Since he returned to office in January, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has traveled to 21 countries and met with more than 50 heads of state, including two kings and the Pope.
The globe-trotting leftist leader, the first head of state to address the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, has prioritized foreign trips in his third term so far, as he strives to restore his country as a global player.
"Brazil is back," he repeats in speeches across five continents, in contrast with the growing isolation that came with his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro's hard-right political stance and dismal environmental record.
But diplomats and foreign policy experts say Lula is far from restoring the "soft power" status Brazil enjoyed after his first two terms, from 2003 to 2010, when the country became a voice for the rising global south while remaining independent from both the U.S. and China.
In part, that reflects the choppier waters the 77-year-old Brazilian leader now navigates, as Beijing and Washington flirt with a new Cold War while war rages in Ukraine. Brazil has also become increasingly dependent on Asian markets, which buy half of its exports. China alone, Brazil's main trading partner, buys 37% of its farm exports.
"This is a very tricky balancing act and Lula so far has not been able to find the right equilibrium," said Oliver Stuenkel, an associate professor of international relations at the FGV think tank in Sao Paulo. "There is a perception in Brazilian society now that he is tilting towards the Sino-Russian axis more than the West."
On Wednesday, Lula is scheduled to meet U.S. President Joe Biden to discuss the climate crisis on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, focusing where the Brazilian leader has shined.
Lula has helped to restore Brazil's central role in climate diplomacy, leading a regional rainforest summit, drawing global contributions to protect the Amazon and overhauling policies to bring down deforestation sharply.
India’s economy will become carbon neutral by the year 2070, the country’s prime minster has announced at the COP26 climate crisis summit in Glasgow. The target date is two decades beyond what scientists say is needed to avert catastrophic climate impacts. India is the last of the world’s major carbon polluters to announce a net-zero target, with China saying it would reach that goal in 2060, and the United States and the European Union aiming for 2050.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
A crucial U.N. conference heard calls on its first day for the world's major economies to keep their promises of financial help to address the climate crisis, while big polluters India and Brazil made new commitments to cut emissions. World leaders, environmental experts and activists all pleaded for decisive action to halt the global warming which threatens the future of the planet at the start of the two-week COP26 summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow on Monday. The task facing negotiators was made even more daunting by the failure of the Group of 20 major industrial nations to agree ambitious new commitments at the weekend.