” during the Bolsonaro government, with an update that, in practice, reduces the commitment to the climate.
Even so, the big question that boils in the corridors between the three Brazilian pavilions at the COP is the name that will lead the Ministry of the Environment in the third Lula administration.
The names that are considered to be the most quoted —ex-ministers Marina Silva (Rede-SP) and Izabella Teixeira, and senator Randolfe Rodrigues (Rede)— for occupying the position are even at the climate conference, which brings even more echo for the possibility of an advertisement.
Lula’s presence at COP27 ends on Friday (18), when he will travel to Portugal.
The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations
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