バイデン氏、現役米大統領としてアマゾン初訪問　気候変動対策の実績強調

【マナウス（ブラジル）ＡＦＰ＝時事】米国のジョー・バイデン大統領（８１）は１７日、気候変動対策における自身の実績をアピールするために、ブラジルのアマゾン熱帯雨林を訪問した。現職の米国大統領がアマゾンを訪れるのは初めて。（写真は、ブラジル・マナウスのアマゾン博物館を訪問中、１１月１７日を「国際自然保護の日」とする宣言に署名するジョー・バイデン米大統領）
　バイデン氏は、ドナルド・トランプ氏が次期米大統領として返り咲いても、気候変動対策に自らが残した成果は揺るがないと強調した。
　南米歴訪中のバイデン氏は、ペルーの首都リマで開催されたアジア太平洋経済協力（ＡＰＥＣ）首脳会議（サミット）に出席後、１８日からリオデジャネイロで開催される２０か国・地域（Ｇ２０）首脳会議（サミット）のためにブラジル入り。ヘリコプターで熱帯雨林上空を飛行し、アマゾナス州の州都マナウスでブラジル先住民の指導者らと会談した。
　バイデン氏は鮮やかな緑の森に囲まれた自然保護区で短く演説。「環境と経済のどちらか一つだけを選ぶ必要はなく、両方を実現できる。われわれは自分たちの国でそれを証明した」と述べた。
　またトランプ氏の名前を挙げはしなかったが「築こうと思えば築き続けることのできる強固な基盤を残す」と発言。「米国で進行中のクリーンエネルギー革命を否定したり遅らせたりしようとする者が確かにいるかもしれない。しかし誰も、誰であっても、それを逆行させることはできない」と宣言した。
　ホワイトハウスは同日、先進国が途上国の温暖化対策を支援する「気候資金」について、２国間支援の総額を年間１１０億ドル（約１兆７０００億円）に増やす目標を達成したと発表した。２０２１年にバイデン政権がトランプ政権から引き継いだ時点との比較で６倍に増えたという。
　バイデン氏は同日、世界最大の熱帯雨林を保護するためとして、ブラジルの基金に５０００万ドル（約７７億円）の追加拠出を行うと発表した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/11/18-17:07）

US President Joe Biden paid an historic trip to the Amazon rainforest on Sunday to promote his record on fighting climate change, insisting it would survive Donald Trump's return to the White House.
Biden flew over the jungle by helicopter and met with Indigenous leaders in the Brazilian city of Manaus on the penultimate leg of a valedictory South American tour which has been overshadowed by Trump's election win.
The 81-year-old Democrat is the first sitting US president to visit the Amazon.
- Don't have to choose -
Folks, we don't have to choose between an environment and the economy. We can do both. We've proven it back home, Biden said in a short speech in a nature reserve, framed by vivid green forest cover.
Without referring to Trump by name, he said he would leave his Republican successor and his country a strong foundation to build on, if they choose to do so.
It's true -- some may seek to deny or delay the clean energy revolution that's underway in America. But nobody -- nobody -- can reverse it, he declared.
On Sunday, 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 when Biden took over from Trump in 2021.
The money, which helps developing countries adapt to climate change, has made the United States the largest bilateral provider of climate finance in the world, the White House said.
The European Union, however, remains the biggest global contributor to climate financing.
- Outshone by Xi -
Trump's return to the White House looms large over Biden's last major foreign tour as president, which began with a gathering of Asian-Pacific partners in Lima and ends with a G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro starting Monday.
Climate financing for developing nations is one of the topics on the G20 table, with calls for the world's richest countries to rescue stalled UN climate talks taking place at the same time in Azerbaijan.
While striking a defiant note about Trump, Biden has cut an at-times forlorn figure on his farewell tour of a region the US views as its backyard.
All eyes in Lima were on Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was received with greater fanfare than the lame-duck US leader.
At a meeting with Biden, the Chinese leader was already looking to the new Trump era, saying he was ready to work with the America First leader and hoped for a smooth transition in relations.
America's allies fear Trump 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.
In another ominous sign, Argentina's right-wing President Javier Milei, a major fan of Trump's, this week pulled his country out of the UN climate talks.
- Amazon on fire -
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.
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.
This year it experienced the worst wildfires in nearly two decades, fueled by a severe drought blamed in part by climate experts on global warming.
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has pledged to put a stop to illegal Amazon deforestation by 2030.
Biden on Sunday announced an additional $50 million towards a Brazilian fund aimed at protecting the world's biggest jungle.
Experts have warned that the 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.