Brazil’s Lula to attend COP31 climate summit in Türkiye

BRASILIA

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (AA Photo)

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will attend the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP 31), held Nov. 9-20 in Türkiye’s Mediterranean city of Antalya, a government source told AFP on Oct. 31.

The recently reelected leftist leader is a leading figure in global warming discussion.

Brazil hosted the previous summit last year in the heart of the Amazon.

Despite the symbolism of holding the talks in the world’s largest tropical rainforest, delegations failed to set binding targets or deadlines for phasing out coal, oil and gas.

Experts say an agreement on that front is unlikely this year, with markets under intense pressure from the war in the Middle East.

Among its 10 “priority issues,” Türkiye proposes reducing emissions by increasing electricity’s share of global energy consumption to 35 percent by 2035. The current share is around 23 percent.

Türkiye will hold the presidency of this year’s annual climate summit, while Australia will lead the negotiations. The meeting of heads of state is scheduled for Nov. 11-12.

Lula, 81, won the Oct. 25 presidential runoff against conservative Flavio Bolsonaro.

“It was a victory for the fight against climate change” over “climate change denial,” Brazilian Health Minister Alexandre Padilha, who will accompany the president to COP31, told AFP on Oct. 28.