However, veteran leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva faces a strong agribusiness lobby in congress that has tried to weaken environmental laws, and the president has enraged green activists with his support for the expansion of oil exploration.
This is what experts say he is doing right:
- Brazil's climate comeback -
The 79-year-old has returned to office after years of rampant Amazon deforestation under his climate-sceptic predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.
"Brazil is back," he declared at COP27 in Egypt shortly after his re-election, receiving a rock star's welcome as he pledged to protect a rainforest with billions of carbon-absorbing trees that are a key buffer against global warming.
He announced plans to host COP30 in the Amazon itself so world leaders could get a first-hand look at one of Earth's richest ecosystems.
Another strong message was Lula's choice of environment minister, Marina Silva -- who cut deforestation dramatically during his first term.
The pair have previously feuded over the clash between development goals and environmental protection.
They set about rebuilding Brazil's environmental agencies and Lula also reactivated the Amazon Fund, an international financing mechanism to protect the forest that had been suspended under Bolsonaro.
- Slowing forest loss -
Lula pledged zero deforestation by 2030.
In the last year of Bolsonaro's presidency in 2022, deforestation reached more than 10,000 square kilometers (3861 square miles) -- an area about the size of the country of Lebanon.
This number had dropped by more than half by 2024, falling to 4,200 square kilometers.
However, in 2024, Brazil suffered one of its worst waves of forest fires on record. The flames, often linked to agricultural activity, grew out of control amid a historic drought linked to climate change.
Silva said fires had become one of the main causes of deforestation.
Forest loss also slowed in other sensitive biomes like the Cerrado, a vast region of tropical savannah in central Brazil.
- Indigenous lands -
Indigenous lands are seen as a key barrier to Amazon deforestation.
Lula created an Indigenous people's ministry and legalized 16 Indigenous reserves during his third term -- a process that had been paralyzed under previous governments.
Marcio Astrini of the Climate Observatory, a collective of NGOs, said the demarcation of Indigenous lands was particularly important in case a climate-sceptic candidate wins 2026 presidential elections.
"A new government can withdraw funding from climate policies, but it won't be able to undo a protected Indigenous area," he told AFP.
Government policies also expelled invaders from more than 180,000 square kilometers of Indigenous lands -- an area slightly smaller than Uruguay -- according to the state Indigenous affairs agency Funai.
Local populations "regained freedom to move around, resume hunting...they recovered their territory," Nilton Tubino, coordinator of Indigenous policies for the federal government in the northern Amazon state of Roraima, told AFP.
- Financing forest protection -
Brazil's government has also designed a global initiative to finance the conservation of endangered forests: the Tropical Forest Forever Fund (TFFF).
"This is the main contribution Brazil intends to make to the COP," said Finance Minister Fernando Haddad.
Authorities envision the TFFF as a fund of more than $100 billion in public and private capital.
Three weeks ago, Lula announced that Brazil would invest $1 billion in this initiative during a speech in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Four Brazilians to watch at COP30
Sao Paulo (AFP) Oct 14, 2025 -
Influential Brazilians, from government figures to Indigenous activists, will take center stage during UN climate talks in the Amazon next month.
Here are some key Brazilians to watch at the UN climate conference, running November 10-21 in the Amazonian city of Belem.
- Marina Silva -
Brazil's 67-year-old environment minister is internationally recognized for her lifelong advocacy for the environment and preservation of the planet's largest tropical forest.
Raised on a rubber plantation in the Amazon, Silva often cites her grandmother and a shaman uncle as early influences that shaped her love of the forest.
In 2008, she resigned from Lula's government during his second term as the two clashed over her environmental agenda.
She returned to his government in 2023 and is in a tricky position as Lula pushes to expand oil exploration at the mouth of the Amazon River.
"We all live with contradictions, and these contradictions must be managed," she said earlier this month.
Silva was named one of Time's 100 most influential people of 2024, and hailed for her "deeply grounded courage and unflinching tenacity."
- Carlos Nobre -
After decades studying the Amazon and global warming, Brazilian meteorologist Carlos Nobre is an international authority on climate.
He was a member of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for highlighting environmental threats.
"Populists and climate deniers, like US President Donald Trump and our former president Jair Bolsonaro, adopt positions that contain enormous climate risk," the 74-year-old told AFP.
For 30 years, he has warned that deforestation is steadily bringing the Amazon closer to the "point of no return," when the tropical rainforest -- which plays a crucial role in absorbing greenhouse gases largely responsible for global warming -- will transform into savannah.
He believes that with strong environmental policies, Brazil could not only halt degradation but become one of the first major emitters to meet Paris Agreement targets.
"Brazil has all the conditions to lead the energy transition," he said.
- Txai Surui -
In 2021, Indigenous activist Txai Surui, 24, addressed the world at COP26 in Scotland, in traditional clothing and bearing a powerful message.
"The earth is speaking and she tells us that we have no more time," she said.
This year, she was appointed one of several young climate advisors to the UN Secretary-General.
About 1.7 million Indigenous people live in Brazil, some in protected areas covering one-seventh of the country.
Preserving these territories has been proven to reduce deforestation.
Txai is the daughter of a great chief and environmental activist, known for their longtime battle to defend their lands in northwestern Amazon.
She founded an Indigenous youth movement in the region and in 2021, she and other young climate activists sued the Brazilian government for a "carbon trick maneuver" they said allowed it to emit more greenhouse gases.
- Fafa de Belem -
Belem, the COP30 host city, is also the birthplace of Fafa de Belem, 69, one of the great female voices of Brazilian music who is also an activist for the Amazon.
Maria de Fatima Palha de Figueiredo, known by her stage name Fafa de Belem, has recorded 30 albums and sold millions.
She will perform at COP30, while keeping a keen eye on negotiations.
Fafa told AFP in an interview she hopes the peoples of the Amazon will be "at the center of the decisions."
After being outraged by the absence of representatives from the Amazon at a climate action meeting in New York three years ago, Fafa founded the Varanda da Amazonia debate forum.
"When we talk about climate change, we talk about data, graphs, and scientific reports. These are fundamental but don't always reach people's hearts: art creates that bridge," Fafa told AFP.
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