Brazil’s Lula Urges Climate Action as Trump Rails Against Green “Scam”

At the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the contrast between world leaders could not have been sharper. Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pressed for courage, vision and urgent climate action. U.S. President Donald Trump delivered a sprawling, grievance-filled speech that dismissed climate change as a hoax and praised coal as “clean and beautiful.”

Lula: “The UN must be a promoter of hope.”

Lula spoke with admiration for Jewish voices who criticize Israel and argued Palestine should have been present for what he called a historic moment. He warned that the spread of the Israel-Palestine conflict is fueling an unprecedented arms build-up and reminded delegates of their duty to act with courage.

He turned to climate change, calling it time to move from planning to implementation. “The majority of the United Nations supports a two-state solution, but one vote stopped it — the world deserves better,” he said. Lula remembered the Pope and Uganda’s president as humanitarian figures, insisted authoritarianism is not inevitable and told leaders that guilt belongs to those who stand idle.

“The voice of the Global South must be heard,” he declared. With four times more members than at its founding, he said, the UN should be a promoter of hope, peace and tolerance. He ended simply: “May God bless us all.”

Trump: “The carbon footprint is a hoax.”

Trump followed with a long and unscripted speech that veered from domestic boasts to global warnings. Walking onstage without a teleprompter, he opened by saying “whoever operates it is in big trouble.” From there, he claimed to have “forged peace on two continents” and ended “seven unendable wars” in seven months, naming Cambodia, Thailand, Congo, Pakistan, Israel and Iran.

But most of his time was spent bragging about the U.S. economy. He said energy costs and grocery prices are down, inflation defeated, and the stock market at record highs. He claimed “zero illegal immigrants” have entered the United States under his leadership and vowed deportations “back where you came from or even further than that — and you know what that means.”

On climate change, Trump dismissed the entire international effort as “a green scam.” He mocked wind power as “pathetic” and “so bad” and claimed renewable energy is “the most expensive energy ever concocted.” “The carbon footprint is a hoax made up by people with evil intentions,” he told the chamber, accusing Europe of destroying jobs and warning that global climate policies will fail. He praised “clean beautiful coal,” called the Paris Climate Accord “fake” and insisted America already has “the cleanest air.”

Trump’s language grew combative. He told delegates “your countries are going to hell” and urged them to adopt mass deportations as deterrence. He accused Biden of allowing “300,000 children” to be trafficked into the U.S., promised to track down the “villains” responsible and said global migration is “ruining all of your countries.”

A Hall Divided

The difference in tone was striking. Lula spoke of vision, collective responsibility and the voice of the Global South. Trump attacked Europe, Brazil and the United Nations itself, mocking it as an institution of “empty words” that only issues “strongly worded letters.” He demanded the UN “stop invasions, not fund them” and repeated that immigrationand green energy are “destroying the free world.”

Applause told its own story. Lula’s words about peace and climate drew recognition from the chamber. Trump’s drew silence, scattered claps and a sense of unease. In a week where leaders stressed peace and cooperation, his speech underscored how isolated America can look when it turns inward and rails against the very system it helped build.