The incoming president of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro has called on his government to revoke the offer to host a United Nations climate summit.

Bolsonaro, who won the Brazilian presidential election at the end of October and will officially take office on 1 January, believes that his country should continue to make decisions about, for example, the Amazon rainforest.

“I have instructed my future foreign minister not to hold this event in Brazil, but we do not want to jeopardise our sovereignty,” said Bolsonaro, who also points to the organisation’s high costs and logistical difficulties.

Ernesto Araújo, who becomes Minister of Foreign Affairs under Bolsonaro, said earlier that climate change was a concoction aimed at countering economic growth in the country.

Brazil had presented itself last month as a host during the UN climate summit in November 2019. At that meeting, the final details of the Paris agreement have to be discussed.