By promoting the Amazon summit, the Brazilian president paved the way for the eight countries involved to adopt a common position at the next climate conference (COP), although it ended without defined goals in favor of the “lung of the world”. However, it also exposed the inconsistencies in Lula da Silva’s speech on environmental defense.
In statements at the end of the summit, Brazil’s leader hurled batteries at the European Union. “We cannot accept green neo-colonialism that, under the pretext of protecting the environment, imposes trade barriers and discriminatory measures, disrespecting regulatory frameworks and national policies.” The criticism is aimed at Brussels, which in March sent the Mercosur countries – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, as well as Venezuela, which is suspended, and Bolivia, which is about to join – a letter confirming the trade agreement is attached. and in which environmental guarantees are demanded from the South American states.
For example, these assurances could conflict with Petrobras’ project to explore oil deposits in the basin at the mouth of the Amazon River. Despite the fact that Brazil’s Institute of the Environment (Ibama) denied granting the relevant permit, Lula da Silva said last week that the oil company “may continue to dream” because the decision is not final. “And I also want to keep dreaming,” he explained.
Perhaps for this reason, the 113 points of the Belém Declaration on fossil fuels are silent. According to Marcelo Laterman, spokesman for Greenpeace Brazil, Lula cannot be at the forefront of the environmental struggle while defending oil exploration in that region. “Brazil must join the movement of South American countries, such as Colombia and Ecuador, who are questioning oil exploration in the Amazon. These are countries where traditional populations have been fighting for decades against the brutal impact of the activity on their territories with constant and severe episodes of leakage and contamination,” Laterman said.
Brazil wants to end deforestation by 2030, but Bolivia and Venezuela are not even signatories to the 2021 international agreement to end deforestation. Colombian Gustavo Petro wants to end new oil explorations, but as said, the hosts have other plans.
“Isn’t it a total contradiction? A forest that extracts oil? Is it possible to hold a political line of this level, betting on death and destroying life?” Gustavus Petro
With the differences shown, the Belém statement – in reference to the capital of the state of Pará where the summit took place – stipulates that each member state of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty is responsible for its goals.
The statement left environmentalists and indigenous people dissatisfied because it did not commit participating countries to targets. “The planet is melting, temperature records are being broken every day… It is not possible that eight leaders of the Amazon have not stated in bold letters that deforestation should be zero,” said Márcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, a network of Brazilian NGOs. “There are no concrete decisions, just a list of promises,” he complains.
Specifically, the 10,000-word document promises the creation of the Intergovernmental Technical-Scientific Panel on the Amazon, a body inspired by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that should produce reports and an annual meeting; as well as a center for police cooperation in Manaus.
The same Lula da Silva who criticized “green neo-colonialism” then appealed to developed countries to pay to save the Amazon. “We are going to COP28 – which will take place in Dubai – with the aim of telling the rich world that if they want to effectively preserve what is in the forest, they need to put money into it, not just to take care of the forest canopy, but the people who live there.”
Lula came to the presidency aiming to reverse the rampant destruction of the Amazon he inherited from Jair Bolsonaro — he even blamed environmentalists for deforestation — but the PT leader has no green curriculum. It was during his first presidency that he rewarded the illegal inhabitants of the Amazon – the same ones who invaded, burned or deforested the Amazon until 2004, sometimes by force – by handing over public lands to the invaders, known as grileiros.
It was also Lula who promoted the construction of the Belo Monte dam in Pará, the impact of which led to it being considered one of the biggest environmental and social crimes in the country.
Source: DN
