November 7, 2025
Lula speaking at COP30
The fund promoted by the Lula da Silva administration establishes a global financing architecture to protect the forests and jungles of more than 70 countries around the world.
During the Climate Summit in Belém do Pará, Brazil (prior to COP30), the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva officially presented the Tropical Forests Forever Fund (TFFF), a global initiative that already has the support of 53 countries and financial commitments of $6 billion.
Brazil’s Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, explained that the fund establishes a “global financing architecture to protect forests in more than 70 countries around the world” and that “it is already beginning to operate at COP30 with contributions of resources.”
She also explained that one of its innovative features is its leverage model: “For every dollar of public resources contributed to the fund, we leverage at least $4 in private resources.”
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva presented the TFFF on Thursday during the leaders’ summit prior to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), describing it as an “unprecedented initiative,” since “for the first time in history, the countries of the Global South will play a leading role in the forest agenda.”
The fund seeks to enable payments to developing nations that guarantee the conservation of their rain forests, with an approach based on verifiable results using annual satellite imagery that will monitor whether deforestation remains below 0.5%.
The Rain forests Forever Fund, a Brazilian initiative presented during the Climate Summit, already has the support of 53 countries and a pledge of $6 billion.
“It seems modest, but we are talking about 1.1 billion hectares of rainforests in 73 developing countries,” said Lula, who announced that Brazil will contribute $1 billion as an initial boost. The mechanism will ensure that one-fifth of the resources go to indigenous peoples and local communities.
The TFFF is not based on donations, but on a mixed capital fund that will include sovereign investments from developed and developing countries, with a diversified portfolio of stocks and securities. The profits generated will be shared between countries with tropical forests and investors.
Its governance will be shared equally between rich nations and those with forests, “correcting old asymmetries,” and will include the participation of civil society and experts.
The fund, which already has the backing of countries in the Amazon, Congo, and Borneo-Mekong basins, will initially be administered by the World Bank Council, with the expectation that the New BRICS Bank, the African Development Bank, and other regional institutions will join.
Within the framework of COP30, Lula also called for accelerating a just and equitable energy transition, demanding that “oil corporations and developed countries finance decarbonization.”
He also criticized the fact that in 2024, the 65 largest banks allocated $869 billion to the oil and gas sector, while spending on weapons doubles that on climate action, which, he said, “paves the way for the apocalypse.”
Source: Cuba en Resumen