Speech by President Lula at the closing of the Brazil-France Business Forum

My dear Laurent Saint-Martin, Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade of France, through whom I greet the French authorities. My dear Márcio Elias Rosa, Acting Minister of Development and Trade of Brazil; my dear Jorge Viana, President of Apex [Brazilian Agency for the Promotion of Exports and Investments/Agência Brasileira de Promoção de Exportações e Investimentos]; my dear Ricardo Alban, President of Brazil’s National Confederation of Industry. Fellow ministers who are here — Minister of Foreign Affairs [Mauro Vieira]; Minister of Justice [Ricardo Lewandowski]; Minister of Ports and Airports [Silvio Costa Filho]; and Minister of Agriculture [Carlos Fávaro] — who is very happy because today Brazil received a certificate from the World Organization for Animal Health stating that Brazil — with its 8.5 million square kilometers and more of 250 million head of cattle — received a certificate for being free of foot-and-mouth disease without vaccination.

My dear federal congressmen, who accompanied me; senators of the Republic, Brazilian businessmen, French businessmen, French businesswomen, and Brazilian businesswomen: it is a great joy, after 13 years of absence, for the president of Brazil to return to Paris. To return to Paris not to sightsee — to return to Paris to strengthen relations between two countries whose language of origin is powerful: Latin.

Yesterday… I am very proud because I was honored at the [French] Academy — the second Brazilian to be honored by the Academy. The first was Dom Pedro II, in 1872, if memory serves me right. And I managed to introduce a new word into the French dictionary —a word that did not exist before: multilateralism.

After that, we had a great work meeting with President Macron [Emmanuel Macron, president of France]. The meeting was so good that I said: President Macron, open your heart to Brazil and let's make the European Union and MERCOSUR agreement, so that we can take advantage of this opportunity, because they want to defeat multilateralism, they want to defeat free trade. The return of protectionism is not good for anyone.

So this is an extraordinary moment for us to strengthen democratic relations, trade relations, political relations, economic relations, and cultural relations. This is what brings me to France — a country that has always welcomed me very warmly.

I never forget that, when I created the Zero Hunger [Fome Zero] project in 2003, the first president of the countries in the world who called and came to meet me to defend my program was President Chirac [Jacques Chirac, former president of France].

After that, I had a wonderful relationship with President Sarkozy [Nicolas Sarkozy, former president of France]. Then I was no longer president when François Hollande [former president of France] was in office. And I want to tell you that I have a very special relationship with my friend Macron. I don't even call him president anymore; now he's a friend. It's "my friend Macron" and "my friend Lula". And especially now, when the French are proud because they won the Champions League.

There is a lesson in the victory of Paris Saint-Germain. I told President Macron: it teaches us politics. There is no magic solution, individual solution. I remember when Paris Saint-Germain hired all at once Messi — they already had Mbappé — and Neymar to win the Champions League, and they did not win.

This Paris Saint-Germain team that won the Champions League — the 11 players, together — earn less than what Mbappé, Messi, and Neymar earned. This comes to demonstrate that, in football and in politics, the group is worth much more than individual action.

I want to say that our Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago — who will be the president of COP30 in the state of Pará — is also here. Please stand up so that people see who you are, André. Stand up for people to see you, or look back at least.

Well, my friends, allow me to call you that — I finished a meeting with French businessmen and left convinced that they are all my colleagues. By the way, at the meeting in which we received the certificate, with the agribusiness businesspeople, I thought of everyone as a colleague. We realize that there are moments in our lives when differences disappear, when common goals are met.

I could not help but recognize the vigorous work that Brazilian agribusinesspeople had carried out for 60 years to achieve this certificate. We must learn to recognize sacrifice. Accordingly, I was very proud to have the meeting with French businesspeople and to see the commitments and affection that they have regarding Brazil.

