MANAUS, Brazil (AP) – Joe Biden became the first sitting U.S. president to set foot in the Amazon rainforest on Sunday, as the incoming Trump administration appears poised to scale back U.S. efforts to fight climate change. I stepped into it.
The giant Amazon, about the size of Australia, stores the world’s largest amount of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that causes climate change when released into the atmosphere. But due to development, the world’s largest rainforest is rapidly disappearing.
Biden was joined in a helicopter by Carlos Nobre, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and expert on how climate change is affecting the Amazon, and Biden’s climate change advisor John Podesta. We flew over the rainforest and got a good look at the shallow waterways. , fire damage, wildlife sanctuary. He also peered into the confluence of the Rio Negro and Amazon rivers.
Biden will then meet with local and indigenous leaders and visit the Amazon Museum to highlight his commitment to regional conservation.
Last year, the administration announced plans to contribute $500 million to the Amazon Fund, the most important international cooperation effort to protect the rainforest, mainly funded by Norway.
The U.S. government has said it has provided $50 million so far, and the White House announced Sunday that it would commit an additional $50 million to the fund.
“It’s important for a sitting president to visit the Amazon. … It shows the president’s personal commitment,” said former head of Brazil’s Environmental Protection Agency and public policy coordinator at the nonprofit Climate Observatory. said Sueli Araujo. “However, we cannot expect any concrete results from this visit.”
She doubts that “every penny” will be donated to the Amazon Fund once Donald Trump returns to the White House.
It is highly unlikely that the incoming Trump administration will prioritize anything related to the Amazon or climate change. The Republican president-elect has already said he will again withdraw from the Paris climate accord, the global pact struck to avert the threat of catastrophic climate change, after Biden announced his recommitment to the accord. .
President Trump has denounced climate change as a “hoax” and said he will repeal the Biden administration’s energy efficiency regulations.
Still, President Biden on Sunday announced a series of new initiatives aimed at strengthening the Amazon and stemming the effects of climate change.
Among its efforts are the launch of a financial coalition that aims to foster at least $10 billion in public and private investment in land restoration and green economy projects by 2030, and the includes a $37.5 million loan. Supporting the large-scale planting of native tree species on degraded grasslands in Brazil.
Biden is also expected to sign a U.S. proclamation designating Nov. 17 as International Conservation Day, and during his visit he said the U.S. will increase spending on international climate funds sixfold to $11 billion in 2024. We plan to emphasize that we plan to reach . since he began his term.
The Amazon is home to indigenous communities and 10% of the planet’s biodiversity. It also regulates humidity throughout South America. About two-thirds of the Amazon lies within Brazil, and scientists say its devastation poses a devastating threat to the planet.
The forest has been in the grips of two years of historic drought, drying up waterways, isolating thousands of riparian communities and disrupting riverside residents’ ability to fish. Wildfires also broke out, scorching an area larger than Switzerland and choking cities near and far with smoke.
When Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office last year, he signaled a shift in environmental policy from his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro. President Bolsonaro has prioritized agribusiness expansion over forest protection and weakened environmental authorities, causing deforestation to surge to a 15-year high.
Lula has pledged to achieve “zero deforestation” by 2030, but his term of office runs until the end of 2026. Forest loss in Brazil’s Amazon fell 30.6% year-on-year in the 12 months to July, with deforestation at its lowest level in nine years. According to official data released last week.
In that 12-month period, the Amazon lost 6,288 square kilometers (2,428 square miles), an area roughly the size of the U.S. state of Delaware. But that data fails to capture this year’s surge in destruction, which will only be included in next year’s findings.
Despite its success in curbing deforestation in the Amazon, Lula’s government has continued to push the region further, including paving highways that could clear areas of virgin forest and facilitate logging and oil drilling near the mouth of the Amazon. It has been criticized by environmentalists for supporting projects that could have negative impacts. Construction of rivers and railways to transport soybeans to Amazonian ports.
Biden is visiting the Amazon as part of his first six-day trip to South America since becoming president. He traveled from Lima, Peru, to attend the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference and meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
After his stay in Manaus, he was scheduled to head to Rio de Janeiro to attend this year’s G20 summit.
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Sa Pessoa reported from São Paulo and Long reported from Washington.
