Bolsonaro’s defeat in Brazil is the latest sign that democracies are mobilizing to break the link between climate denial and authoritarianism

Leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s razor-thin victory is good news for the fight against climate change.

Lula has vowed to preserve the Amazon and reverse Bolsonaro’s deforestation policies, which could dramatically affect how much warming carbon dioxide the world’s largest rainforest stores — or releases into the atmosphere.

But this moment should be seen in a larger context. It is just the latest sign that democracies are mobilizing to fight back this virulent and destructive international nexus of right-wing authoritarianism and climate denial.

Bolsonaro’s defeat follows two other major global events. This year, the US Congress passed a historic major response to climate change. Democrats in lockstep overcame opposition from the Republican Party, steeped in denial of the long-term threat posed to human civilization by climate change.

Meanwhile, Russian leader Vladimir Putin has sought to use his petro-dictatorship to impose energy challenges on Western democracies and weaken their support for Ukraine’s resistance to Russian conquest. However, this largely fails and inspires a stronger push towards a green energy future.

These three developments—Lula hopefully realigning the Amazon’s trajectory, the United States delivering a massive climate response, and Putin’s energy blackmail failure—can be seen as part of a story.

Jesse Jenkins, a climate and energy expert at Princeton University, says their combined impact on our energy future could prove to be “really huge.”

“The two largest and most prosperous blocs in the world — the US and Europe — are doubling down on the clean energy transition,” Jenkins told us.

As Brazil’s president, Bolsonaro appointed a climate denier as foreign minister who dismissed concerns about global warming as a “cultural Marxist” plot to bolster China’s advantage over the West. Bolsonaro has dismissed data from his own government agencies on deforestation as lies.

He also cut funding for environmental enforcement, and deforestation skyrocketed under his oversight. Lula’s previous tenure saw a dramatic decline in deforestation.

During this campaign, Lula proposed an ambitious green agenda to work towards “net zero deforestation” along with promoting sustainable agriculture and reducing fossil fuel use. Although Lula will face congressional hurdles, he can make real headway by vigorously enforcing Brazil’s existing environmental laws.

At the same time, Putin has used Russia’s energy supplies to Europe, particularly natural gas, as a carrot and stick.

He halted supplies to individual countries, limited supplies to others, then vowed to resume supplies in a bid to break the alliance behind Ukraine.

But that backfired. Europe scrambles to find short-term alternatives to Russian natural gas, with the European Union cutting back on what it was getting from Russia.

The EU has said it will accelerate its clean energy transition, coupled with the need to remain closed against Putin.

In the United States, the Inflation Reduction Act is likely to bring us much closer to our goal of halving global warming emissions by 2030 from 2005 levels.

As detailed in Robinson Meyer The Atlanticthe new law could transform the US economy by spending big to fuel the growth of green energy industries and transforming them into the manufacturing of the future.

The last point is important. The transition to clean energy will require showing Western voters that this transition does not necessarily require zero-sum economic sacrifices and that it contains the seeds of long-term economic opportunity.