Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was yesterday accused of “crimes against humanity” at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his alleged role in the destruction of the Amazon, the first case seeking to explicitly link deforestation to loss of life.
Planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from burning and industrial-scale agriculture in the Amazon are higher than the total annual emissions of Italy or Spain. Deforestation in the region already releases more carbon dioxide than the rest of the Amazon can absorb.
Austrian environmental justice campaigners Allrise filed the official complaint at The Hague-based court yesterday morning.
Photo: AFP
They asked for legal proceedings against Bolsonaro and his administration for actions “directly connected to the negative impacts of climate change around the world.”
The complaint accuses the Brazilian leader of waging a widespread campaign resulting in the murder of environmental defenders and of endangering the global population through emissions caused by deforestation.
It harnesses the growing field of climate attribution science, which allows researchers to prove a link between extreme weather events and global heating and environmental degradation.
The team behind it said that Bolsonaro’s administration had sought to “systematically remove, neuter, and eviscerate laws, agencies and individuals that serve to protect the Amazon.”
It said that Bolsonaro was responsible for approximately 4,000km2 of lost rainforest each year, and that he had presided over monthly deforestation rates that had accelerated by up to 88 percent since taking office on Jan. 1, 2019.
Bolsonaro’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The team of experts estimated that emissions attributable to Bolsonaro’s administration due to rampant deforestation would cause more than 180,000 excess heat-related deaths globally this century.
“In the last few years, climate science has come a long way in being able to provide evidence of specific causal relationships between emissions of greenhouse gases and the consequences that arrive globally as a result,” said Rupert Stuart Smith, a founding member of the University of Oxford’s Sustainable Law Programme.
While there have been at least three other complaints by indigenous groups against Bolsonaro at the ICC since 2016, organizers say this one is the first to highlight the clear link between forest loss and global human health.
“What’s happening in Brazil — mass deforestation — we want to understand the causal link to the global climate,” AllRise founder Johannes Wesemann said. “It is exactly what the Rome Statute defines as a crime against humanity: the intentional destruction of the environment and environmental defenders.”
Lawyer Nigel Povoas, who has led prosecution of some of the most notorious international criminals, said the complaint was leveled against several individuals within Bolsonaro’s administration.
“We’re focusing on the most senior actors responsible,” he said.
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