At climate summit, Brazil’s Lula says deforestation to stop

At climate summit, Brazil’s Lula says deforestation to stop

Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva waves as he arrives at the COP27 U.N. Climate Summit, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

SHARM el-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) — Six weeks before taking power, Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Wednesday told a packed crowd at the U.N. climate summit in Egypt that his administration would crack down on illegal deforestation and thrust Latin America's largest and most populous nation to the forefront of climate leadership.

As da Silva arrived in a pavilion, hundreds of people gathered, with many cheering and chanting in Portuguese, “Lula,” the name widely used by Brazilians to refer to him. The appearance of da Silva, who in the last year made an extraordinary political comeback after being convicted of corruption and jailed a few years ago, was easily one of the events that brought the most energy at the conference known as COP27. That's because da Silva, who as president between 2003 and 2010 oversaw a large reduction in deforestation of the Brazilian rainforest, has promised to do so again.