Speaker 1, speaking at the launch of the Tropical Forest Forever Facility in Belém, Brazil, urged international action to make standing tropical forests more valuable than cleared land and called for predictable, long-term finance to support forest nations and communities.

"It is an honor to join you for the launch of the tropical forest forever facility," Speaker 1 said, thanking President Lula and "the government and people of Brazil for their leadership here in Belém, in the heart of the Amazon and center of climate action." The speaker described the facility as "a bold mechanism to make standing forests more valuable than cleared land, aligning conservation with opportunity and solidarity with shared prosperity."

The speaker warned of rapid recent loss of primary tropical forest, asserting that "last year, the world lost the equivalent of 18 football fields of tropical primary forest every minute." The transcript does not provide a source or methodology for that figure.

Addressing the role of forests in the climate system, Speaker 1 said tropical forests protect water and soils, regulate rainfall and weather patterns, and "store and remove billions of tons of carbon," noting that the exact totals were not specified in the remarks. The speaker also linked forest protection to the global goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, saying that without tropical forests "there is no path to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century."

The speaker framed the facility as a way to deliver the pledge to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030, saying: "We have pledged to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030. Now we must deliver." They said delivery requires supporting forest nations, cutting emissions from deforestation, and bolstering indigenous peoples and forest communities to advance climate justice and safeguard traditional knowledge.

On finance, Speaker 1 called for "long term predictable and affordable finance" to close a persistent gap in global climate action and emphasized that "fairness, inclusion, and integrity must be front and center" and that finance "must reach the ground, those protecting forests with their hands, hearts, and heritage." The speaker asked governments, development banks and the private sector to "join forces to close the finance gap and lock investment for sustainable forest economies and scale up monitoring and restoration."

The launch also served as a statement of solidarity, the speaker said, naming the Amazon, the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia as regions where protecting forests can drive growth, stability and dignity. The remarks closed with an affirmation of forests as "living pillars of climate stability, biodiversity, resilience, and peace."

The transcript records the speech and calls to action but does not record any formal commitments, funding amounts, or votes connected to the facility in this session.