Host Egypt has invited Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to be one of dozens of heads of state at the UN Climate Conference, COP27. The invitation came just a day after Lula was elected to replace outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro, whose environmental record is considered disastrous,
A spokesman for Lula told French news agency AFP on Tuesday that Lula, who was elected on Sunday, was “thinking about going to COP27”, but “had not yet made his decision.”
Egyptian presidential spokesman Bassam Radi had announced in a statement on Monday that “President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi congratulates President Lula da Silva on his election (…) and invites him to attend COP27.”
"It is certain that Brazil has a positive role to play in this conference, which aims to strengthen climate action at the global level,” the statement added.
Many climate activists had said they hoped a Lula victory would advance their cause in Brazil and at the 27th Conference of Parties to the 2015 Climate Agreement, COP27. Under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, annual deforestation in the Amazon increased by an average of 75% compared to the previous decade.
On Sunday, on the evening of his election, Lula said “Brazil is ready to resume its leadership in the fight against the climate crisis.”
“Brazil and the planet need a living Amazon,” Lula added, as a recent study shows that the Amazon, long a valuable “carbon sink,” is now emitting more CO2 than it absorbs. These emissions doubled in the first two years of the Bolsonaro government.
Egypt will host more than 90 world leaders, including President Joe Biden, from 6 to 18 November, according to COP27 organisers,