I think it is up to the National Confederation of Industry, it's up to our ministers, not to wait until I come here again to meet with businesspeople. We must create a systematization in which, from time to time, we can choose businesspeople from various countries and meet for a coffee, to talk, to know what the problem is, what the difficulty is, and what good things are happening. Because there is no explanation for countries the size of France and the size of Brazil, with the economy of France, with the economy of Brazil, having a trade flow of a mere USD 10 billion.

There is no explanation for this. I do not know whose fault it is — whether it is mine, Macron's, the other governments', or businesspeople’s. The concrete data is the following: foreign trade ministers cannot sit in a chair in the ministry. They have to travel.

The French have to sell things from France to the world, and Brazil has to sell things from Brazil. We cannot sit in an armchair thinking that we are the best in the world, and that someone will come to us to buy something from us. I am the one who has to sell what I think is good.

If we think Brazil is competitive in agriculture, great! We have to go out to defend our products. Yesterday, for example, I told the minister and Macron: "I understand the need for the French government's arguments regarding the agreement, regarding the defense of its agricultural producers." I told President Macron: "If we put French agricultural producers alongside Brazilian agricultural producers, there will be an extraordinary discovery. They will find that our agriculture is complementary, that one does not harm the other."

Why cannot I buy a French chicken, and why cannot the French buy a Brazilian chicken? After all, binational trade is two-way. I buy and sell. I demand quality, and I offer quality. We need to have this opening.

I said to Macron: "Let's put our agricultural producers together, and you will see that they will have much more affinity than our technicians". It is not that I am belittling technical experts: no. Technical experts are very important. They are experts, well educated, and extremely qualified. But in this business of agreement, they lack a certain political sensitivity, economic sensitivity, sensitivity of interests, of those who produce. And this is what we need to change in our behavior.

That's why I'm optimistic, and told President Macron — my presidency of MERCOSUR begins on July 6 and finishes, I think on December 6 — and said: "Before my term at the presidency of MERCOSUR ends, prepare yourself, because we are going to sign the European Union-MERCOSUR agreement".

It is a necessity.

It is a necessity for the European Union, it is a necessity for MERCOSUR, and it is a necessity for the world. This is an agreement that involves 722 million people and USD 22 trillion. It is an agreement that demonstrates — to those who are trying to defeat multilateralism, and to those who are trying to return to protectionism — that the world does not want a sheriff.

The world has no owner.

Every country is sovereign and, according to its sovereignty, does what it wants to do without anyone from another country guessing or disorderly imposing taxation to break the harmony of an economy that was already working well.

And more: we will not accept another Cold War.

We do not want to choose between China and the United States. I want business with China, and I want business with the United States. I want business with France, and I want business with Germany. France needs to want business with Brazil, and with another country in South America. We cannot have the right to own the world trade.

This is why I have been traveling the world a lot, and I am going to keep traveling, and we are going to do something on Brazil Day... I think 7 and 8, and 9. I think it will be the first time. Aloysio [Nunes], you were the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil: this will be the first time we will hold the BRICS. When I finish the BRICS, I will have a bilateral meeting with India, maybe a state visit from India, a state visit from Egypt, and then a state visit from Indonesia.

There alone there are 1 billion and seven hundred million inhabitants. So, whoever wants to sell, get ready, because there will be no lack of consumers. We must equip ourselves with arguments, because each of these visits must be endowed with business meetings — because politicians do not know how to do business.

Politicians… the best they can do is open the door. You, the businesspeople, are the ones who know how to negotiate, who have prepared for this. So my commitment is to allow Brazilian businesspeople to actively participate in this, ALBAN, and APEX. So that we can do great business, because the world does not protect those who stay at home resting.

You have to go to work. I get up every day at 5:30 a.m.; work out for two hours, and go to sleep at midnight listening to negative news against me. I am happy. I am truly happy.

I want to thank the presence of the Brazilian press, the French press, and to tell you that, before reading my little speech here, that for a long time I have been asking God for the right to live 120 years.

I once read an article in a magazine saying that the man who is going to live 120 years has already been born. So I had an idea: why not me? It could be me. I am privileged to have been born four months after World War II ended.

