Brasilia, May 27 (RHC)-- Brazilian President Lula da Silva has announced that the United Nations confirmed Brazil as the host of the COP30 Climate Summit to be held in 2025.

The Brazilian leader said that COP30 will take place in Belem do Para, a city near the mouth of the Amazon River into the Atlantic Ocean, and considered the confirmation received from the United Nations as "extraordinary news" for the country.  “I already participated in a COP in Egypt and in another in Copenhagen.  In all of them, the attendees talked about the Amazon but without ever having been there," Lula said.

"I always thought: why not hold a COP in the Amazon so that everyone gets to know the Amazon and see what the Amazonian rivers, jungles and fauna are like," he added.  

Local media noted that Brazil had been chosen by the United Nations as the host of the COP25 in 2019, but the far-right President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2023), who assumed the presidency that same year, declined to take charge of organizing the event, which was ultimately held in Spain.

During Bolsonaro's administration, the former Army Capitan and right-wing ideologue promoted aggressive development policies in the Amazon and dismantled all environmental oversight agencies, which Lula has begun to strengthen again since taking office in January.

Furthermore, Lula has resumed programs to protect the Amazon and combat the climate crisis that existed before Bolsonaro came to power.  Lula reinforced the Environment Ministry and created a new ministry specifically focused on Indigenous peoples.