Bombay Durpun - Biden begins historic Amazon trip amid Trump climate fears

Biden landed in the Brazilian city of Manaus, in the heart of the world's largest jungle, on the last leg of a valedictory South American before handing the keys of the White House to Trump in January.

The 81-year-old, the first sitting US president to visit the Amazon, will fly over the rainforest by helicopter, visit a museum and meet Indigenous and local leaders working to protect the Amazon.

From Manaus he will continue on to Rio de Janeiro for a G20 summit starting Monday.

Ahead of his Amazon visit, the White House announced that the US had hit its target of increasing bilateral climate financing to $11 billion a year.

It said that the figure reached this year was six times what the US was providing at the start of Biden's term in 2021 and made "the United States the largest bilateral provider of climate finance in the world."

"The fight against climate change has been a defining cause of President Biden’s leadership and presidency," the White House said.

Biden arrived in Brazil from Peru, where he attended his last summit with Asia-Pacific leaders.

He has cut a diminished figure on his tour. All eyes in Lima were on Chinese President Xi Jinping who was received with greater fanfare.

At a meeting with Biden, the Chinese leader said he hoped for a "smooth transition" in relations with the future Trump administration.

Trump has pledged to reverse Biden's policies and could again pull the United States, the world's second-biggest polluter, out of the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement on combatting carbon emissions, as he did during his first term.

On Saturday, he nominated a fracking magnate and noted climate change skeptic, Chris Wright, as his energy secretary.

- Amazon fires -

The Amazon, spanning nine countries, is crucial to the fight against climate change due to its ability to absorb planet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

But it is also one of the areas most vulnerable to climate change and environmental degradation.

This year it experienced the worst wildfires in nearly two decades, fuelled by a severe drought blamed in part by climate experts on global warming.

A recent study showed that the Amazon rainforest had lost an area about the size of Germany and France combined to deforestation in four decades.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has pledged to put a stop to illegal Amazon deforestation by 2030.

Experts have warned that a second Trump presidency could undo progress on the transition to green energy made under Biden, giving heavy polluters like China and India an excuse to scale back their own efforts.

During his campaign, Trump pledged to "drill, baby, drill" and increase fossil fuel extraction. He even brushed off climate change just days before the vote.

R.Khurana--BD