French President Emmanuel Macron kicked off a visit to Brazil on Tuesday with the launch of a billion-euro
Amazonian green investment plan alongside his counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The pair’s trip to Belem, the northern host city of a major UN climate summit next year, makes Macron the first president of France to visit Brazil in over a decade and comes after a stop in nearby French Guiana.

His public event with Lula on the jungle island of Combu, full of smiles and affectionate gestures, highlighted the stark reversal of relations since the term of Jair Bolsonaro, Lula’s far-right predecessor.

The former president had clashed with Macron’s government over environmental destruction — and even lobbed insults directed at French first lady Brigitte Macron.

The investment plan aims to raise “1 billion euros ($1.08 billion) of public and private investment over the next four years,” according to a roadmap published by the French presidency ahead of next year’s COP30 summit.