Joe Biden witnessed the devastation of drought up close as the first sitting American president to visit the Amazon rainforest Sunday, declaring that nobody can reverse “the clean energy revolution that’s underway in America” even as the incoming Trump administration is poised to scale back efforts to combat climate change. The massive Amazon region, which is about the size of Australia, stores huge amounts of the world’s carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas driving climate change. But development is rapidly depleting the world's largest tropical rainforest, and rivers are drying up. “It’s true, some may seek to deny or delay the clean energy revolution that’s underway in America,” Biden said from a podium set up on a sandy forest bed, flanked by huge tropical ferns. “But nobody, nobody can reverse it, nobody." During a helicopter tour, Biden saw severe erosion, ships grounded in one of the Amazon River’s main tributaries and fire damage. He also passed over a wildlife refuge for endangered species of monkeys and birds and the expansive waters where the Negro River tributary flows into the Amazon. Biden met Indigenous leaders — introducing his daughter and granddaughter — and visited a museum at the gateway to the Amazon where Indigenous women shook maracas as apart of a welcoming ceremony. He then signed a U.S. proclamation designating Nov. 17 as International Conservation Day. The U.S. president leaned into the symbolism of his trip, saying the Amazon might be the “lungs of the world,” but “in my view, our forest and national wonders are the heart and soul of the world. They unite us. They inspire us to make us proud of our countries and our heritage.” The Amazon is home to Indigenous communities and 10% of Earth’s biodiversity. About two-thirds of the Amazon lies within Brazil. Scientists say its devastation poses a catastrophic threat to the planet. During brief remarks from the forest, Biden sought to highlight his commitment to the preservation of the region. He said the U.S. was on track to reach $11 billion in spending on international climate financing in 2024, a sixfold increase from when he started his term. Poorer nations struggling with rising seas and other effects of climate change say the U.S. and other wealthier nations have yet to fulfill their pledges to help. Biden's administration announced plans last year for a $500 million contribution to the Amazon Fund, the most significant international cooperation effort to preserve the rainforest, primarily financed by Norway. The U.S. has said it has provided $50 million, and the White House announced Sunday an additional $50 million contribution.. The Biden administration touted a series of new efforts aimed at bolstering the Amazon and stemming the impact of climate change. That includes the launch of a finance coalition looking to spur at least $10 billion in public and private investment for land restoration and eco-friendly economic projects by 2030 as well as a $37.5 million loan to support the large-scale planting of native tree species on degraded grasslands in Brazil. The Amazon has been suffering under two years of historic drought that have dried up waterways, isolated thousands of river communities and hindered riverine dwellers’ ability to fish. It's also made way for wildfires that have burned an area larger than Switzerland and choked cities near and far with smoke. When Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office last year, he signaled a shift in environmental policy from his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro prioritized agribusiness expansion over forest protection and weakened environmental agencies, prompting deforestation to surge to a 15-year high. Lula has pledged “zero deforestation” by 2030, though his term runs through 2026. Forest loss in Brazil’s Amazon dropped by 30.6% in the 12 months through July from a year earlier, bringing deforestation to its lowest level in nine years, official data released last week said. In that 12-month span, the Amazon lost 6,288 square kilometers (2,428 square miles), roughly the size of the U.S. state of Delaware. But that data fails to capture the surge of destruction this year, which will only be included in next year’s reading. Despite the success in curbing Amazon deforestation, Lula’s government has been criticized by environmentalists for backing projects that could harm the region, such as paving a highway that cuts from an old-growth area and could encourage logging, oil drilling near the mouth of the Amazon River and building a railway to transport soy to Amazonian ports.