Mr. President, Excellencies, distinguished delegates,

I could not be more excited to be here in Brasília — and soon in the magnificent rainforests of Belém. There is truly no better place to deliver a strong outcome for our forests. In fact, that is precisely why President Lula chose to host COP30 in Belém.

Today, we also celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Paris Agreement. A decade of global action, or maybe inaction! We also celebrate 10th anniversary of the end of the negotiations under Article 5.2, which is all about rainforests, and whose decisions were fully captured within the Paris Agreement.

Action and Results:

Article 5.2 demonstrates where the Paris Agreement is working. Since the launch of the Paris Agreement, 65 countries have implemented national-scale forest reference levels, and 21 countries have completed UN MRV — achieving verified results amounting to 14 gigatons of reductions and removals. This is more than what the CDM ever achieved in terms of verified climate results.

However, what has been less successful is payment for verified results — with only about 4% of those results financed to date. Lack of finance may bring the entire Paris Agreement to a grinding halt.

Therefore, we call for the full and accelerated implementation of the Global Stocktake decision, particularly in light of COP30’s location in the heart of the Amazon. We must act on paragraph 34, which urges “scaling up support to reverse global deforestation and degradation by 2030, in accordance with Article 5 of the Paris Agreement.” And we submitted an agenda item in this regard. It’s time to move from dialoguing to financing implementation.

To achieve this, we need the private sector fully engaged for nature. Following the completion of the Article 6 rulebook last year in Baku, we now have the opportunity to create an ITMO that begins with Article 5.2 and ends with Article 6.2 — a fully recognized UNFCCC credit with the highest integrity and transparency standards. Credits that are fully in line with countries NDCs, included in their GHG inventory, and are national in scale.

Mr. President, you have the full support of our group. At the same time, rainforest countries are counting on you to ensure that forests finally receive the finance necessary to reverse global deforestation by 2030. We are not asking for handouts, but for the true value of forests to be recognized, including in global Article 6.2 compliant carbon markets.

Our Heads of State and Government will join the President Lula during the high level on November 6 and 7, fully committed to work on a fair outcome for forests. We must concretely scale up finance for forests from Belem.