The UN summit hopes that the arrival of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on the international stage will send “strong signals” against deforestation around the world. UOL exclusively found that to maintain its position as an international hero, Brazil would be asked to remake its emissions reduction commitments, which were seen as inadequate and genuine “environmental pedaling”.
Lula has decided to attend the UN Climate Conference in Egypt next week, a clear sign that his administration will put the climate issue at the center of its agenda and that the country is seeking to regain its international reputation. In his statements he has already made it clear that he is aware of international pressure and is willing to cooperate again.
His departure came after the Egyptian government, which organized the event, sent a letter to the president-elect to formally invite him. Among foreign diplomats, Lula’s presence will dwarf the official Brazilian delegation led by representatives of Jair Bolsonaro.
However, UOL found that the expectation at the UN was that Lula would not only change his speech, but also be a genuine review of environmental reality in the country.
Responding to the UOL, the deputy secretary-general of the UN Climate Change Convention, Indian Ovais Sarmad made it clear that the party is celebrating the election of Lula. But it points the way forward.
“We welcome the results of the elections in Brazil and would like to host Lula in Sharm El Sheikh,” said Sarmad, who holds the post of UN deputy secretary general, one of the highest posts in world diplomacy.
“This is a significant change we’re seeing at the political level that should send a strong signal about the deforestation we’re seeing in various parts of the world, particularly in the Amazon,” he said.
According to him, forests are essential to emissions and therefore the Brazilian elections were considered positive. “This result (election) is very important and welcomed,” Sarmad said. “We will be working with all the players and Brazil is one of the most important parts of forestry in particular,” he said.
new commitments
Those at the UN’s highest levels and with broad reach of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres acknowledged to the UOL the hope that the Lula government will remake and re-present new national commitments on mitigation to the international community. Bolsonaro’s proposal of emissions was heavily criticized and seen by the government as an attempt to deceive the international community.
According to these negotiators, there is a real desire in the world to help Brazil deal with deforestation, including the return of external financing. But there will be no “blank check” and what the world wants to see before a new deal is whether the new Brazilian government has new goals and plans. In Egypt, this issue will be at the forefront.
Last week, in a veritable obituary of Brazil’s environmental policy, the UN Environment Program released its annual report on emissions, revealing that the government of Jair Bolsonaro is moving in the opposite direction among the world’s main powers in tackling climate change.
The strategy of Itamaraty and other national authorities to lie to the international community has failed.
In the document, it was pointed out that the targets set by those responsible for greenhouse gas emissions are not sufficient to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, within the limits set in the Paris Agreement, and efforts to bring the limit to 1.5 degrees Celsius. until 2100.
What still worries the UN is that, despite the goals announced by governments during the Summit in Glasgow last year, policies, measures and actions do not even match what diplomats around the world assume.
There is no other choice for the establishment: either governments will increase their ambitions or simply the climate catastrophe will become a reality.
But the report reveals another aspect: the whole effort by Jair Bolsonaro’s government in Glasgow to show the world that it was taking a stand to defend the climate was nothing short of a farce.
Last year, the government tried to defuse international pressure by announcing commitments to reduce deforestation and adopting a new tone in speeches. But as deforestation rates continued to rise, agencies dealing with the plight of the Amazon continued to be short of resources.
Brazil “stands out negatively” in the new UN report, according to Carlos Rittl, international policy expert at the Rainforest Foundation in Norway.
The country appears to be in the G20, which presents targets that will lead to an increase in emissions by 2030 compared to previous proposals, rather than increasing climate ambition in its new commitments. Only Mexico also has a performance against the world, but by much more modest proportions than Brazil.
“In other words, the world is rapidly heading towards climate chaos, there is little progress in the targets of the biggest emitters, but there is only one country that makes the fight against global warming even more difficult: Bolsonaro’s Brazil,” Rittl said.
“Furthermore, the report also shows that while land use emissions from some countries such as China, India, the United States and the European Union were negative in 2020, emissions are increasing due to an increase in deforestation in Brazil,” he said. highlighted. . “Bolsonaro’s war against the Amazon affects the whole world,” he said.
The report also reveals that Brazil’s proposal did not even meet all the criteria expected from the world’s largest economies, such as transparency, publication of the plan and annual monitoring.
source: Noticias
