Biden visits Amazon rainforest en route to G20 summit in Rio

By Jarrett Renshaw

MANAUS, Brazil (Reuters) -Joe Biden became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Amazon rainforest on Sunday, flagging the dangers of global warming often dismissed by Donald Trump, who enters the White House in January vowing to scrap measures to fight climate change.

Biden flew from Lima, Peru, to Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon, to meet with local leaders working to preserve the rainforest, before continuing to Rio de Janeiro for a summit of the Group of 20 major economies that will address issues from poverty to global governance and climate change.

Scientists say conservation of the Amazon is vital to curbing climate change because of the vast amount of climate-warming carbon dioxide its trees absorb.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has vowed to end deforestation in his country's rainforest by 2030 and has urged wealthy nations to contribute to the cause via the Amazon Fund run by Brazil's state development bank.

In his four-hour stopover in Manaus, Biden plans to announce an additional $50 million for the Amazon Fund, initially funded by Norway and Germany to back conservation of the rainforest, bringing the effective U.S. contribution to $100 million.

Last year, Biden said he would request $500 million from the U.S. Congress to support the Amazon Fund. However, by July the United States had delivered on just a tenth of that pledge.

The new contribution was part of the Biden administration's effort to expand U.S. climate finance six-fold over the last four years to $11 billion annually, the White House said.

That initiative may be on thin ice when President-elect Trump returns to office in January.

Trump has called climate change a hoax and plans to roll back much of Biden's landmark climate legislation to help pay for the extension of tax cuts secured in his first term.

The incoming Republican president also aims to boost record U.S. oil and natural gas production and eliminate rules imposed by Biden to wean gasoline-powered cars off U.S. roads.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw;Editing by Anthony Boadle, Brad Haynes, Nick Zieminski and Bill Berkrot)