Last year was disastrous for the environment and climate change action. United Nations-backed talks to tackle biodiversity, plastic pollution desertification and climate change either collapsed or produced grossly inadequate agreements. The re-election of Donald Trump for another term in the United States signalled that the pushback against climate action would only intensify.
All this came in a year that broke the record for the hottest and for the first time average global temperatures surpassed the limit set by the Paris Agreement: 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
As we start 2025, the prospects for meaningful climate action seem bleak. But the anti-climate policies of Trump 2.0 and the intransigence of other major state and corporate polluters could also drive momentum from the rest of the world for radical change. Indeed, 2025 could open up space for the Global South to drive climate action and it only makes sense that Brazil – as the host of this year’s COP30 – should lead the way.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was returned to power two years ago on a promise of social and environmental change. After initial successes, however, his administration has lost momentum. This year could be Lula’s last opportunity to make good on his promises, take the lead globally on climate change and ensure that his legacy as a change-maker will go beyond Brazil’s borders.
During his presidential campaign, Lula heavily emphasised his rejection of his right-wing predecessor Jair Bolsonaro’s anti-environment and anti-minorities policies and promised to reverse them, focusing on the conservation of the Amazon and the protection of vulnerable communities, including the Indigenous.
After his victory, he appointed climate activist Marina Silva to head the Environmental Ministry and Indigenous leader Sonia Guajajara to head the new Indigenous Affairs Ministry. At his inauguration on January 1, 2023, he walked with prominent Indigenous leader Chief Raoni, who has become the symbol of the fight to preserve the Amazon rainforest.
Three weeks later, he visited the Yanomami community, which was devastated by........