Brazil’s Lula calls for global action against climate change, end to denialism

MEXICO CITY

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday called for global action and the protection of the Paris Agreement against denialism and unilateralism to fight climate change.

Addressing the UN Climate Summit in New York, the Brazilian president urged all nations convened to abide by the Paris Agreement and present their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), a measure instituted in the Paris accords that pushes nations to report on concrete actions to reduce gas emissions relative to their national and industrial capacities.

“Nationally Determined Contributions are the roadmap that will guide each country through this change,” said Lula.

Lula’s speech follows US President Donald Trump's address to the UN General Assembly the day before, in which the American leader went on an hour-long tirade, calling for closed borders, and labeling climate change as a hoax.

The Republican leader had famously withdrawn the US from the Paris Agreement in his first term, and has gone against environmentalists and others who push for more actions against global change since.

“The denialism we face is not only related to climate; it is multilateral. No one is safe from the effects of climate change. Walls at borders will not stop droughts or storms. Nature does not bow down to bombs or warships. No country stands above another. The risk of unilateralism is the chain reaction it provokes,” said Lula.

He reminded that Brazil had been the second country to present its new NDC as its plan to end deforestation in the Amazon by 2030 continues a staple promise of his administration.

“Because if we do not make a decision, society is going to stop believing its leaders. And instead of strengthening the struggle against global warming, we are going to help discredit multilateralism policies and democracy, and all of us will lose because denialism may actually win,” added Lula.