SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt - UN climate talks got a boost on Wednesday after Brazilian president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva vowed to fight Amazon deforestation and global leaders reaffirmed key pledges.

While G-20 leaders meeting in Indonesia issued a final communique committing to pursue the more ambitious limits on global heating, action on the sidelines of fraught COP27 negotiations in Egypt generated momentum at the UN climate conference.

Showered with applause and chants of “Lula!”, Mr Lula kicked off COP27 events on Wednesday with a call to host the 2025 climate talks in the Amazon region.

Despite a mixed record on the environment and jail time in his resume, the 77-year-old leftist politician drew crowds curious to hear his promises to protect the Amazon rainforest.

“Brazil is back,” Mr Lula said repeatedly, words his supporters sang during his speech at the COP27 conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

“We will put up a very strong fight against illegal deforestation,” he said, announcing the creation of an Indigenous people’s ministry to protect the vast region’s vulnerable communities.

“There is no climate security for the world without a protected Amazon,” Mr Lula said later in a speech.

In his speech, however, Mr Lula took a dig at developed countries for failing to fulfil a pledge to provide US$100 billion (S$137 billion) in aid annually from 2020 for developing nations to green their economies and adapt to future impacts.

“I’m also back to demand what was promised” at past climate talks, he said.

The president-elect threw his weight behind the idea of a climate impacts compensation fund.

“We very urgently need financial mechanisms to remedy losses and damages caused by climate change,” said Mr Lula, who made a spectacular political comeback after serving jail time for corruption.

Expectations are high for Mr Lula to protect the Amazon after rampant deforestation seen under outgoing far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

“Lula represents a political change for Latin America,” said Adrian Martinez Blanco, who is attending the climate conference for Costa Rican NGO La Ruta del Clima.

“It is a shift towards the protection of the planet, the Amazon, human rights, the rights of Indigenous people,” he said.

‘Back into the fold’

Mr Lula, who was president from 2003 to 2010, pulled off a huge political comeback to defeat Mr Bolsonaro.

He left office as a blue-collar hero who presided over a commodity-fuelled economic boom that helped lift 30 million people out of poverty.

But he then became mired in a massive corruption scandal and served more than 18 months in prison from 2018. His conviction was later overturned.

“It’s very interesting to listen to him first hand and understand how he captures so much love from his people – while also not necessarily being the best for the country,” said Sofya Levitina, a student at the University of Connecticut, referring to the corruption scandal.

Brazilian climate campaigner Mariana Paoli, who leads global advocacy at Christian Aid, said Brazil had become a “pariah state” under Mr Bolsonaro when it came to climate policy.

“It’s so good to see Lula bringing Brazil back into the fold,” she said in a statement.

Latin America’s most populous country grew more isolated under Mr Bolsonaro, analysts say, in part due to his permissive policies towards deforestation and exploitation of the Amazon, the preservation of which is seen as critical to fighting global warming.

Brazil is home to 60 per cent of the Amazon, which spans eight countries and acts as a massive sink for carbon emissions.

‘Kerry pleased’

US envoy John Kerry told a COP27 biodiversity panel on Wednesday that he was “really encouraged” by Mr Lula’s pledge to protect the Amazon, and that the United States would work with other nations to help protect the rainforest.

Under Mr Bolsonaro, a staunch ally of agribusiness, average annual deforestation increased 75 per cent compared with the previous decade.

“We don’t need to cause deforestation of even one metre of the Amazon to continue being one of the biggest food producers in the world,” Mr Lula said.

Speaking in Bangkok, where he is attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, French President Emmanuel Macron threw his weight behind Mr Lula’s proposal for the next UN climate summit to be held in the Amazon.

“I ardently wish that we could have a COP in the Amazon, so I fully support this initiative of President Lula,” he said.

In another boost to the UN climate process, the final communique from world leaders meeting at the Group of 20 talks in Bali, Indonesia, reaffirmed a promise to “pursue efforts” to curb global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The G20 document also addresses the most contentious issue at COP27, as leaders urged “progress” on “loss and damage” – the costs of climate impacts already being felt – though without saying which approach they favoured.

Developing nations are demanding the creation of a loss and damage fund, through which rich polluters would compensate them for the destruction caused by climate-linked natural disasters.

But the US and the European Union have suggested using existing channels for climate finance instead of creating a new one.

The G-20 meeting was also the stage of a crucial meeting between US President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping, where the two leaders agreed to resume their climate cooperation.

Ani Dasgupta, head of the World Resources Institute, said positive signals from leaders at the G-20 “should put wind in the sails” of negotiators in Egypt.

In another COP27 announcement, the EU said it would dedicate more than US$1 billion (S$1.37 billion) in climate funding to help countries in Africa boost their resilience in the face of the accelerating impact of global warming. AFP