So, you see, I was born to live. And to live well. As much as I believe there is a heaven, it must be simply wonderful, but I would rather stay here on Earth. I sincerely am asking God: "Leave me here, because I have a lot to do".

And this is why I try to take care of myself, I try to be nice, I try to talk well with people, because those who want to live a long time cannot be boring. Although I am being so — still, you cannot keep saying things that people dislike.

Well, initiatives like these contribute enormously to deepening relations between our countries, by bringing the business dimension to the center of the bilateral agenda. We are engaging the private sector in the advancement of strategic projects that are advantageous for both sides. For 13 years, no president of Brazil has come to France. And when the president of France tried to go to Brazil recently, the then-president of Brazil hid to avoid receiving him.

An immeasurable embarrassment!

When President Dilma Rousseff visited Paris in 2012, our exchange reached its peak of USD 10 billion. Honestly, shameful. That is very low. Brazil and Vietnam already have a USD 13 billion commercial flow.

So you, the French businesspeople, and you, the Brazilian businesspeople, get to work.

Let's leave here with a goal plan. "In the next 10 years, we will reach USD 20 billion." And let's work towards this goal, because if there isn't a goal plan, and we only do things when nature allows us to, nothing will happen.

We have to force things, to try to seek out, discover the opportunities. And I can tell you: when it comes to the energy transition and the climate transition, few countries in the world will offer the opportunities that Brazil is offering. Few. We do not want to be the best, but we just want to be the biggest. That is what is in our heads; that is the government's goal.

Well, since the visit of President Dilma, we have not even been able to reach the USD 10 billion. My government is determined to make up for lost time and bring our trade up to the strategic partnership with France.

This is why I brought in my entourage ministers — in fact, governor, I just saw the face of Governor Brandão [Carlos Brandão], from Maranhão, present here. Thank you for coming to this meeting, my friend Brandão.

This partnership is strategic because it has a vocation to stimulate research, innovation, productivity, and competitiveness. It is with great pride that I have just participated in the certification ceremony, which I already mentioned, of Brazil by the World Organization for Animal Health.

The sanitary system of Brazilian agriculture is an example to the world. There are many people who sometimes — I see in the newspaper that "country X does not want to import Y from Brazil because there is an issue". I want to say to the French businesspeople: do not believe my words. Send your experts to Brazil. To follow this closely. I honestly think we do not have the best animal health policy, sanitary policy, but I doubt there is a country that has one better than ours. At most, it is the same, because our agricultural producers have learned that, if we want to gain space in the world, we have to be the best.

And I just said to the businesspeople: no one wins a gold medal in the Olympic Games if they do not systematically train the whole week. If someone thinks they can stay in the good life and then win a medal, they can forget that. By the way, yesterday I had the opportunity to have dinner, alongside Macron, with a 140-kilo citizen who is a five-time Olympic judo champion for France [Teddy Riner]. If someone wants to achieve something, they have to prioritize quality.

So Brazil prepared itself to be competitive. Brazil got ready! And we want the gold medal for the best sanitary policy that any country in the world has, because we can't go back.

So, my friends, if in doubt, visit Brazil. Visit, ask for information, and go to our laboratories, and you will have an extraordinary answer about the things we are doing. Innovative practices allow us to be the world's fourth-largest food producer while using only 8% of our territory.

And now, to meet the demands of climate change, we have an extremely serious policy to recover degraded lands. There is the equivalent of almost 60 million hectares of land that we want to make available for people to recover and plant, without having to devastate the standing forest. It is simple. Instead of destroying something good, let's restore what is bad.

This is the challenge that is posed to us, and I am convinced that we, too, will achieve great success in this policy.

More than half of Brazil remains with its vegetation cover the way it was when God made the world. Only nature adds and removes what and when it wants to, but we have a lot of things preserved in Brazil.

