Brazil makes official bid for Amazonian city to host COP30

SAO PAULO, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday he had officially launched a bid for the northeastern city of Belem to host the COP30 international climate summit in 2025, fulfilling a promise he made last year.

Lula, who in November attended the COP27 in Egypt as president-elect pledging to recommit the rainforest nation to tackling the climate crisis, said at the time he would name a city in the Amazon to host the 2025 U.N. climate talks.

Belem is the capital of the Amazonian state of Para and one of the largest cities in the region by population, second only to Manaus, which hosted games of the 2014 World Cup.

Lula said in a video on Twitter that Brazil's foreign relations ministry had formalized Belem as a candidate to host COP30.

"In Egypt I made the pledge that Brazil could host COP30, and I am happy to know that our (foreign relations) minister Mauro Vieira has formalized Belem's bid," Lula said in the video alongside Para Governor Helder Barbalho.

Lula has been promising to tackle deforestation in the Amazon, which hit a 15-year-high under former President Jair Bolsonaro. He recently named Marina Silva, who oversaw a significant drop in deforestation during his first stint as president in the 2000s, as his environment minister. (Reporting by Gabriel Araujo; Editing by David Gregorio)