Last Sunday, one day before participating in the G20, Joe Biden became the first United States president to visit the Amazon. After meeting with representatives of indigenous peoples and flying over the Amazon in the presidential helicopter, Biden delivered a historic environmental speech in the city of Manaus, capital of the state of Amazonas: “I am proud to be here. The first sitting president of the United States to visit the rainforest, committed to saving the rainforests.”
Joe Biden released a package of unparalleled donations aimed at stopping climate change from different public bodies and government agencies. Especially voluminous will be the donations from the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC, $3.71 billion) and the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Exin, $1.6 billion).
USAID, the United States international cooperation agency, will finance numerous environmental conservation and fire prevention projects, among other things. In addition, Biden announced direct funding for reforestation (180 million), indigenous communities, scientific research and the bioeconomy. The US contribution to the Brazilian Amazon Fund also increased by fifty million dollars (completing a total of one hundred), historically financed by Norway and Germany.
Prior to Biden’s visit, the White House issued a statement reporting that the United States Government fulfilled its promise to provide $11 billion to finance initiatives against climate change. Biden rounded off his strategy with a symbolic gesture: the November 17 declaration as International Conservation Day.
Although the Amazon Fund donation can be revoked by the US Congress, the legal diversification of donations and investments guarantees its execution, even if Donald Trump would like to revoke them during his term.
Climate misinformation
Jose Biden’s strategic visit to the Amazon is a breath of fresh air for Lula, president of Brazil and host of the G20 summit. Lula intends to consolidate concrete measures against climate change during the Rio de Janeiro summit. Faced with the prospect of a future Trump government critical of the fight against disinformation, suspicious of multilateralism and skeptical of climate change, the Biden and Lula tandem are deploying a planned enveloping strategy to involve the rest of the world. One of Lula’s big bets is the launch of a fund to combat climate misinformation, in collaboration with the UN and UNESCO. Anticipated by the Folha de São Paulothe fund will direct resources for investigations into disinformation, campaigns denouncing fake news and diplomatic actions. The proposal already has the support of the United Kingdom, France, Chile, Morocco, Portugal and Sweden.
The Brazilian initiative, which will be used to pave the way for the COP30 in Belém in 2025, collides head-on with Donald Trump. “We need to destroy the toxic censorship industry that emerged disguised as a fight against information,” Trump said in a video on the social network X a few days ago. Trump has already announced that he is going to cut off funding for projects to combat disinformation and even block resources for universities that do research on the matter.
Milei’s initial rejection of the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty
The summit of G20 presidents, held at the Museum of Modern Art (MAM) in Rio de Janeiro, began on Monday morning with the highly anticipated first meeting between Lula and Javier Milei, president of Argentina. Lula’s cold reception to Milei, barely a handshake, contrasted with the closeness with which he greeted Joe Biden or Gustavo Petro, president of Colombia. Before the inaugural session of the G20, former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff was seen whispering in Lula’s ear. The privileged presence of Rousseff, current president of the BRICS banks, was also a message for Argentina, which recently refused to enter said political bloc.
Lula inaugurated the summit of presidents by presenting the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty. In a brief speech, the Brazilian president stated that hunger, “in a world that produces almost six billion tons of food per year,” is unacceptable. “Hunger and poverty are not the result of scarcity or natural phenomena. Hunger is the biological expression of social evils. It is the product of political decisions, which perpetuate the exclusion of a large part of humanity,” said the Brazilian president.
Lula reported that the Alliance against Hunger and Poverty already has the membership of 81 countries, the European Union and the African Union, 26 international organizations, nine financial institutions and 31 philanthropic foundations and non-governmental organizations. Spain, a permanent guest of the group, is one of the founding members. After the initial refusal to join Lula’s initiative, Argentina joined, increasing the number of founding countries to 82.
The Brazilian government defends that the announced commitments will create income transfer for five hundred million people, school feeding programs for 150 million children and health projects for 200 million women and children. Although the commitments of the Alliance imply that the signatory countries develop policies at the national level, mechanisms for the implementation of public policies will also be created in developing countries.
When Lula announced the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty at the end of 2023, it was received with some suspicion. Some countries demonstrated resistance to the idea, claiming that other mechanisms to combat hunger already existed. Only in the UN, there are two mechanisms in this direction: the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and the WFP (World Food Programme). On the other hand, in 2012, the G8 created the New Initiative for Food Security and Nutrition, although it failed miserably. In 2017, hunger affected 541 million people in the world, according to the FAO. The figure rose to 733 million in 2024. “The Alliance prioritizes the fight against hunger and poverty on the international agenda. It is the possibility of cooperating in a world that no longer cooperates. “A sigh for that multilateralism that is drowning,” defend Laura Waisbich, director of Articulação Sul, former director of the Center for Brazilian Studies at Oxford.
Brazil’s expectation is that, in the medium term, the final number of signatory countries of the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty will approach one hundred.
Argentina’s accession gives a respite to the Brazilian delegation, which had already aired in the press Javier Milei’s veto of numerous points of the G20 final declaration.
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