Speech by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva during the opening of the G20 Summit

When he looked through the hatch of his spaceship and saw our planet in all its fullness for the first time, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin could not contain his amazement, and said: “The Earth is blue.”

Seven decades later, the photographs that were sent by Chandrayaan-3 – that India recently landed on the moon’s south pole – leave no doubt: seen from above, the Earth is still blue and beautiful.

However, the lack of commitment to the environment is leading us to an unprecedented climate emergency.

Global warming changes the rainfall pattern and raises sea levels.

Droughts, floods, storms and wildfires become more frequent and undermine food and energy security.

In the past days, in Brazil, the state of Rio Grande do Sul was hit by a cyclone that left thousands of people unsheltered, and many dozens of fatal victims.

If we do not act with a sense of urgency, these impacts will be irreversible.

The effects of climate change are not felt by everyone in the same way.

It is the poorest population, the women, the indigenous people, the elderly, the children, the young people and the migrants who are most impacted.

Those who historically contributed most to global warming must bear the greatest costs of combating it.

This is a debt that has been accrued over the last two centuries.

Since the Copenhagen COP, rich countries should have provided developing countries with USD 100 billion per year in new and additional climate funding.

This promise was never fulfilled.

It will be useless for the rich world to go to future COPs boasting about their carbon emission reductions if the responsibilities go on being transferred to the Global South.

There is no lack of funds. Last year, the world spent USD 2.24 trillion on weapons. This mountain of money could be going towards sustainable development and climate action.

In Brazil, we are doing our part.

The protection of the tropical rainforest and the sustainable development of the Amazon region are amongst the priorities of my administration.

In the first eight months of this year, we have reduced deforestation by 48% compared to the same period last year.

A month ago, we hosted the Amazon Summit and launched a new collaboration agenda between the countries that are part of that biome.

We also deepened dialogue with other countries that harbor tropical rainforests in Africa and Asia, to articulate common positions between the Amazon, Congo and Borneo-Mekong basins.

It is not enough to look at the satellite pictures. Under each tree, there is a woman, a man and a child.

Renewable energies, biofuels, socio-bioeconomy, green industry and low-carbon agriculture must create jobs and income, including for local and traditional communities.

The G20 should trigger this endeavor, respecting the concept of common but differentiated responsibilities and valuing all three Rio 92 conventions: Climate, Biodiversity and Desertification.

The best way of being ambitious is to ensure the success of the Paris Agreement Global Stocktake at COP28, and the negotiation of new quantitative goals.

To add to this effort, we will launch, during our presidency of the G20, a Task Force for Global Mobilization against Climate Change.

We want to get to COP 30, in 2025, with a balanced climate agenda between mitigation, adaptation, losses and damages and funding, ensuring the sustainability of the planet and the dignity of people.

We hope to count on everyone’s engagement – so that the Earth’s beauty is not just a photograph seen from space.