After other world leaders had left the United Nations climate talks in Egypt, Brazil's president-elect arrived and made a big impact.
There was a lot of enthusiasm for the man known as "Lula to most" He defeated Jair Bolsonaro, a man Brazilian environmentalists describe as a "nightmare" for presiding over four years of rampant destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
The summit's attendees were serenaded with a version of the celebratory chant "Ole, Ole, Ole!" by supporters. His main message was that Brazil is leaving its past behind.
He said that Brazil is back in the world.
In his first trip outside Brazil since winning the presidential election at the end of October, Mr. Lula basked in the optimism that many people here feel now that a defender of the environment is back in power. Mr. Lula was president of Brazil from 2003 to 2010 On January 1, he will be in office.
Mercedes Bustamante is a professor at the University of Braslia. The man was a disaster. The climate agenda was not moving.
Negotiations for nearly every nation in the world are trying to iron out an agreement on how to implement the pledges most have made to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are dangerously heating the planet.
The world is in a rush to see Brazil participate once again in the discussion of the future of the planet and all the human beings that live on it.
There were no major announcements in his speech. The applause came from the assembled delegates and observers after he said that he intended to make Brazil a force against climate change. The president-elect was surrounded by people who wanted to take pictures with him.
Many of Mr. Lula's supporters at the summit have high expectations for his next term as president, due to his history of cracking down on illegal logging.
In 2003 when he became president, the rate of Amazon depredation was at an all-time high. The rate of destruction dropped by 67 percent during his second term.
According to the National Institute of Space Research in Brazil, the Amazon lost over 13,700 square miles of tree cover in the last two years.
The U.N. climate summit was going to be hosted by Brazil in 2019. The president of Brazil proposed that the summit be held in a city in the country. He wore the lucky tie that he wore when Brazil was selected to host the Olympics.
John Kerry was the U.S. climate envoy and Xie Zhenhua was the Chinese counterpart. The United States is the leader in greenhouse gas emissions, while China is the leader in pollution. One of the top oil producers is Brazil.
The governments of large developing economies like Brazil have been pressured by the United States and European countries. The transition of developing nations from fossil fuels to renewable energy has been demanded by Brazil and others.
The problem of climate change was createdsproportionately by the rich countries of the world, according to Mr. Lula.
The United States and the European Union have pledged to give $100 billion a year to developing nations to help them transition to clean energy. He told the gathering that he wants what was promised in 2015.
The three countries that are home to more than half of the world's tropical rainforests formally announced an alliance to protect their forests and called for both public and private funding from around the world.
The plan has no financial backing and was more of a call to action than a strategy.
The political landscape in Brazil has changed a lot since Mr. Lula last held the presidency. The biggest bloc in the congress is controlled by Mr. Bolsonaro.
He will find resistance from people who were allowed to do what they wanted. Organized crime in the Amazon region has made deforestation more tied to it.
Local leaders who profited from weakened enforcement of environmental laws under Mr. Bolsonaro protested his win.
"It's a challenging situation, but not an impossible one," said Adriana Abdenur, who runs Plataforma CIP. Better funding for enforcement can be provided without congress.
Slowing the pace of Amazon rainforest destruction is the focus of Mr. Lula's climate policy rhetoric. The Amazon absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores hundreds of billions of metric tons more.
When the region's climate shifts and begins to dry out, scientists say it will be a tipping point.
The former president promised to fight against illegal logging and mining in the Amazon.
There is reason to believe that the president who doesn't endorse criminal destruction of the Amazon will have an effect on the environment. It will make a difference.
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