China and Brazil look to set up green investment fund, say Lula aides

Brazil and China are in talks to create a fund for financing the development of green industry and renewable energy in both countries, two senior Brazilian officials told Reuters.

The proposal could be announced during President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's visit to Beijing next week, although government officials said there were still some details to work out.

"I don't know if it will be possible to announce, because these things are complex, but the idea is to have a bilateral fund ... for investment in this area," Lula's top foreign policy advisor Celso Amorim told Reuters.

Amorim said he expects an agreement on renewable energy during Lula's visit, which includes a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday.

Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva, who will be part of Lula's delegation, said the new fund under discussion would be used to recover forests and develop a more sustainable economy, including production of green hydrogen.

"Our expectation is that we can have a climate change agenda that is strategic for the world because it is undoubtedly one of humanity's greatest challenges today," Silva told Reuters.

Brazil already received a commitment from the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden on climate policy and forest protection when Lula visited the White House last month, she said.

In the case of China, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, Silva expects there to be "an increasingly strong agenda on the issue of climate, the protection of forests, and biodiversity."

Silva said, however, that China will not join the billion-dollar Amazon Fund started by Norway to finance sustainable development and protect the world's largest tropical rainforest, which Spain, France and Britain are looking at joining and the U.S. has committed to supporting.