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The initiative, dubbed the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, drew $5.5 billion in pledges on the first day of the U.N. climate summit, with Norway and France promising to join Brazil and Indonesia in investing. The fund eventually seeks to leverage investments into $125 billion that can be used to pay 74 developing countries for every hectare of forest they conserve.

Dozens of governments have expressed support for the fund and are engaged in talks to learn more about it, Brazil's Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said, including China and the United Arab Emirates. China's Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang said that the country “stands ready to strengthen cooperation with all parties on tropical rainforest conservation and make greater contributions,” without elaborating on a pledge.

The absence of pledges from some countries that praised the initiative, including the United Kingdom, was noticeable as governments face political and budget constraints.

‘Autonomous governance to support tropical forests’

Financed by interest-bearing debt instead of donations, the fund would invest its assets to generate returns that would be used to pay back the creditors and reward countries for curbing deforestation. Rather than relying on goodwill, the scheme aims to make it more lucrative for governments to keep their trees standing than to cut them down for industrial farming or mining.

The fund’s rules call for governments to set aside 20% of the compensation they receive to Indigenous peoples, who for millennia have managed and preserved lands.

“With that, we can overcome government policy fluctuations and secure a structure, an autonomous governance to support tropical forests,” Brazil’s Indigenous peoples minister, Sonia Guajajara, told reporters. The climate talks are expected to have a large presence of tribes, particularly from Brazil and surrounding countries.

Forests, including the Amazon, where Brazil is hosting this year’s conference, play a crucial role in regulating the climate by absorbing huge amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that heats the planet when it’s released into the atmosphere.

Countries work to unify global carbon markets

The European Union on Friday said it was joining Brazil and other countries in a coalition aimed at unifying global carbon markets and incentivizing nations and companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Brazil has said it wants COP30 to produce an international carbon pricing framework in which no one country sets the standards for emissions trading, which allow companies that pollute less than their assigned emission limits to sell credits to those that exceed theirs.

Rather than trying to get nearly 200 countries to join one unified market, which has failed at past summits, Brazil and the EU say they’re aiming for a basic set of rules to integrate the world’s different carbon pricing systems.

European Commission President said carbon pricing was “one of our best assets for the climate.” Further details were expected later in the day.

“Together with Brazil and other partners, let’s do it right, and let’s do it together,” she said.

Reduced summit participation hangs over talks

Reduced participation in the summit revealed divisions among countries over how to cut greenhouse gas emissions, with U.S. President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement hanging over the talks.

The U.S., which is responsible for over 10% of the world's emissions, did not send any senior officials to the summit. The heads of the other biggest polluters — China, India and Russia — also skipped the preliminary leaders' gathering ahead of formal climate talks that start on Monday.

Brazil expands oil and gas production

Expanding global oil demand, rising concerns about energy security and escalating political tensions fueled by have pulled attention away from net-zero commitments and slowed the green transition.

In many ways, Lula epitomizes those tensions.

Even as he champions deforestation efforts — and promised on Friday that Brazil was “not afraid to discuss the energy transition” — he has overseen an expansion in Brazil’s oil and gas production.

Just weeks before hosting the U.N. climate summit in Belem, his government granted permission to state-controlled oil company Petrobras to move a drillship to the mouth of the Amazon River, just 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the rainforest to search for more crude oil.

In a sign of the other issues competing for his attention, Lula's government said he would take a brief break from the climate summit over the weekend to attend a meeting in Colombia over Trump’s attacks on alleged drug-smuggling vessels off of Venezuela.

That comes as officials warn that time is running out to keep global warming below the key benchmark of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). Last year was the hottest year on record, with the average temperatures exceeding that limit for the first time.

Scientists say that every fraction of a degree of atmospheric heating unleashes more intense storms, longer droughts and deadlier heat waves.

Summit venue still under construction

Much of the remained under construction on Friday, with exposed beams, open plywood floors and metal meshed-in corridors leading nowhere outside the convention center.

Drilling and jackhammering continued throughout the day as world leaders delivered speeches. Scores of workers in hardhats scurried around unfinished national pavilions wrapped in plastic.

Staffers said that delegations from several countries weren’t able to meet in their scheduled rooms on Thursday because they were not ready in time. They said there was a lot left to do before talks could take place next week.

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Associated Press reporter Sam McNeil contributed from Brussels.

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