Marina Silva, Brazil’s former environment minister and possible candidate for the job again when Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva takes over the presidency, arrived at the UN climate summit with a message: her country is back to protecting the ‘environment. in the world and which plays a crucial role in curbing climate change.
It represents the election of the leader of the Workers’ Party as the future president a potentially huge change in forest management from Brazil, compared to that of outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro, who will hand over the command to his opponent on 1 January.
Lula is expected to attend the COP27 conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt next week.
Marina Silva said that Lula’s presence at the summit a month and a half before he took office reveals his government’s commitment to protect the jungle and play a leading role in the fight against climate change. Lula plans to meet the heads of the various delegations.
“Brazil will recover the leading role it has had in terms of climate, biodiversity,” Marina Silva said in press statements at the Brazilian Climate Center.
Bolsonaro, elected in 2018, promoted the economic development of the Amazon with words and deeds. He has undermined environmental agencies and appointed agribusiness administrators.
This sector opposes the creation of indigenous territories and other protected areas and promotes the legalization of land seizures. Deforestation in the Amazon reached a 15-year high between August 2020 and July 2021, according to official data. Satellite tracking indicates that the trend will increase further this year.
The challenges of Lula da Silva
By winning the October elections, Lula, who was president from 2003 to 2010, promised to reverse Bolsonaro’s measures and adopt a “zero deforestation” policy.
It will be a colossal task. As much of the world celebrates steps to protect the rainforest in Brazil and other South American countries, multiple forces are driving development, including many living in the Amazon.
And Lula, while much more committed to protecting the environment than Bolsonaro, has had mixed results as president. Deforestation dropped sharply during his first term, with Marina Silva as Environment Minister. But in his second term, the PT leader began to respond to agribusiness interestsand Marina Silva resigned in 2008.
Recently in Brazil the newspapers are talking about a possible alliance with Congo and Indonesia, where the largest tropical forests in the world are located.
Under the slogan “OPEC of the forests”, referring to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the way it regulates crude oil production, the general idea would be that the three countries coordinate their negotiating positions and their measures for the forest administration. and the protection of biodiversity. The proposal was initially presented at last year’s climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, according to reports.
Asked about the details of that alliance and whether it will be announced during the second week of the ongoing summit in Egypt, the former Brazilian minister said he could not speak on the matter.
“We don’t want to be isolated in forest protection,” he said, adding that Brazil wants forest management to be coordinated among “forest mega-countries” but won’t try to impose its will.
Marina Silva won a congressional seat in October’s elections. A rubber picker as a child, a close associate of murdered environmentalist Chico Mendes, holds a high moral position on environmental issues and is among the few people mentioned as Lula’s possible ministers.
After clarifying that he was not speaking on behalf of the president-elect, Silva provided some details on what he believes the next government’s policy will be. He said he would not accept Bolsonaro’s position that Brazil should be “paid” to protect its forests.
Renewable energy
Brazil would not undertake large energy projects, such as a large hydroelectric dam, but would instead focus on the switch to renewable energy like the sun In this sense, he said, the participation of the state oil company Petrobras in this breakthrough would be promoted.
“We need to use those resources (oil) that are still needed to transition to other forms of energy and not perpetuate the model” of the oil-focused company, he said.
Silva said Brazil would participate in the offshore coal markets, but under “strict” surveillance, which is apparently not currently the case. Such credits allow companies to offset some of their carbon emissions by paying for carbon-trapping activities, such as planting trees.
Silva added that he proposed the creation of a government agency to address climate change, presumably in addition to the Ministry of the Environment. This would involve closely monitoring climate change in order to respond in real time to problems such as greenhouse gas leaks or measure weaknesses. He said it’s somewhat similar to the way governments monitor inflation.
“It’s about avoiding climate inflation,” he concluded.
Source: AP
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Source: Clarin