With the National Program for the Recovery of Degraded Pastures [Programa Nacional de Recuperação de Pastagens Degradadas], we are going to expand production without cutting down a single tree. Our industry is also competitive in several sectors with high technological content. Bilateral projects such as the Submarine Program [Programa de Submarinos] in Itaguaí, or the Itajubá Helicopter Factory, have enormous transformative potential. Deepening the integration of these and other value chains will generate more employment and more income for both sides, the French and the Brazilian.

My government is recovering the planning capacity of the Brazilian State and prioritizing reindustrialization. My Navy commander, Admiral Olsen, came on this trip because we are definitively concluding the agreement with the French for us to produce the nuclear propulsion ship in partnership with France.

This agreement was made with President Sarkozy, and we hope to conclude it as soon as possible. Because in addition to having a seacoast of 8,000 kilometers, Brazil is responsible for 5.7 million square kilometers of sea. We have a lot of water to take care of, in addition to our own. And you can't just go on a canoe. So we have to have a submarine like this that only the world powers have.

And this is why we are... And also helicopters. We want to make a large purchase of helicopters in partnership with state governments so that we can take care of the public safety of the states. So that we can take care of the deforestation through wildfires in the Brazilian rainforests. And for us to take care of our defense. Brazil is a country, you know, that, beyond its immense territory, has mineral wealth, the wealth of the ocean, and we do not effectively have the power to take care of this.

And that is why we need to produce helicopters in Brazil, with France, to sell to Latin America. That is our wish. That is why we are talking about this. Maybe when Macron goes to COP, we may already have this agreement to sign and to start making the Helibras factory, in the Minas Gerais city of Itajubá, become a large helicopter construction factory.

The agreement that Fiocruz celebrated with Sanofi and the Pasteur Institute today associates research and production, demonstrating the dynamism and capacity of the health industrial complex. Our cultural industry also flourishes. The award-winning National Cinema, celebrated at the Oscars and the Cannes Film Festival, confirms the talent of our people.

It is important to tell you something that I think is very serious. Brazil is the only country in the world with more than 100 million inhabitants that has a Unified Health System [Sistema Único de Saúde/SUS], approved in the 1988 Constitution.

This Unified Health System has always been under attack by the private sector companies that did not conform to our Unified System. When COVID came, if it weren't for this Single System, we would have lost many more people than we did. And what matters most is that a country that has 215 million inhabitants — which has a Unified Health System that serves the vast majority of the population — needs a very strong health industry.

And this is why, within this New Industry Brazil [Nova Indústria Brasil], we have a special chapter on the health industry, to buy sophisticated machines, to produce sophisticated machines in Brazil, and to produce all the medications we need. In Brazil, 41 types of continuous use medications are donated for free to people. For free. People leave the doctor and take the medicine with them.

And more: we are now creating a health program called Now There Is A Specialist [Agora Tem Especialista]. This program aims to ensure that the humblest people in the country who are told by the doctor in their first appointment that they have to look for a specialist, they will have access to a specialist soon, and when the specialist says that they have to do an MRI, they cannot wait 11 months, 10 months, 12 months. We want it to be immediate.

And this is why we firmly believe that this health industry will be an extraordinary thing, especially in a country that has an institute like Fiocruz, of the highest quality. I believe we will succeed.

I went to China a few days ago, and we made an agreement to produce many important machines in Brazil.

We are going to solve a serious problem, because the poor used to receive a doctor's prescription, take it home, put it on the shelf, and die without having money to buy the medicine.

We started giving medicine for free. Now I have the medicine, but I have to see the specialist, as there is no specialist, they die without having a specialist. In the field of health, I want people to receive very respectful treatment, and so I am sure that this health industry will grow significantly.

The cultural industry also flourishes. You know we are doing something extraordinary. The reason for Brazil's pride is to win an Oscar with a movie that tells a very interesting story. The movie is called "I'm Still Here" [“Ainda Estou Aqui”]. It is the story of the wife of a congressman who was called up by the Federal Police at the time of the military regime, not by the Federal Politics, by the military regime, and never returned. They killed him.

And his wife... the movie is about her. The film is based on the book written by his son, who is in a wheelchair, Marcelo Paiva, who is a great writer, a first-class friend. And also the Cannes Film Festival.

