Zürcher Nachrichten - Biden touts climate legacy in landmark Amazon visit

EUR -
AED 3.834856
AFN 72.981026
ALL 98.491871
AMD 410.574545
ANG 1.873597
AOA 958.441534
ARS 1062.068709
AUD 1.668164
AWG 1.879297
AZN 1.774656
BAM 1.956632
BBD 2.099092
BDT 124.232814
BGN 1.958008
BHD 0.392267
BIF 3073.606664
BMD 1.044054
BND 1.4119
BOB 7.184054
BRL 6.348575
BSD 1.039642
BTN 88.383574
BWP 14.369109
BYN 3.402246
BYR 20463.455505
BZD 2.089788
CAD 1.4984
CDF 2996.434335
CHF 0.932371
CLF 0.037427
CLP 1032.725839
CNY 7.619298
CNH 7.624449
COP 4583.396412
CRC 524.522987
CUC 1.044054
CUP 27.667427
CVE 110.312953
CZK 25.108921
DJF 185.128703
DKK 7.458302
DOP 63.306913
DZD 140.708819
EGP 53.090769
ERN 15.660808
ETB 129.594994
FJD 2.419125
FKP 0.826872
GBP 0.82945
GEL 2.934095
GGP 0.826872
GHS 15.282497
GIP 0.826872
GMD 75.171679
GNF 8981.818386
GTQ 8.010405
GYD 217.502466
HKD 8.11186
HNL 26.390219
HRK 7.4889
HTG 136.00782
HUF 413.977438
IDR 16852.07323
ILS 3.801792
IMP 0.826872
INR 88.729074
IQD 1361.878967
IRR 43941.619435
ISK 145.113457
JEP 0.826872
JMD 162.65915
JOD 0.740338
JPY 163.428363
KES 134.213278
KGS 90.832546
KHR 4177.776073
KMF 486.659583
KPW 939.647883
KRW 1514.838471
KWD 0.321516
KYD 0.866368
KZT 545.98211
LAK 22754.673557
LBP 93096.577585
LKR 305.22976
LRD 188.690217
LSL 19.139837
LTL 3.08282
LVL 0.631537
LYD 5.108172
MAD 10.463148
MDL 19.149141
MGA 4905.085269
MKD 61.561171
MMK 3391.046186
MNT 3547.694854
MOP 8.322738
MRU 41.345577
MUR 49.280896
MVR 16.080872
MWK 1802.251891
MXN 20.95141
MYR 4.682524
MZN 66.718935
NAD 19.139837
NGN 1614.576632
NIO 38.256264
NOK 11.798806
NPR 141.414119
NZD 1.845107
OMR 0.401651
PAB 1.039642
PEN 3.871246
PGK 4.215792
PHP 61.207138
PKR 289.37392
PLN 4.260093
PYG 8106.446244
QAR 3.789911
RON 4.977322
RSD 117.017747
RUB 107.411783
RWF 1449.216096
SAR 3.922094
SBD 8.752883
SCR 14.548185
SDG 628.007273
SEK 11.498155
SGD 1.414228
SHP 0.826872
SLE 23.801848
SLL 21893.290418
SOS 594.152588
SRD 36.678625
STD 21609.806806
SVC 9.096867
SYP 2623.21688
SZL 19.135135
THB 35.777638
TJS 11.373235
TMT 3.664629
TND 3.312708
TOP 2.445276
TRY 36.741769
TTD 7.056
TWD 34.125736
TZS 2521.389855
UAH 43.600836
UGX 3813.621262
USD 1.044054
UYU 46.369713
UZS 13403.698233
VES 53.742914
VND 26555.509733
VUV 123.952164
WST 2.884499
XAF 656.235982
XAG 0.035143
XAU 0.000398
XCD 2.821607
XDR 0.793037
XOF 656.235982
XPF 119.331742
YER 261.404956
ZAR 19.098632
ZMK 9397.736499
ZMW 28.771231
ZWL 336.184914
  • RELX

