Brazil's Lula Voices Hope for Tackling Climate Change with Japan

Brasilia, March 18 (Jiji Press)--Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday expressed hope for cooperation with Japan on tackling climate change, as the South American country will chair the COP30 climate conference later this year.

Lula told Japanese reporters at the presidential office in Brasilia that Japanese science and technology can play a role in finding solutions for issues regarding climate change. COP30, or the 30th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, is scheduled to be held in Belem, near the mouth of the Amazon river in northern Brazil, in November.

This year marks the 130th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Brazil. Lula is set to make a state visit to Japan over four days from Monday.

The Brazilian president said that trade between the two countries is too little, and called for expanding trade including Japanese imports of Brazilian beef, which Tokyo effectively prohibits. Brazil's trade with Japan totals only around 12 billion dollars per year, less than 10 pct of its trade with China.

Lula slammed U.S. President Donald Trump's diplomatic policies, including his plan to take back control of the Panama Canal. Trump's order on his first day in office in January to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement, an international framework to fight climate change, again was very serious for the planet, Lula said.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]