Human fossil found that would be one of the oldest in central Brazil 0:59

(CNN) — The United Nations has chosen Brazil to host the international climate meeting, COP30, in the Amazonian city of Belém do Pará in 2025. This was announced on Friday by the country's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

"I have participated in COPs in Egypt, in Paris, in Copenhagen and they only talk about the Amazon. So why not celebrate the COP in the Amazon so that [people] can get to know it, see its rivers, its forests, its fauna?" said Lula in a video posted on Twitter.

Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said the UN approved Brazil's bid to host COP30 on May 18 following a request Lula had made during last year's COP27 meeting in Egypt.

Belém do Pará is a city in northern Brazil located on the edge of the Amazon rainforest. It is the capital of the state of Pará, located on the coast of the Amazon River estuary.

The governor of Pará, Helder Barbalho, said in the same video that it is a "great privilege for the whole country" to host the event, stating that it "increases the responsibility" of Brazil's climate agenda in relation to the rights of indigenous peoples and the environment.

• COP27 summit agrees on climate fund for "loss and damage" in landmark agreement

Lula has vowed to combat Amazon deforestation and repair the damage done to the Amazon by his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, under whose presidency deforestation intensified.

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But in recent days Lula's government has been criticized for backtracking on its climate-related election promises. His administration helped Congress pass a bill stripping the environment and indigenous peoples' ministries of some powers, weakening oversight of environmental protections and the demarcation of indigenous lands in the Amazon.

The COP is the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference, where States discuss and agree on measures to address environmental issues. This year the 28th edition of the conference will be held in Dubai, according to the UN. The UN calendar does not yet include anything after that event.

File photo. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva gestures during a ministerial meeting to celebrate the first 100 days of his government at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia on April 10, 2023. (Photo by EVARISTO SA/AFP)

At last year's climate summit, negotiators from nearly 200 countries took the historic step of agreeing to create a "loss and damage" fund aimed at helping vulnerable countries cope with climate disasters and agreed that the planet needs to cut greenhouse gas emissions by nearly half by 2030.

However, the attempt to tackle the biggest source of emissions driving global warming and the climate crisis ended in a fiasco after several nations, including China and Saudi Arabia, blocked a key proposal to phase out all fossil fuels, not just coal.

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