Official Translation:
Address of
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
President of the Federative Republic of Brazil
Friday, December 17, 2009
Copenhagen

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Secretary General, Ladies and Gentlemen Heads of State, Ladies and Gentlemen Heads of Government, Dear Friends,

I should say very bluntly to all of you that I am a little bit frustrated. Why so?

Credit: Ricardo Stuckert/PR

Because for a long time, we have been discussing the climate change issue, and more and more, we see that the problem is even more severe than we could have ever imagined.

In thinking to give a contribution to this discussion in this conference, Brazil has taken a position that I should say was a very bold one.

We have presented our targets for the year 2020, we have assumed a commitment, and we have passed a bill in our national congress, stating that Brazil by 2020 will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by a range from 36.1% up to 38.9% based on some things that we consider are truly important: Changes in the Brazilian agriculture system; We will have to make changes in the Brazilian steel industry; We will have to make changes and improve our energy matrix that is already one of the cleanest energy matrices of the world; and we have also made the commitment to reduce the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest by 80% by the year 2020.

We did that, building on an economic structure that would oblige a developing country that faces many economic difficulties like ours to spend US$ 166 billion by 2020, which is the equivalent of US$ 16 billion per year.

It’s not an easy task. But it was necessary to take these measures to show the rest of the world that just through words and bargaining, we would not find a solution at the Copenhagen conference.

I had the pleasure to participate last night till two o’clock in the morning in a meeting where, sincerely, I should say I did not expect that I would be participating in because it was a meeting in which many heads of state were there. Very prominent figures of the political world were in that meeting, but once again sincerely to submit heads of state to certain kinds of discussions as the one we had last night for a long time, I haven’t seen such a meeting.

I was in a meeting yesterday, and I was remembering my times as a trade union leader when I was at the bargaining table with the business representatives. Why did we face all these difficulties? Because we did not take care in advance to work with the responsibility that was required of us.

The issue is not only the money. Some people think that only money would solve the problems. It did not solve the problems in the past, it will not solve the problems in the present, and even less it will solve the problems in the future.

Money is important, and the less developed countries need this money to keep their development going, to preserve their environments, to take care of their forests, that’s true.

But it is also important that we, the developing countries and the rich countries, when we think in terms of money, we should not think that someone is paying us a favor.

Let’s not think that they are giving something to us that we are begging for. The money that will be put on the table is the payment of greenhouse gas emissions that were made over two centuries because they had the privilege of those countries that industrialized themselves first.

So, it is not a bargain between the countries that have the money and the countries that do not have the money, it’s a much more serious commitment that we are discussing here. It’s a commitment to see if it’s true or not what the scientists are saying that global warming is not reversible. Those that have better resources and more abilities should guarantee to give a contribution to protect those that are more in need.

Everybody agreed that we needed to guarantee the two degrees Celsius of global warming as a cap till 2020. Everybody agrees to two degrees. Everybody also acknowledges that it is only possible to build this agreement if the countries take their targets with great responsibility. And even on those targets that should be simpler to decide on, there are a lot of people that want to bargain on them.

Credit: Ricardo Stuckert/PR

All of us could offer a little bit more if we had assumed there would be goodwill in these times. We all knew that it was necessary to keep the targets commitment and keep the commitments to financing. We knew that in any paper that would be passed here in this conference, we would have to keep the principles that were adopted in the Kyoto protocol and to keep those principles in the Framework Convention because the truth of the matter is that we do have common responsibilities – but differentiated responsibilities.

I never forget that when I took office in the year 2003, my commitment was to try to guarantee that each Brazilian could have breakfast in the morning, have lunch and have dinner. For the developed world, three meals is something of the past – something they achieved a long time ago – but for Africa, for Latin America for many Asian countries, this something still for the future. This is linked to the discussions that we are having here because it is not only about discussing climate change, we have to discuss development and opportunities for all countries.

I had conversations with important world leaders and I reached the conclusion that it was possible to build a political base that could explain to the rest of the world that we – heads of government and heads of state, experts – are highly responsible people and that we wanted to find a solution. I still believe in that because I am excessively optimistic. But it is necessary for us to play the game not thinking who will be the winners and who will be the losers.

It is true that those countries that will contribute funds have the right to demand transparency. They even have the right to demand compliance with the policy that was financed. But it is also true that we need to be very careful with this intervention into the developing and less developed countries.

Based on the experience that we have from the past, either from the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank in our countries, it is not advisable that we should continue with those old policies in the 21st century.

What we need – and I will say this frankly and publicly as something that I have not said yet in my own country, I have not said even to my team here, that I have not addressed to my congress – if it is necessary for us to make more sacrifices, Brazil is willing to tap money to help other countries. We will do it. We are willing to participate in the financing mechanisms if we reach an agreement on a final proposal from this conference.

Now, what we do not agree is that the most important figures on the planet earth sign any kind of document or a paper just to say that we signed a document or a paper. I would love to leave Copenhagen with the most perfect signed document in the world, but if we did not have the conditions to build such a document by now, I don’t know, my dear friend Rasmussen and my dear friend Ban Ki-Moon, if we didn’t manage to draft such a document I am not sure if some angel or some wiseman will come down to this plenary and will put in our minds the intelligence that we lacked up till now. I don’t know if that is going to be possible.

I believe – since I believe in God – in miracles. And a miracle can happen, and I want to be a part of that miracle. But in order for this miracle to happen, we need to take into account that we had two working groups working on these two papers and we cannot forget all their work. The two working papers are extremely important. Second, we should draft a political statement that could work as an umbrella statement.

We could all do that if we understand at least three issues: First, Kyoto; second, Framework Convention; and third MRV. These papers cannot threaten the individual sovereignty of each country; each country has to have the competence to do its own oversight.

And at the same time that the money is being put forward, we have to understand that the less developed countries, such as Brazil, did not come here to bargain. We don’t need foreign money for our targets. We will do it with our own resources.

We are willing to take one step further if we manage to solve the problem that will first meet the need for maintaining the development of the developing countries. We stayed one century without growth while others were developing a lot. Now that we are starting to grow, it’s not fair that we go back and make more sacrifices.

In Brazil we still have many poor people, in Africa there are still many poor people, in India, China there are many poor people, still. We also understand the role and responsibilities of the more wealthy countries, and that they cannot be the ones that will save us. What we want is only that we can work together, rich and poor, to establish a common ground that will allow us to leave this conference with great pride and to say to the four corners of the world that we are concerned, and to preserve and conserve the future of the planet Earth without the sacrifice of its main species which are the men and women and children that live in this world.

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.

December 18, 2009