Biden visits Amazon rainforest en route to G20 summit

By Jarrett Renshaw

LIMA (Reuters) – Joe Biden will become the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Amazon rainforest on Sunday as he flags the dangers of global warming often dismissed by Donald Trump, who enters the White House in January vowing to scrap measures to fight climate change.

Biden is traveling from Lima, Peru, to Manaus, Brazil, to meet with local leaders working to preserve the Amazon, before he flies to Rio de Janeiro for a summit of the Group of 20 major economies addressing issues from hunger and poverty to global governance and climate change.

Scientists say conservation of the Amazon is vital to curbing climate change because of the vast amount of climate-warming carbon dioxide its trees absorb.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has vowed to end deforestation in his country’s rainforest by 2030 and urged wealthy nations to contribute to the cause.

Last year, Biden said he would request $500 million from the U.S. Congress to support the Brazilian-administered Amazon Fund. However, by July the United States had delivered on just a tenth of that pledge.

Trump has called climate change a hoax and plans to roll back much of Biden’s landmark climate legislation to help pay for the extension of tax cuts secured in his first term.

The incoming Republican president also aims to boost record U.S. oil and natural gas production and eliminate rules imposed by Biden to wean gasoline-powered cars off U.S. roads.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Brad Haynes and Nick Zieminski)