Washington (AFP)
The United States expects “more concrete steps” from Brazil to combat climate change, and is willing to “support” the efforts of the South American giant to preserve the Amazon, key to the well-being of the planet, the government of Joe Biden said this week.
“For President Biden, the partnership with Brazil is crucial to effectively address the shared global challenge of climate change,” US chief of diplomacy Antony Blinken said after a virtual visit Monday to the United Nations.
The US Secretary of State also highlighted the “remarkable bilateral economic relationship” with Brazil, which amounted to 100,000 million dollars annually.
Biden, a Democrat who is betting on creating millions of jobs to adapt infrastructure and ensure a clean energy future, has already invited his Brazilian counterpart, Jair Bolsonaro, to a Climate Leaders Summit on April 22 and 23.
The virtual meeting “will underline the urgency, and the economic benefits of taking stronger action” to curb global warming, the White House said about the meeting, to which 40 dignitaries are summoned.
Brazil, which concentrates more than 60% of the Amazon rainforest that spans nine South American nations, registered in 2020 the highest rates of deforestation in 12 years.
The NGO World Resources Institute said on Wednesday that the Brazilian virgin forest lost 1.7 million hectares in 2020, an increase of 25% in one year.
The destruction, which experts attribute mainly to livestock, soybean cultivation and the extraction of wood and minerals, threatens the ability of the tropical forest to absorb the carbon dioxide that regulates the global climate.
– “Stop deforestation” –
Brazil signed the Paris Agreement in 2015, the legally binding international treaty on climate change, which seeks to limit global warming to 2 ° Celsius above pre-industrial levels and continue efforts to lower it to 1.5 ° C.
Under the pact, Brazil pledged to have zero illegal deforestation and to reforest 12 million hectares by 2030.
But since taking office in January 2019, Bolsonaro, a far-right populist and climate change skeptic, cut funding for environmental programs and pushed for protected Amazonian lands to be used for agribusiness and mining.
A State Department spokesman told AFP that the United States and Brazil need to work together to bring together environmental protection and economic growth.
“Bottom line: we look forward to expanding our cooperation and seeing Brazil take more concrete steps to combat climate change and achieve net zero (carbon) emissions by 2050. And a huge part of that is stopping deforestation,” he said.
In its 2020 report, the IMCCS, a group of senior military and security experts, said that Brazil must make the fight against deforestation a “priority.”
Oliver-Leighton Barrett, lead author of the report, trusted that the Bolsonaro government “will return Brazil to its once responsible path of environmental and climate imperatives and demonstrate that development does not have to be at the expense of the environment or security.” .
– “Partner in good faith” –
The United States recognizes that economic resources are necessary to preserve the Brazilian Amazon.
“We are considering various mechanisms to support Brazil’s efforts,” said the State Department official, speaking of the efforts of Biden’s special envoy for climate, John Kerry, to reduce the carbon footprint inside and outside the United States. .
During the election campaign last year, Biden promised to raise $ 20 billion across countries to stop Brazil from deforesting and warned of “significant economic consequences” if it did not.
Bolsonaro replied with a tweet in capital letters: “Our sovereignty is not negotiable.”
The State Department spokesman emphasized that the United States “respects the sovereignty of Brazil” to manage the Amazon.
“We come to the table as a partner in good faith to encourage each other and encourage Brazil to achieve more ambitious goals,” he said.
The United States, the world’s first economy and the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China, returned to the Paris Agreement with Biden, after his predecessor Donald Trump left it as unfair.
Kerry, who signed the pact as Barack Obama’s secretary of state, promised “strong” US climate action commitments on Wednesday, to be announced during the Leaders’ Summit.
The United States is responsible for 15% of global carbon emissions, compared to 1% in Brazil, according to the NGO Union of Concerned Scientists.
© 2021 AFP
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