SAO PAULO (AP) — Joe Biden will become the first sitting U.S. president to set foot in the Amazon rainforest during a brief stop Sunday in the Brazilian city of Manaus, as the U.S. is expected to reiterate its commitment to fighting climate change will scale back. the incoming administration of Donald Trump.
The vast Amazon region – about the size of Australia – is storing huge amounts of global carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that is causing climate change, even as it is rapidly being deforested.
Biden is expected to take an aerial tour of part of the world’s largest tropical rainforest, meet local and indigenous leaders and visit a museum in the Amazon as he looks to highlight his commitment to preserving the region.
The Biden administration last year announced plans to contribute $500 million to the Amazon Fund, the main international cooperative effort to conserve the rainforest, funded mainly by Norway.
So far, the U.S. government said it has provided $50 million, according to a statement from its embassy in Brazil in July, adding that it would “continue to work with Congress to secure remaining funding for the Amazon Fund and related activities.” to secure 2028.”
“It is important that a sitting president visits the Amazon. … This shows a personal commitment from the president,” said Suely Araújo, former head of Brazil’s Environmental Protection Agency and public policy coordinator at the nonprofit Climate Observatory. “That said, we cannot expect any concrete results from this visit.”
She doubts that even a single cent will go to the Amazon Fund in January.
It is highly unlikely that the Trump administration will prioritize the Amazon – or anything related to climate change. The Republican president-elect already said he would once again withdraw from the Paris Agreement, a global pact forged to avert the threat of catastrophic climate change, after Biden recommitted to the accord.
Trump has labeled climate change a “hoax” and said he will abolish the Biden administration’s energy efficiency rules.
The Amazon is the world’s largest tropical rainforest, home to indigenous communities and 10% of the planet’s biodiversity. It also regulates humidity throughout South America. About two-thirds of the Amazon is in Brazil, and scientists say its destruction poses a catastrophic threat to the planet.
The forest has suffered two years of historic drought, which has dried up waterways, isolated thousands of riverine communities and hampered river residents’ ability to fish. It has also given way to wildfires that have burned an area larger than Switzerland and choked towns near and far with smoke.
When Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office last year, he signaled a shift in environmental policy compared to his predecessor – the far-right Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro prioritized agricultural industry expansion over forest protection and weakened environmental agencies, sending deforestation to its highest level in 15 years.
Lula has pledged zero deforestation by 2030, although his term runs until the end of 2026. Forest loss in Brazil’s Amazon fell 30.6% in the 12 months to July from a year earlier, boosting deforestation is at its lowest level in nine years. according to official data released last week.
In those twelve months, the Amazon lost 6,288 square kilometers (2,428 square miles), about the size of the US state of Delaware. However, these data fail to capture this year’s wave of devastation, which will only be included in next year’s lecture.
Despite its success in reducing deforestation in the Amazon, Lula’s government has been criticized by environmentalists for supporting projects that could harm the region, such as building a highway that cuts off an ancient area and could encourage logging , and oil drilling near the mouth of the Amazon. River and the construction of a railway to transport soy to ports in the Amazon.
Biden is making the Amazon visit as part of a six-day trip to South America, the first to the continent of his presidency.
On Sunday morning, he wraps up a visit to Lima, Peru, where he took part in the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
After his brief stop in Manaus, he will head to Rio de Janeiro for this year’s Group of 20 leaders summit.
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Madhani reported from Lima, Peru and Long from Washington.
