Speech by President Lula on the opening of the Tropical Forests Forever Facility assembly — Planalto

Ten years in the past, within the context of the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the negotiations of the Paris Agreement, the then Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, issued a elementary warning:

“We are the last generation that can take action to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.”

The Tropical Forests Forever Facility (Fundo Florestas Tropicais para Sempre /TFFF), which might be launched on the COP in Belém, represents an unprecedented device on this struggle. More than defending a selected biome, the TFFF is a mechanism to protect life on Earth itself.

Tropical forests present important ecosystem companies for local weather regulation.

They include the most important freshwater reserves on this planet, shield the soil, retailer oxygen, and take up carbon dioxide.

Their degradation would irreversibly compromise the worldwide local weather steadiness.

When tropical forests attain their tipping factors, the results of this disaster won’t be felt solely in Belém, Kinshasa, or Jakarta.

The choice to host COP30 within the coronary heart of the Amazon stemmed from the urgency of putting forest preservation on the heart of local weather debates, from the attitude of the Global South.

Developing nations have typically been accused of failing to maintain the surroundings.

But it’s ineffective to import fashions which might be distant from native realities.

There might be no attainable resolution for tropical forests with out the main position of those that reside in them.

In 2023, along with nations from South America, Africa, and Asia, Brazil launched the United for Our Forests Initiative.

We acknowledged that assets for conservation are scarce.

The Tropical Forests Forever Facility was designed to fill this vital financing hole.

The TFFF will change the position of tropical forest nations in addressing local weather change by way of actual financial incentives.

Its monetary and institutional mannequin was developed with the help of the World Bank and worldwide organizations, and thru consultations with civil society, Indigenous peoples, and native communities.

The aim is to compensate nations that preserve their tropical forests standing.

The TFFF upholds the Principle of Common however Differentiated Responsibilities.

It will complement mechanisms for funds for emission reductions of greenhouse gases.

Initial contributions will be made by each developed and growing nations.

These sovereign investments will leverage a blended fund.

The dividends generated might be distributed yearly between traders and the nations that preserve their forests standing.

Every yr, satellite tv for pc monitoring will make it attainable to determine whether or not nations are assembly the goal of retaining deforestation beneath 0.5%.

Reforestations might be accounted for over time.

The goal is for every nation to obtain as much as 4 {dollars} per hectare preserved.

It could seem modest, however we’re speaking about one billion 100 million hectares of tropical forests unfold throughout 73 growing nations.

The Amazon, Congo, and Borneo-Mekong basins maintain eighty p.c of the remaining tropical forests.

Having steady and steady financing for structural public insurance policies of this nature can have a transformative influence on the Global South.

Directing a part of these assets to Indigenous peoples and native communities can present sufficient means for individuals who have all the time cared for our forests and woodlands.

The TFFF will coordinate conservation, sustainable use of ecosystem assets, and social justice in pursuit of a brand new improvement mannequin.

Its decision-making our bodies will embody each investor nations and tropical forest nations.

Social and skilled participation will add worth to the evaluation and enchancment of the mechanism.

Last month, in Bogotá, the TFFF acquired the help of the member nations of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization.

Brazil will lead by instance and turn into the primary nation to decide to investing within the Fund, with 1 billion {dollars}.

I invite all of the companions current to make equally bold contributions in order that the TFFF can turn into operational at COP30, in November, within the Amazon. In Belém, we’ll expertise the second of fact for our era of leaders.

Tropical forests are important to maintain alive the aim of limiting international warming to 1.5 levels.

The TFFF is just not charity. It is an funding in humankind and the planet, in opposition to the specter of devastation from local weather chaos.

Thank you very a lot.