    -0.3100

    45.47

    -0.68%

  • CMSD

    0.0000

    23.56

    0%

  • GSK

    0.1700

    33.6

    +0.51%

  • NGG

    0.8200

    58.5

    +1.4%

  • RIO

    -0.0900

    58.64

    -0.15%

  • RBGPF

    59.9600

    59.96

    +100%

  • SCS

    -0.5800

    11.74

    -4.94%

  • AZN

    0.9100

    65.35

    +1.39%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0100

    7.27

    -0.14%

  • CMSC

    0.0200

    23.86

    +0.08%

  • BCC

    -0.2600

    122.75

    -0.21%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    8.39

    +0.12%

  • BCE

    0.0500

    23.16

    +0.22%

  • BTI

    0.1131

    36.24

    +0.31%

  • BP

    0.1900

    28.6

    +0.66%

  • JRI

    0.1100

    12.06

    +0.91%

Biden touts climate legacy in landmark Amazon visit
Biden touts climate legacy in landmark Amazon visit / Photo: SAUL LOEB - AFP

Biden touts climate legacy in landmark Amazon visit

US President Joe Biden paid an historic trip to the Amazon rainforest on Sunday to promote his record on fighting climate change, insisting it would survive Donald Trump's return to the White House.

Text size:

Biden flew over the jungle by helicopter and met with Indigenous leaders in the Brazilian city of Manaus on the penultimate leg of a valedictory South American tour which has been overshadowed by Trump's election win.

The 81-year-old Democrat is the first sitting US president to visit the Amazon.

- Don't have to choose -

"Folks, we don't have to choose between an environment and the economy. We can do both. We've proven it back home," Biden said in a short speech in a nature reserve, framed by vivid green forest cover.

Without referring to Trump by name, he said he would leave his Republican successor and his country "a strong foundation to build on, if they choose to do so."

"It's true -- some may seek to deny or delay the clean energy revolution that's underway in America. But nobody -- nobody -- can reverse it," he declared.

On Sunday, the White House announced that the US had hit its target of increasing bilateral climate financing to $11 billion a year.

It said that the figure reached this year was six times what the US was providing when Biden took over from Trump in 2021.

The money, which helps developing countries adapt to climate change, has made "the United States the largest bilateral provider of climate finance in the world," the White House said.

The European Union, however, remains the biggest global contributor to climate financing.

- Outshone by Xi -

Trump's return to the White House looms large over Biden's last major foreign tour as president, which began with a gathering of Asian-Pacific partners in Lima and ends with a G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro starting Monday.

Climate financing for developing nations is one of the topics on the G20 table, with calls for the world's richest countries to rescue stalled UN climate talks taking place at the same time in Azerbaijan.

While striking a defiant note about Trump, Biden has cut an at-times forlorn figure on his farewell tour of a region the US views as its backyard.

All eyes in Lima were on Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was received with greater fanfare than the lame-duck US leader.

At a meeting with Biden, the Chinese leader was already looking to the new Trump era, saying he was ready to work with the "America First" leader and hoped for a "smooth transition" in relations.

America's allies fear Trump could again pull the United States, the world's second-biggest polluter, out of the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement on combatting carbon emissions, as he did during his first term.

On Saturday, he nominated a fracking magnate and noted climate change skeptic, Chris Wright, as his energy secretary.

In another ominous sign, Argentina's right-wing President Javier Milei, a major fan of Trump's, this week pulled his country out of the UN climate talks.

- Amazon on fire -

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.

A recent study showed that the Amazon rainforest had lost an area about the size of Germany and France combined to deforestation in four decades.

This year it experienced the worst wildfires in nearly two decades, fueled by a severe drought blamed in part by climate experts on global warming.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has pledged to put a stop to illegal Amazon deforestation by 2030.

Biden on Sunday announced an additional $50 million towards a Brazilian fund aimed at protecting the world's biggest jungle.

Experts have warned that the second Trump presidency could undo progress on the transition to green energy made under Biden, giving heavy polluters like China and India an excuse to scale back their own efforts.

T.Gerber--NZN