💚 Today is a good day for the planet and we should all celebrate! 💚

🇧🇷 Brazil just voted. President Lula is staying in power for another term. No matter what you think of Lula or Bolsonaro’s politics, this is unquestionably good news for the planet.

 🌳 The Amazon is the lungs of Planet Earth. We need it to survive. Now 60% of it sits in Brazil and has historically been subject to insane amounts of deforestation, putting at risk its entire ecosystem and - by extension - all of us.

👏 Under Lula, deforestation reached a decade low of 5,796km² in 2025, and only 1,295km² in H1 2026. Still way too much, but a very positive trend.

 🤬 For comparison: under Jair Bolsonaro - the imprisoned father of this election’s loser Flavio - it reached over 13,000km².

On paper, Flavio campaigned on a “zero illegal deforestation by 2029” slogan. But here are some facts:

 👎 He firmly stands behind his father’s policies and promised to bring them back. 

 👎 He scores 5/100 on the Farol Verde index, which tracks his voting record on 66 votes on environmental bills in the Brazilian Congress. This is one of the lowest of any legislator (the average is 31/100).

 👎 He proposed a bill in 2019 (Legal Reserve Bill) which could opened up 167m hectares for clearing. Following a massive backlash, he withdrew it.

 👎 He attributes global warming to “cyclical events”

Lula, on the other hand, has consistently fought for the Amazon. Twice, he inherited spiralling deforestation, and twice, he cut it considerably:

👍 During his first presidency (2003-2010) deforestation dropped by 75%

👍 During the current term (2023-now) we are already down by 50% (trending downwards)

⚖️ Don’t get me wrong: Lula is not perfect. Oil and gas exploration - including in the Amazon - continues under his watch. But overall, and especially on the critical issue of deforestation, his record is the strongest of any Brazilian president.

❗ As you know, I don’t usually weigh in on elections like this. But this one was simply too important to ignore. There is no liveable future for our children without the Amazon. And the greatest threat to this ecosystem just lost the election. 

☀️ There is your hope and motivation on a Monday morning.

👉 Want to stay informed on climate developments globally? Be sure to subscribe to my monthly newsletter, the GigaTen: https://lnkd.in/gJt3tSM9

🙏 Parabens, Brasil, e muito obrigado

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