By Mayara Subtil*
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s call for climate change to regain prominence in international discussions reinforces the need to keep the issue at the center of political decision-making and to move forward with the implementation of the commitments made by countries. This assessment comes from André Guimarães, executive director of IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute) and special envoy for civil society at COP30, regarding Lula’s speech at the opening of the General Debate of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
IPAM is also participating this week in New York Climate Week, held in parallel with the General Assembly, which brings together representatives from governments, civil society, the private sector, and international organizations to discuss the climate agenda.
“The impacts of climate change are increasingly evident and require coordinated responses. Brazil comes to this debate with significant achievements in reducing deforestation and with tools developed through COP30, such as the TFFF and the roadmaps. The challenge now is to translate this agenda into action, scale up financing, and maintain the international cooperation needed to accelerate climate action,” Guimarães emphasized.
At the UN plenary session, Lula called for the climate agenda to be reinstated in key global decision-making forums, given the issue’s declining prominence in forums such as the G7 and G20. The president linked this situation to the increasingly evident effects of climate change, such as melting glaciers, extreme weather events, and the occurrence of an El Niño with more severe impacts on vulnerable populations.
“Until recently, the response to climate change was firmly established at the center of the international agenda. This year, the issue has disappeared from the debates at the G7 and G20, forums that bring together the largest carbon emitters. It is time to go on the offensive again and defeat climate denialism,” Lula emphasized.
The president also highlighted the decline in deforestation in the Amazon and cited the TFFF (Tropical Forests Forever Fund), launched at COP30, as part of efforts to expand funding for tropical forest conservation.
“[The TFFF] shows that it is possible to change old paradigms. The forest is worth more standing than destroyed. We will continue to reduce deforestation, which has fallen by half in the Amazon and reached its lowest level in 11 years. We have the moral authority to reject protectionist measures disguised as a commitment to the environmental cause,” he said.
Regarding the energy transition, Lula highlighted the share of renewable sources in Brazil’s energy mix and the availability of critical minerals and rare earth elements as strategic assets for the country’s role in decarbonizing the global economy.
“Brazil is a global leader in green energy. We have the critical minerals and rare earth elements the world needs to achieve the energy transition. Our natural resources belong to the Brazilian people—and it is for their benefit that they will be exploited. Access to our minerals will be conditional on the generation of value within our territory, technology transfer, and the supply of strategic national sectors.”
The 81st session of the General Assembly brought together representatives from the 193 member states of the United Nations. Through September 28, heads of state and government representatives will present their priorities regarding issues on the international agenda, such as conflicts, sustainable development, climate change, and cooperation among nations.
In opening the debate, António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, emphasized the climate emergency as one of the central issues in the current international landscape.
“Looking to the future, it will be shaped by how we confront four great tests of power: the power over war and peace; the power that concentrates wealth and fuels inequality; the power that fuels climate chaos and the war against nature; and the power unleashed by artificial intelligence,” said Guterres.
Traditionally, Brazil delivers the first speech among member states during the general debate. This practice has been in place since 1955. Next to speak is the United States, the host country of the United Nations headquarters.
The General Assembly is one of the six main organs of the UN and the only one in which all member states have equal representation. Held annually, the high-level meeting serves as a forum for world leaders to debate international challenges and priorities for the United Nations’ work.
Multilateralism
On the eve of the high-level meeting, Brazil, Canada, Kenya, and the European Union announced the creation of Partners for Multilateralism (P4M), an initiative aimed at strengthening and reforming the multilateral system, as outlined in an article published in the Financial Times.
The initiative seeks to bring together countries from different regions to develop joint responses to challenges that transcend national borders. Among the topics are peace and security, economic governance, artificial intelligence, health, and climate change.
For IPAM, cooperation among countries is central to addressing the effects of climate change—both to raise climate ambition and to secure financing and translate international commitments into concrete actions. According to André Guimarães, collaboration among different countries and regions also allows for the sharing of knowledge and the development of joint responses.
“We need to coordinate actions, innovate, and do things differently than we have done so far. It is essential that we usher in a new paradigm where humans and nature are reintegrated, different social classes harmonize, and inequalities among them are mitigated. In this way, we can effectively build solutions and pathways that allow us to reconcile the protection of forests and natural ecosystems with food production and human activities in general,” stated the director.
From COP30 to COP31
The UN General Assembly takes place less than two months before COP31 and joins the forums for political coordination leading up to the next climate summit. After hosting COP30 in Belém in 2025, Brazil continued to hold the conference presidency throughout 2026, with the challenge of advancing the implementation of the commitments and decisions made during Brazil’s term.
Among the priorities of the Brazilian presidency are two roadmaps. One focuses on the transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems in a fair, orderly, and equitable manner. The second addresses pathways to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030. Both initiatives seek to detail the actions, actors, and instruments needed to put into practice commitments already made within the framework of climate negotiations.
Climate finance, adaptation, and implementation also remain among the key priorities on the path to COP31. On the adaptation agenda, the challenge lies in translating targets and indicators into national plans and actions capable of reaching the populations most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
On the financing front, the roadmap from Baku to Belém seeks to identify ways to mobilize US$1.3 trillion per year by 2035 to support climate action in developing countries. The debate involves various sources, such as multilateral banks, concessional funds, and private capital, as well as regulatory measures and national mechanisms capable of increasing the flow of resources.
For Guimarães, who is also concluding his term as Civil Society’s Special Envoy for COP30, the path from Belém to Antalya must be marked by the transformation of commitments into concrete actions, with special attention to forest protection and combating deforestation.
“COP30 established a very clear implementation agenda. Now, we need to turn the commitments made into concrete pathways, with policies, financing, and the participation of different sectors of society. In the case of forests, the roadmap is an opportunity to organize existing solutions, scale them up, and create the conditions to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030,” he said.
COP31 will be held from November 9 to 20 in Antalya, Turkey. The meeting marks the formal handover of the conference presidency from Brazil to Turkey and will feature a partnership between Turkey and Australia, with Turkey presiding over the summit and the Southern Hemisphere country leading the negotiations.
Climate Agenda in New York
Climate discussions are also proceeding in parallel with the General Assembly during New York Climate Week. This Wednesday (23), André Guimarães will participate in a panel organized by Climate Rights International to discuss the Brazilian political landscape in 2026 and its potential impacts on the Amazon, indigenous peoples, and traditional communities, as well as the implications for the global climate agenda.
Also participating are Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, and Daniela Ikawa, a climate litigation specialist at Climate Rights International.
*IPAM communications analyst. mayara.barbosa@ipam.org.br
