Inequality and discrimination
Another important point in the conversation between Lula and Biden was inequality. The Brazilian president praised the income redistribution policies and the fight against hunger, which he intends to resume in the country during his third term.
He also recalled that part of the fight against inequality involves the racial issue, and that the United States also faces this problem.
“Young black people from the periphery are often victims of the State’s inability, because the violence that exists in the periphery is the absence of a State with public policies to guarantee dreams to youth”.
environmental policy
Lula also highlighted policies to combat the climate crisis as one of the priorities of his new government and defended a global initiative to protect the Amazon as the most important biome on the planet.
“We have had a commitment since 2009, in Copenhagen, when I participated in the COP15, in which we assumed the commitment to reduce deforestation by 80% and greenhouse gas emissions by 39%, and we fulfilled that”, recalled Lula.
The president also acknowledged that “in recent years, the Amazon has been invaded by political irrationality, human irrationality, because we had a president who ordered deforestation, ordered mining to enter indigenous areas and ordered mining in the forests that we demarcated”, but assured that “ I made a commitment that by 2030 we will reach zero deforestation in the Amazon”.
Lula said that “we all have an obligation to leave our children and grandchildren a better world than the one we received. The Amazon is a World Heritage Site, and we are going to take this policy very seriously. [de preservação da floresta e combate ao desmatamento]”.
Regarding the emission targets for greenhouse gases, responsible for global warming at a record level that the planet is currently experiencing, Lula said that “it is necessary that we establish a new conversation to achieve stronger world governance, that makes the decisions that all countries can comply, or else it won’t work [alcançar as metas dos Acordos de Paris de 2015]”.
Lula ended his statement by saying that the fight for democracy and the environmental issue “is not a government program, it is a commitment of faith, of someone who believes in humanism, solidarity, fraternity.”