A few hours after Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won another term as president, the Norwegian government announced that it would continue financial aid to Brazil to reduce deforestation in the country.
According to sources in Oslo, the Nordic government will send a team of negotiators to the line to discuss the restoration of cooperation with Lula to ensure deforestation rates are reduced.
Espen Barth Eide, Minister of Climate and Environment for the Norwegian press, also confirmed the news. We will talk to his team (Lula) to prepare the formalities and create a management structure.” “There are significant amounts frozen in an Amazon Fund account in Brazil that can be paid out quickly,” Barth Eide told NTB in an interview.
During the Lula government, the two countries had set up the largest international cooperation fund, worth over US$ 1 billion, managed by the BNDES and institutions in Oslo. But in 2019, Jair Bolsonaro’s government imposed new terms that eventually led Norway and Germany to end the transfer of funds.
“There has been a very worrying increase in deforestation during the Bolsonaro era. Anyone concerned about the climate has seen painfully how he disregarded old agreements and promises,” said Barth Eide.
On Sunday, in his first speech after winning the election, Lula insisted on emphasizing the importance of reducing deforestation rates, including an ambitious zero deforestation target.
“This is an important day. It is good for Brazil as well as for the whole world,” said the minister in Oslo. Barth Eide acknowledges that Lula will not have an easy government given the situation in Congress.
If over the past four years the government of Jair Bolsonaro has decided to refuse to recognize the climate problem and deliberately make room for deforestation, the price Brazil has paid has been high. State funds began to suspend investments in the country. In international forums and public opinion abroad, Brazil has come to be seen as part of the planet’s climate problem. A kind of “environmental criminal”.
As a result of losing confidence in Brazil’s deforestation, the country now threatens to target its exports in Europe with extra taxes.
Therefore, any new international involvement of Brazil will undergo a thorough scrutiny of its relationship with the environment, and the new government’s advisers are aware of this. However, just adopting a new discourse will not be enough. The world will demand tangible results for deforestation reduction from the new government each month.
Aware of this pressure, Lula performs an international “shock therapy”. On the one hand, it wants to form an alliance with other developing countries for the defense of forests, with resources from rich countries and broad international cooperation. His team also plans to host a climate conference in Brazil. One possibility would be to take the country to COP30 (UN Climate Conference) in 2025.
Lula actually used his first speech to indicate that the environmental issue was among his priorities. “Brazil is ready to continue its leading role in tackling the climate crisis, protecting all of our biomes, particularly the Amazon rainforest,” she said.
“In our government, we have succeeded in reducing deforestation in the Amazon by 80% by significantly reducing the emissions of gases that cause global warming. Now, we will fight for zero deforestation in the Amazon. Brazil and the planet need an Amazon to live,” he said.
According to sources close to the incoming president, the road may still pass through a new regional integration relationship. Unlike the model at the end of the 20th century, the new process of rapprochement with the rest of the neighbors will be based not only on commercial issues, but also on the climate.
The environmental theme can also be used as a tool for Brazil’s new leadership among developing countries, including Africans and Asians. If the problem of access to pharmaceutical and agricultural trade that made the country internationally famous 20 years ago, today it is considered that this tool is climate.
According to the UN, what has been done by the world’s leading economies is not enough to prevent a climate catastrophe.
source: Noticias
