Lula: Rich countries must pay to preserve rain forests

The First World must pony up if the planet’s tropical forests are to be saved, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva warns before next week’s United Nations conference in Bali on climate change.

"It’s necessary that rich countries know that … we are going to discuss seriously the price that rich countries have to pay so that poorer countries can preserve their forests," Lula said this week in a major speech on the incendiary topic. "You’re not going to convince a poor person from any country in the world that he cannot cut down a tree without having in exchange the right to work, the right to eat."

Under Lula’s guidance, Brazil has sought to position itself as a trailblazer on environmental issues, despite continued criticism of rampant tree-slashing for agriculture and other development in the Amazon and elsewhere. South America's largest and most industrialized nation has pioneered the utilization of renewable energy sources and the use of low-emission ethanol from sugar cane.

Brazil has championed the case for First World funding to help shield tropical forests, asserting that rich nations must do their part. Lula has been outspoken and somewhat defensive on the issue, declaring that Brazilians will not accept being treated "like second-class citizens."

Lula, a close U.S. ally who signed biofuels pacts with Washington this year and met with President Bush in Brazil and at Camp David, also took the opportunity to renew criticism of the United States for its import duties on biofuels from Brazil. The Bush administration has been keen to protect the domestic ethanol industry, which uses less-efficient corn.

"Where is the trade equality?" Lula asked. "Where is the will to clean the planet?
Where is the will to diminish greenhouse gases? They could start taxing oil."

Posted by Patrick J. McDonnell in Lima and Marcelo Soares in São Paulo.