BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told Reuters in an interview yesterday that Brazil is open to adopting targets for greenhouse gas emissions if rich countries do more to curb climate change.
Lula also said he will veto clauses in an Amazon land reform bill that would grant companies and non-residents land titles. The objective of the bill is to legalize land holdings of millions of people who settled in the Amazon in recent decades, but environmentalists have criticized it as a land giveaway that could spur more deforestation.
“We want to be an example to the world in taking care of our own things,” Lula said.
Global climate talks are scheduled for the end of this year in Copenhagen. Last year, Brazil announced it would cut destruction of the Amazon rain forest by 50 percent over the next decade.