It is a lot, a lot of pride for us, who have always been treated like an unimportant third-world country. Winning Cannes and the Oscar is a source of great pride — just like, to you, winning the Champions League, which you had never won, it is to us to win the Oscar, which we had never won, and Cannes, which we had never won.

Well, the hundreds of events and activities of the France and Brazil cross-cultural days [Jornadas Culturais Cruzadas], this year, will expand reciprocal knowledge and tourism. In Europe, France is the largest source of tourists to Brazil. In the last two years, the number of French tourists visiting our country has increased by 80%.

But this does not mean anything. This 80%, whoever put it here, did it to please me. Because 80%: what does it refer to? So, next time, put the real number of tourists. Because one thing is 80% over a thousand, another thing is 80% over 100, and another thing is 80% over 10.

And I do not know how many French tourists come to Brazil. But I can tell you that France is a country that has tourism as one of its strongest pillars in its economy.

Because you have history.

Thousands of years of history.

We have no history. We were discovered by the Portuguese. Then, in the first period, almost all the Indigenous people were killed. Then, in a second period, we began to bring the Black people from Africa. There were 350 years of slavery.

But we have one thing you need: nature. Virgin nature, untouched. Places that have never changed since the Portuguese arrived in Brazil in 1500. Wonderful beaches. Warm waters. Have you ever been to a beach in the Brazilian Northeast?

My wife wanted to go to the beach in Nice. I said: Look, I think the water will be cold. I think the water will be like a beer straight out of the icebox. Now, if you go to Pernambuco, Bahia, Alagoas, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, you will go in the water at five o'clock in the morning as if you were taking a warm bath under the shower — the water is so good.

The Lençóis Maranhenses are so beautiful… but I have not been there yet. I have never been lucky enough. Still, it is one of the most beautiful places in Brazil, and I want to see if I can spend my holidays there with Janja sometime. Because it is a very, very, very beautiful place. I have seen photographs, and my fellow Governor of Maranhão tells me that the Lençóis Maranhenses are natural art.

Well, Brazil is a market of 212 million people. I say 215, and someone writes 212. This cannot be. Here is the thing: Brazil had a census in the last government that was not credible. So we had to do another census to give credibility to the number of people in Brazil. I still work with the idea of 215 million Brazilians, which is a round number and is the number that Brazil deserves: 215.

We have an expanding middle class, creative youth, and a vibrant democracy. Contrary to the pessimists in international markets, in the last two years, Brazil has grown above 3%. You can say it like this: "But this Lula, this guy comes here to say that Brazil has grown 3%. What is 3%?" How much has France grown? Few countries have grown more than 3%. What is new in this growth?

The novelty in this growth is that, since I left the presidency of the Republic in December 2010, Brazil had not grown more than 3%. So it was 15 years without growing more than 3%. It grew again when I returned to the presidency.

It grew 3.2% in the first year, it grew 3.4% now, and get ready, because we will continue to grow. Because there is one thing I believe in, which I will say to Brazilian and French businesspeople. It is an economic logic that I built. I did not learn this at university, because university does not teach this. It does not.

My logic is as follows: a lot of money in the hands of a few means poverty, it means misery, it means hunger. Now, a little money in the hands of many means exactly the opposite. It means income distribution. When someone takes a billion dollars out of the bank, it will either take him years to make his venture, or he will take it from one bank and put it in the other to make a profit.

But when you put money in the hands of the people, even if it is little, that money returns to the market immediately. It comes back the next day, with an extra factor. Since people cannot evade tax, they will pay 28% of the money they receive right away. It is discounted on the spot. They cannot evade taxes. There is no possibility of tax evasion.

So I really believe in this story that we need to foster more and more credit for the humblest people. Credit, credit, credit. Make the money circulate. Money cannot stay in the Central Bank or banks, no. Money has to circulate in people's hands.

