Brazil's Lula to attend COP31, government source says

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will attend the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Turkey, a Brazilian government source said Saturday.

The UN Climate Change Conference is scheduled for November 9-20. The meeting of heads of state is scheduled for November 11-12.

Lula, 81, won Brazil's presidential runoff on Sunday against conservative Flavio Bolsonaro. Brazilian Health Minister Alexandre Padilha, who will accompany Lula to COP31, told AFP on Wednesday that the result was “a victory for the fight against climate change” over “climate change denial”.

Brazil hosted the previous summit last year in the Amazon. Delegations did not set binding targets or deadlines for phasing out coal, oil and gas.

Turkey will hold the presidency of this year's annual climate summit, while Australia will lead the negotiations. Among its 10 priority issues, Turkey proposes reducing emissions by increasing electricity's share of global energy consumption to 35% by 2035, from around 23% now.

Experts say an agreement on phasing out coal, oil and gas is unlikely this year, with markets under pressure from the war in the Middle East.