Norway and Germany Lead Charge on Lula’s “Tropical Forests Forever” Plan

A powerful European coalition is forming behind Brazil’s new plan to save the world’s rainforests. Norway and Germany are leading the charge to fund the “Tropical Forests Forever Facility,” a new mechanism proposed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the Belem climate summit.
Norway has already made a massive $3 billion pledge, the largest commitment of the day. This has brought total pledges to $5.5 billion. Germany is expected to announce its own significant contribution when Chancellor Friedrich Merz meets with Lula, further strengthening the fund.
This strong European backing is a major victory for Lula. His plan is ambitious, seeking to pay 74 developing countries to halt deforestation. It uses a novel financing model, relying on interest-bearing loans rather than donations, to make preservation economically sustainable.
The goal is to protect the world’s critical carbon sinks, like the Amazon, by making them more valuable intact than destroyed. The fund is also being praised for its social equity, as it reserves 20 percent of its resources for Indigenous communities.
This financial leadership from nations like Norway and Germany provides a hopeful counter-narrative to the summit’s other major story: the “reduced participation” and worrying absence of the leaders from the world’s top three polluting nations.