And this is one of the achievements of our administration. It was already so in our last administration, when we grew 7.5%. I went to meetings, visited the world, and my ministers only talked about macroeconomics, macroeconomics, macroeconomics, and I only talked about microeconomics. About microeconomics. I want the money in the hands of the people. So that they can have credit. Individual microentrepreneurs. Money in the hands of women, of small businesswomen in Brazil. It is a lot of people. And this money generates employment. This money has an immediate return.

This is the success of the Brazilian economy. In social inclusion alone, Brazil boasts approximately more than BRL 360 billion. Money that would not be given in other governments. Because many people do not like to help the poor.

There are many people who think it is what it is: you have to have the poor, and you have to have the rich. The rich have everything, the poor have nothing. And so it goes. Centuries, centuries, and centuries pass, and the poor remain. And I don't believe that people were born to be poor. I believe that people were born in the conditions they had to be born in. But from birth, the State has the responsibility to create the conditions for them to have the opportunity to no longer be poor. This is what we have to do.

Well, my friends, I am very worried because, in an increasingly complex world that sees the return of protectionism, historical partners must unite to face the uncertainties and instabilities of the global economy. I am sure, I really am, that we will conclude the European Union-MERCOSUR Agreement. That will not give us immediate results, no. And it will take a while because nothing happens immediately.

But the example we will give will be very important. Therefore, I will take advantage of my friendly relationship with Macron and I will call Macron every week: "Macron, Macron, my friend, Macron, let's do business...". It is going to happen. Then, when it does, I will return to Paris. Then yes, we will make a definitive agreement.

I'm sure, and I've already told you that yesterday I told President Macron: "Macron, let's call a group of people linked to French agriculture, a group of people linked to Brazilian agriculture, and let's put them around a table to talk". "What's your issue? What's your issue?" And we will realize that there is a lot of complementarities between French and Brazilian producers. France has very special things, and there is no competition; they will continue to sell. But we have good things, too. Guys, you do not know the quality of Brazilian meat. You do not.

If I were the Minister of Agriculture, I would have invited all of you to a barbecue. But he is stingy, so he did not.

Another thing I have been saying to my friend Macron: "For God's sake, Macron, you need to tell the French that the French are an Amazonian country". The French do not know that France's largest border in the world is with Brazil. Nobody knows. And more, with the Amazonian Brazil. It is not with urban Brazil, no, it is with the Amazonian Brazil.

I even proposed to Sarkozy to create a university between [the Brazilian state of] Amapá and France, so that we could discuss the richness of our biodiversity. It was not possible [at the time], but we will create an institute soon, because it is much needed.

Well, friends, I wanted to end by telling you that I hope you attend COP30 in Brazil. Because you know that I am very much defending a change in world governance. We do not have world governance today. The UN represents almost nothing, currently. UN decisions are not complied with. And the five countries that are permanent members of the Security Council also do not obey the UN.

So, now there is Putin [Vladimir Putin, president of Russia] making war with Ukraine without a decision at the UN. The United States invaded Iraq without a decision at the UN. France and England go to Libya without going through the UN. What goes through the UN? The UN created the State of Israel in 1947. Why does not it create the State of Palestine now? Because it has no strength.

World geopolitics has changed.

Why are not countries the size of Brazil or Mexico in the UN Security Council? Why not India? Why do not you have... Ethiopia has 126 million inhabitants. Nigeria — 216 million inhabitants. Egypt — 100 million inhabitants.

All these people are left out.

Germany is out. Japan is out because China does not want it to be in. Germany is out because I do not know what it wants. This is not how it works, my friends.

We must understand that the UN that was created after World War II no longer exists.

We need to open our minds to understand that the UN needs to be representative again. When we decide something at COP30, just as the Paris Agreement was discussed, people will not comply.

And what punishment do they get? None. When the United States refuses to comply with the Kyoto Protocol and then tries to leave the Paris Agreement… imagine what will happen at COP30!

We are doing COP30 in the Amazon to show people what the Amazon is. Because there are many people who talk about the Amazon, but there are few people who know it. And we want people to see what we are talking about.

