We were deeply moved by President Lula’s speech at the UN in September, infused with action not rhetoric, a plea for meaningful realignment, galvanising our collective resolve. Last year’s COP28 global stocktake assessed collective progress on climate action. What is urgently needed now is a true moral stocktake. We have identified solutions to human made planetary warming. Decision-makers must now show moral leadership to urgently and equitably deploy them at scale.

We have witnessed firsthand the devastating impacts the climate and nature crisis has on African communities and people. In all our years as leaders, in service to our respective countries and the wider world, we have found that only with justice, inclusion and solidarity can meaningful change happen.

At global summits, as we deliberate carbon targets and emission numbers, we risk losing sight of the bigger picture, the more compelling truth. While science must be at the centre of climate and nature policy, this crisis is above all a moral crisis and an existential threat to humanity, and to treat it as anything less is to ignore our best hope of ending it. 

Brazil is navigating a seismic year of global leadership on the world stage, hosting the G20, BRICS, and COP30. This is why Elders chose to visit Brazil this year, to discuss its leadership role with its young people, civil society and politicians. The eyes of the world will be on this dynamic nation. We are fortunate to have President Lula navigating this moment, capable of fusing compassion and steadfast resolve when needed most. 

True leadership requires bold action. Brazil is leading on renewable energy, in hydro, solar, wind and biomass, leagues ahead of its G20 counterparts.  To that end Brazil must double down on this resolve, deliver a just phase out of dirty energy sources that place the amazon in jeopardy. The context on the African continent is similar, and we understand how difficult these decisions are. This phase-out would send a message to every nation, inside the G20 and out, that Brazil will not only meet its targets but shatter them.

Clearly, the G20 membership wields immense power, equally they share a shameful honour, accounting for 80% of the emissions boiling our planet. Between them they have the responsibility and the capacity to curb global warming. The wealthiest nations must lead the way, not merely because they have abundant resources to do so, but because morally they have the highest responsibility to act, having reaped the rewards from generations of harm.

It is crucial that Lula rallies the G20 around a strong finance outcome. In his G20 declaration, President Lula deftly pointed to ‘the elephant in the room’ few others have been willing to acknowledge, the taxation of the super-rich. His tax proposal demonstrates that the wealthiest, most influential among us must be held to account. No nation can claim it lacks the resources for climate finance while failing to tax its billionaires. 

Brazil has renewed calls for urgent reforms in the global financial system. In his speech at the UN, President Lula put it bluntly: African countries borrow at rates that are up to eight times higher than Germany’s and four times higher than the United States’. And in the meantime, the world's least developed countries - a group in which our own countries belong - spend twice as much servicing debts as they receive in climate finance.

The reality is painfully clear, those that have done the least to cause this crisis overwhelmingly suffer the greatest from it, on the frontline of fires, floods, droughts, whilst simultaneously providing the rest of the world with the products we demand in ever greater quantities. 

We cannot continue to sacrifice the most vulnerable among us - the poor, the marginalized, the indigenous communities and women - on the altar of short-term profits and unsustainable practices.  An injustice made all the more glaring as $2.6 trillion is spent each year on environmentally harmful subsidies, amounting to 2.5% of global GDP each year.

President Lula’s election and firm stance on climate justice signalled hope, not just in Brazil, but around the world. 

The world looks to him to cement his place as a climate leader, to push for a global realignment on development and growth. To challenge the inertia that has plagued international climate negotiations for too long. To demand that wealthy nations live up to their side of the bargain and deliver a historic surge of financial support for the countries on the frontlines of climate change. To stand firm against those who seek to exploit Brazil’s natural resources for short-term gain, at the expense of future generations.

We stand with President Lula as he uses his platform, influence and moral authority to lead the world toward a more just and sustainable future, for Brazil, for us all.