Joe Biden will make the first trip to the Amazon rainforest by a sitting US president Sunday — but his visit will be overshadowed by incoming leader Donald Trump’s vows to roll back his green policies.
Biden is heading to Manaus in Brazil, a city in the heart of the world’s largest jungle, as part of a tour of South America that is likely to be the last major foreign swing of his single term in office.
The 81-year-old will have an aerial tour of the Amazon and visit a museum before speaking to the media, the White House said. Biden will also meet indigenous and local leaders working to protect the Amazon.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Biden was making the “historic stop in the Amazon to underscore his personal commitment and America’s continuing commitment… to combat climate change at home and abroad.”
“This has been, obviously, one of the defining causes of President Biden’s presidency,” Sullivan told a briefing on Wednesday.
“This will be the first-ever visit of a sitting US president to the Amazon.”
But Biden’s visit comes as the world braces for the return of Republican Trump to the White House on January 20 after his sweeping election victory over Democrat Kamala Harris.
Trump has pledged to reverse Biden’s policies and could pull the United States out of international efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial times.
On Saturday, Trump nominated a fracking magnate and noted climate change skeptic Chris Wright as his energy secretary.
Biden brought the world’s second-biggest emitter back into the landmark 2015 Paris agreement to limit global carbon emissions after Trump pulled out during his first term.
– Amazon fires –
The Amazon, spanning nine countries, is crucial to the fight against climate change due to its ability to absorb planet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
But it is also one of the areas most vulnerable to climate change and environmental degradation.
Usually one of the wettest places on earth, the Amazon basin is experiencing the worst fires in nearly two decades as Latin America experiences a severe drought, according to the EU’s Copernicus observatory.
Meanwhile a recent study showed that the Amazon rainforest has lost an area about the size of Germany and France combined to deforestation in four decades.
Biden is due to meet Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has pledged to put a stop to illegal Amazon deforestation by 2030, next week in Rio de Janeiro.
The outgoing US president flies to Rio from Manaus and will also attend the G20 summit there on Monday and Tuesday, where Trump’s return will also dominate the agenda.
Experts have warned that a second Trump presidency would slam the brakes on the transition to green energy that Biden has pushed, crushing hopes of hitting crucial long-term climate targets.
During his campaign, Trump pledged to “drill, baby, drill” and increase fossil fuel extraction. He even brushed off climate change just days before the vote.
A US retreat from climate diplomacy could seriously undermine global action to cut fossil fuel reliance, giving heavy polluters like China and India a convenient excuse to scale back their own plans.
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