Because they say that the Amazon is the world’s lungs. I have been fighting for this since the 1980s. I used to travel the world at that time, Marina [Silva, Minister of Environment and Climate Change], and in any country I arrived, I heard: "No, because the Amazon is the world’s lungs, you cannot possibly deforest the Amazon". I used to say: "The Amazon is the world’s lungs, but our external debt is pneumonia. So please help us cure this pneumonia so we can save these lungs."

And still today. Now, rainforests are still the world’s lungs, but poverty is the world’s disgrace. Countries that have rainforests are almost all poor. South America has the Amazon, which involves several countries. Indonesia and Congo [have rainforests]. Where else is there any rainforest left?

And then the richest countries have to understand that they have a historical liability. As they began industrialization much longer ago, they have been emitting greenhouse gases for much longer. So they have to pay for this litigation. You have to pay; otherwise, it does not solve the problem.

I know it is hard for us to convince you, but that is the reality. You have already taken advantage of polluting the planet. You have already created the Welfare State. And what about us, who have not created anything yet? Won't we have a chance to create it? This is the discussion that is on the table. And, obviously, it's a discussion that needs a lot of persuasion, a lot of affection, you know, it's not about force.

So, when we decide things, who will force us to comply?

There has to be world governance. And let's not let Trump [Donald Trump, president of the United States] be the president of this governance, no. We won't let him, because if he wants to be it, it will harm us. Governance has to be a collective; it cannot have the right of veto in the UN Council. Did you see this on the Gaza issue?

How many decisions were made? There are 14 favorable, one veto, and nothing happens. They say it has to be by consensus. It does not have to be by consensus. Consensus is important when it is built. But if it's not built, the majority votes. This is democracy.

So we're in this situation. We are orphans of father and mother. We do not have a global governance that can do things, like the G20, like the BRICS. If you put everyone together, you have a very representative forum that, when you make a decision, everyone has to comply with it.

If they do not comply, then yes, a collective punishment for them to comply. Because today nothing happens!

So this is the challenge humanity is having to face in the 21st century. I will end by telling you that we have too... I am going to Nice to participate in the Ocean Conference Congress, which is another thing that is much underestimated by all of us. By all of us!

We go to the beach, we forget to throw away the plastic bag, we forget to throw away the beer can, and we leave some things in the trash. Soon, the sharks will be looking for us by the beach because there is no more food for them to eat.

So we need to be careful: we are destroying the planet. It is not possible that we, — the only intelligent species in the animal world — are so ignorant as to destroy the world in which we live. There is no alternative world, it is just right here.

So instead of flying, I do not know where, let's conserve the Earth. It is so good here, my friends. It is so good, the air is so nice. So let's preserve this here, let's stop being irresponsible, let's believe in science.

We pay for the study of so many people who get so smart, and we need to know for sure that they are telling the truth.

There is a serious problem happening on the planet!

When I see it freeze in Saudi Arabia, when I see the Sahara desert filled with water, when I see rain pouring where it did not rain before, I see drought where there was not drought before, something is going on.

And this is what we have to take care of. But it is not one country alone, it is all of them together. What contribution can Brazil give through its Amazon? We are willing to give; we made a commitment.

Now people must to understand that under each treetop there is a struggling human being who needs to survive. This is the issue that is presented before us all. And it is not a matter of government; it is a matter of society. If we do not express ourselves, governments think they are right. And if you do not express yourself, we will keep making mistakes.

Well, Brazil has a very serious commitment to low-carbon agriculture. Just to give you an idea: Brazil is a country where 90% of electricity is clean. Brazil’s gasoline uses 30% ethanol in its mix. And Brazil’s Diesel oil uses 15% biodiesel in it.

So there is no one in the world who can come and teach us a lesson about decarbonizing the planet.

But we need to survive. And what we want is to build a partnership, nothing more than that. To build a partnership so that we may try to — collectively — find a solution to ensure that our children, our grandchildren, have a habitable world.

