Lula highlights rich countries’ environmental debt at UN assembly

New York, Sep 19 (EFE).- Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday that the fight against climate change requires firmer action by rich countries, which “are the biggest polluters” and specially by those that “do not fulfill” their commitments.

“Acting against climate change also implies helping the poorest,” said Lula, who urged the UN to accept that, both, developed and poor countries “have common but differentiated responsibilities” in the face of the climate crisis.

He assured, supported by data from the UN itself, that “the global South is the most affected” by this phenomenon and declared that “the richest 10% of the planet” is responsible for more than half of the global polluting emissions.

Also alluding to commitments adopted years ago by the most developed countries within the framework of the UN, he stated that “the promise of 100 billion dollars” in aid to poorer countries to mitigate the climate crisis “is still only a promise.”

In the case of Brazil, he mentioned that, since he took office on January 1, deforestation in the Amazon has fallen drastically and that the systems of control and surveillance of this biome, virtually abandoned during the administration of his predecessor, the ultra-right-wing Jair Bolsonaro, have been recovered.

Similarly, he denounced that, in the face of growing threats, the “basis of a new economic and environmental governance still to be launched” and instead “protectionism has gained strength” in the most developed countries, which works against the poorest nations. EFE

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