Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took a step ahead towards his aim to revive Amazon rainforests by appointing Amazon activist Marina Silva as his environment minister. This comes over a month after he promised to prioritise efforts to fight deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.

He spent weeks naming all 37 ministers in his future cabinet. "After a lot of work, after a lot tension, talk and adjustments, we finished assembling the first echelon of the government,” Lula was quoted by Reuters as saying on Thursday.

Lula's heroic entry and top pledges at COP27

Making a superstar entry at COP27 summit held in Egypt this year, Lula had voiced his ambitions to be a global climate leader and exclamation that "Brazil is back" on the world stage. He promised to revive the Amazon rainforest and chase down climate criminals.

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He brought in focus his strategy for attaining "zero deforestation" and said efforts to fight climate change will have the highest profile in his next government. Lula even offered to hold future UN climate talks in Brazil.

"We will strengthen oversight bodies. We will punish illegal activities: gold miners, loggers, farmers," he said. Lula even announced a ministry for Indigenous people.

Among his other plans, the Brazil president mentioned that Germany and Norway will reopen the Amazon fund, which was closed under the previous Jair Bolsonaro-led government.

Highlighting that there is no climate security for the world without a protected Amazon, Lula pledged: "We will spare no efforts to have zero deforestation and the degradation of our biomes by 2030."

Moreover, in the first week of December, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's transition team held meetings with the soy industry to discuss a new pact to stop deforestation in the Cerrado savanna, modeled on an agreement for the Amazon, an official was quoted a saying.

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest

According to the Associated Press (AP), deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon during the first half of 2022 broke all records, a measure of the increasing destruction taking place under the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro.

The report published in July said satellite images taken between January and June showed 4,000 square kilometers (1,500 square miles) of forest destroyed more than in any six month period in the seven years of record-keeping under the current methodology.

Later, an AP report published in December 1, 2022, cited data by the National Institute for Space Research, saying the deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon slowed slightly last year, a year after a 15-year high.

However, another report said that deforestation in Brazil's Cerrado savanna rose to a seven-year high, destroying a vital habitat for threatened species and releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gases that drive climate change.

Meanwhile, giving out figures at COP27 summit, Lulu claimed that in 2021, Brazil had a deforestation of 13,000 sq km. "The destruction will stay in the past," he was quoted by the Guardian as saying.

(With inputs from agencies)

First Published:Dec 30, 2022 4:10 PM IST