Because if the temperature exceeds 1.5°C and reaches 4°C, as expected before the Paris Agreement, we will pay a very high price.

Well, having said that, dear friends, I am skipping the pages here to finish my speech soon, because I have already improvised too much. I wanted to tell you that I have a life commitment to the fight against inequality. Any type of inequality. Racial inequality, gender, health, education, salary, employment.

In Brazil we approved a law establishing that women and men must receive the same salary if they exercise the same function, if they do the same work. But we have to go to justice, because the law… all businesspeople question it. So how do we end prejudice? How do I see it in the newspapers? Europe is preparing, arming itself. "Such and such country has put 800 billion dollars towards buying weapons." It was the whole European Union. "Japan goes back to buying weapons."

The world spent USD 2 trillion and 700 billion on weapons last year. And, at the same time, right before our eyes, Haiti is being destroyed. Because of hunger. 733 million people on Planet Earth go to sleep every night without being sure that the next day they will have a cup of coffee with milk and a piece of bread to eat in the morning.

Is this not enough to outrage us? Look, if this does not outrage us, I honestly think humanity needs to be reviewed.

And it actually does!

Because today, many of us are just functioning as algorithms. We do not think anymore, we say what the cell phone tells us to do. Isn't that so? How many hours do you spend with your finger on your cell phone looking for news that does not even interest you? How many hours? Isn't it true?

And we are still inventing something called artificial intelligence. Imagine what an election campaign with artificial intelligence will be like. 100% false! 100% fake! That's artificial intelligence. Is that everything they say it is? I get scared, because what are human beings for, then? We are going to be discarded. The guy will look at me and say: "This Lula guy? I want a president through artificial intelligence. This guy with urban thought, with thoughts about fighting hunger. Artificial intelligence is about the noble, sophisticated things. No more problems." Do you believe in the human abilities? They find that they are so smart that they are able to build an intelligence to overcome their own and makes them useless.

So, honestly, I'm one of those who prefer to be a human being, with feelings.

I cry.

When something touches my heart, I cry. I cry with soap operas. I cry with magazines. I cry with movies. I cry when I see children in need of things that we could be giving them. Simple, simple, simple things.

In my country, the last administration went seven years without increasing [the budget for] school meals. Seven years! In my country, many people think that, to control the fiscal deficit, you do not need to increase the minimum wage. The minimum is the minimum! How can you cut the increase of the minimum of the minimum?

So I ask myself if it isn't a good time for us to let humanism prevail in our souls. Humanism! To go back to being more affectionate. To go to a restaurant and stare at our beloved’s face without a cell phone. Then you will realize that your boyfriend is handsome. He will realize that his girlfriend is beautiful. Or that the partner you have is beautiful. But we are being manipulated by the algorithms.

Some people get up at six o'clock in the morning and pick up their cell phones, have lunch with their cell phones, go to the bathroom with their cell phones, go home with their cell phones, and go to bed at midnight with their cell phones. And there is no time left for humanism. There's no time left for them to think about something from the real world.

So I think we have a challenge, my friends. I honestly think the world is in need of humanism. We need to hug each other again. We need to help each other again. We are getting very individualistic, each with their own problem.

The world is so individualistic that, when we get into the elevator and there is another person in there, we think that person is bothering us. The world is so individualistic that when we leave our garage with the car and there is another car in front of us, we think the guy in the car sucks. He is getting in our way!

This world is not good for human beings!

Human beings were born to live in communion. In community. To help each other.

Yesterday, I was in my apartment on the third floor and I was watching people leaving the subway. People leave the subway looking at their cell phones. They do not even look at the stairs. People do not look to the side if there is a pretty girl, a handsome boy. They do not even look to their side. Everyone is like this. My ministers as well.

I forbade phones at meetings. We do not use cell phones in my office either. Because people schedule a meeting, then they come to my office and want to answer the phone.

So, my friends. I said it was not going to be boring and I was very boring. But, since I don't always come here, I hope you will excuse this annoyance.

Thank you very much for your affection. And thank you very much for today.