The US on Friday welcomed Brazil’s renewed promise to end illegal deforestation, but urged immediate action to protect the Amazon rainforest, a major factor in global climate change.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a longtime scourge of environmentalists, in a letter to US President Joe Biden ahead of a US-led climate summit next week voiced support for a previous Brazilian goal of stopping illegal deforestation by 2030.
Bolsonaro’s “recommitment to eliminating illegal deforestation is important,” US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry wrote on Twitter.
Photo: Reuters
“We look forward to immediate actions and engagement with indigenous populations and civil society so this announcement can deliver tangible results,” he wrote.
Bolsonaro, one of the closest international allies of former US president Donald Trump, said that his efforts on deforestation showed “unequivocal” support for Biden’s efforts.
However, Bolsonaro appealed for “considerable” international support to help Brazil meet the goal.
One of the most prominent defenders of the Amazon, Aboriginal leader Raoni Metuktire, voiced skepticism over Bolsonaro’s promise in a video addressed to Biden that warned of encroachments by loggers.
“The president of this country has told many lies,” he said. “If this bad president says something to you, ignore him. Say that Raoni already talked to me.”
During his campaign ahead of the US presidential election last year, Biden called for US$20 billion in international funding to stop Brazil from “tearing down the forest” with a risk of economic consequences if it does not comply.
Bolsonaro at the time denounced the then-US presidential candidate’s threats.
Brazil had committed under the 2015 Paris climate agreement to end illegal deforestation by 2030, but the goal was under a cloud due to the election of Bolsonaro, who has opened protected lands to mining and agriculture.
The Amazon and other rainforests are crucial to the battle against climate change as they serve as giant sinks of carbon in the atmosphere.
In the 12 months to August last year, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon increased 9.5 percent, destroying an area bigger than Jamaica, Brazilian government data showed.
Brazilian Minister of the Environment Ricardo Salles on Friday told reporters that if Brazil received US$1 billion in aid from the international community, it would reduce illegal deforestation in the Amazon rainforest by up to 40 percent.
The money would serve to strengthen “control actions [against illegal deforestation] and, at the same time, to create an economic alternative” for 25 million people who live in the northern Amazon region, he said.
That region is one of the poorest in Brazil despite its vast natural resources.
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