Brazil’s Amazon must be protected to reach global climate goal, U.S. envoy says

US climate envoy John Kerry said “The world cannot meet its climate goal to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degree Celsius unless it protects the Amazon rainforest,” while discussing possible U.S. funding for jungle conservation.
The world cannot meet its climate goal to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degree Celsius unless it protects the Amazon rainforest, climate envoy John Kerry said in Brazil on Tuesday while discussing possible U.S. funding for jungle conservation.
Brazil’s new President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva assumed office on Jan. 1, jump-starting cooperation with the United States on climate change and deforestation after rocky relations under his right-wing predecessor Jair Bolsonaro. Deforestation hit a 15-year high under Bolsonaro, who rolled back environmental protections.
Lula and U.S. President Joe Biden pledged to work together on climate change in a meeting at the White House earlier this month. On deforestation, Washington announced it intended to contribute to Brazil’s Amazon Fund, which supports conservation projects in the jungle region.
“The truth is that unless the Amazon is protected from those who would deforest it and who abuse it, we cannot keep the temperature to 1.5 degrees (Celsius),” Kerry said, referring to the climate target in the Paris Agreement.