Call of Belem for the Climate urges countries to respond urgently to the global crisis

Brazil’s President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, issued a call for urgent action addressed to all countries, aimed at giving renewed momentum to the global fight against climate change. The call presents concrete proposals to restore mutual trust and the spirit of collective mobilization for the common good, emphasizing multilateralism as the only path to address a global challenge.

The document highlights the urgency of addressing fundamental gaps in climate action. Countries that have not yet done so are urged to submit their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) with ambition consistent with limiting the increase in the global average temperature to 1.5°C. It also reinforces the importance of ensuring that developing countries have adequate means of implementation, including finance, technology transfer, and capacity-building. Furthermore, the text stresses that adaptation—focused on building resilience among populations, ecosystems, and economies—must be placed at the center of climate policies, with a significant increase in funding dedicated to reducing vulnerabilities.

To accelerate climate action, the call proposes concrete measures such as increasing financing for developing countries and establishing debt-swap mechanisms to enable these countries to implement their policies without increasing indebtedness. It also calls for the development of a timeline for the progressive phase-out of fossil fuels; the creation of a Climate Change Council; the expansion of financing channels dedicated to forest conservation, such as the Tropical Forests Forever Fund; the prevention of unilateral trade measures justified on environmental grounds; and the strengthening of cooperation on carbon markets.

In order to reconnect the climate regime to people’s lives, countries are called upon to redress injustices and to build a prosperous and sustainable future by aligning climate action with the eradication of poverty and hunger, the fight against inequalities, and the elimination of environmental racism.