U.S. President Joe Biden is seeking $500 million to bolster Brazil’s strategy to protect the Amazon, a gesture to his counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva amid recent tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and relations with China.
Biden will request the U.S. Congress deliver the money over five years to Brazil’s Amazon Fund, an international conservation initiative set up with Germany and Norway, as part of the South American nation’s efforts to end deforestation in the world’s largest rainforest by 2030, according to a White House statement Thursday.
“The answer to the climate challenge, maybe the biggest in our generation, depends on the coordinated action of all the countries,” Lula said in a short video presentation from Brasilia after the White House’s announcement. “Brazil is doing its part.”
