After three consecutive years of climate negotiations hosted by authoritarian regimes, the return of the COP summit to a democracy could not come at a more decisive moment. When world leaders gather in Belém for COP30 this week, they will enter a country that has defied both authoritarianism and environmental collapse, a reminder that democracy delivers where despotism destroys.
Just a few years ago, Brazil was at the brink. Under far-right populist Jair Bolsonaro, the Amazon burned at record pace while democratic institutions buckled under relentless attacks. Bolsonaro gutted environmental agencies, defunded enforcement programs and mocked climate science. By 2021, deforestation in the Amazon had surged to the highest annual level in a decade, and the world feared the rainforest might cross an irreversible tipping point.
The above excerpt was originally published in El País.
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