Industrialized nations should compensate less industrialized countries for their efforts to preserve the environment, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Saturday.
“Rich nations need to understand that they have a debt to pay for emitting carbon dioxide, that’s why they should pay this debt by advancing (financial) resources, so we can preserve our forests,” Lula told Brazilian media in London, where he was attending the coronation ceremony of Britain’s King Charles III.
Britain, he noted, has committed to contributing to the Amazon Fund, a Brazilian mechanism that receives resources from other countries to promote sustainable social and economic policies for the 25 million people living in the Amazon rainforest.
Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, is home to 60 percent of the Amazon jungle.
It was essential that “rich countries take the climate issue seriously,” Lula noted.
Brazil aims to achieve zero deforestation in the Amazon by 2030.
It plans to host a meeting in August for member countries of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, which includes Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.
