President Lula’s Speech at the Session “Climate and Nature: Forests and Oceans” during the COP30 Leaders’ Summit

We no longer measure the age of the Earth by geological or biological events.

It is now defined by the predatory actions of humankind.

Humankind is pushing the planet toward tipping points that threaten our own existence.

The balance between forests and oceans encompasses the vast majority of the known planetary boundaries.

They work in harmony to sustain the water cycle and regulate the climate.

Yet this delicate equilibrium is hanging by a thread.

In just one year, the average sea temperature has risen almost as much as it did over the past four decades.

The widespread death of warm-water coral reefs has already marked the first of those irreversible thresholds.

Rising ocean temperatures may soon disrupt the formation of rain here in the Amazon rainforest.

If the forest turns into savanna, the consequences for the climate and for agriculture around the world would be devastating.

In 2024, tropical forests disappeared faster than ever before. We lost an area the size of Panama.

No country alone will be able to face the climate crisis.

The fires that consume our forests do not stop at borders, just as the plastic that pollutes our oceans and destroys marine life knows no limits.

Only renewed multilateralism can help us confront these collective challenges.

In the past, diplomacy has shown that it can overcome differences that once seemed impossible to reconcile.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, adopted more than forty years ago, enshrined the concept of the “common heritage of humankind.”

Thanks to the Montreal Protocol, the ozone layer is now almost fully restored.

Brazil takes pride in being the birthplace of the Rio de Janeiro Conventions on Biological Diversity, Climate Change, and Desertification.

It is time for us to come together once again and strengthen the synergies among these three conventions.

The High Seas Treaty will protect and ensure the sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, beginning in 2026.

Brazil will ratify this important instrument by the end of this year.

At the Ocean Conference in Nice, we called on all parties to include the oceans in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

Brazil will protect its Blue Amazon through marine spatial planning and the preservation of mangroves and coral reefs.

We will expand the coverage of our marine protected areas from 26 to 30 percent, in line with the Global Biodiversity Framework.

Before exploring mineral resources in sedimentary areas, we will conduct studies to assess environmental impacts and establish conservation units in those regions.

Forests were recognized as part of the climate solution in the Paris Agreement.

At the Glasgow COP, we agreed on the goal of reaching zero deforestation by 2030.

This is one of my government’s main commitments.

We have already reduced deforestation by more than fifty percent and recorded the lowest rate in the Amazon in eleven years.

Over the next decade, we will restore forty million hectares of degraded pastures.

But there is more to the forest than flora and fauna.

Fifty million people live in the Amazon territory of South America—in cities such as Belém and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, as well as in small towns, riverside communities, and Indigenous villages.

Here live four hundred Indigenous peoples who speak more than three hundred languages.

No tropical forest will help tackle climate change unless it also brings solutions for the people who live within it.

That is why we value the role of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization.

The International Police Cooperation Center for the Amazon marks the beginning of a new era in the fight against transnational crimes and environmental transgressions.

The bioeconomy will help ensure that our forests are not only preserved but productive.

We also launched today an unprecedented initiative, the Tropical Forests Forever Fund, a financial mechanism that will reward investors while generating income for the countries that keep their forests standing.

Only a robust and fair financial architecture can guarantee the necessary resources for the conservation of our greatest ecosystems.

Transparent and collectively agreed carbon accounting mechanisms will also be central to advancing decarbonization and encouraging forest restoration.

Actions such as the integrated fire management declarations and the guarantee of land tenure for Indigenous peoples renew our commitment to forest preservation.

Dear friends,

This COP—the COP of truth—calls for a pact for the life of our forests, our oceans, and of humankind itself.

It is time to turn ambition into action and to restore the balance between growth and sustainability.

Thank you very much.