The president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, will participate this Thursday in the climate change summit convened by his US counterpart, Joe Biden, a date where he will try to get rid of the environmental villain image, amid increasing pressure from the international community.
The leader of the Brazilian extreme right has been forced to moderate tone of his environmental policy after the coming to power of Biden, whose victory he was reluctant to acknowledge after hinting at fraud in the US elections.
Against the backdrop of the summit, Bolsonaro took the first step to improve relations with the US after the electoral defeat of Donald Trump and sent a letter to Biden in which he said he was willing to work with the international community for “environmental protection” of the Amazon.
The president, in favor of the economic exploitation of natural reserves and indigenous lands, shaped his speech for the event and pledged to end illegal deforestation in Brazil until 2030.
Indigenous protests in Brasilia against the environmental policy of Jair Bolsonaro. AFP photo
However, he clarified that his objective will require “voluminous resources” and called for “all possible support” from the international community.
During the election campaign, Biden warned that Brazil should contain the “destruction “of the Amazon, because otherwise he could face “significant economic consequences”, and he announced that, if he were elected president, as happened, he would offer the Bolsonaro government some 20,000 million dollars to end deforestation.
The Brazilian president reacted harshly and warned at that time that he did not accept “bribes, criminal demarcations or unfounded threats.”
Rudder stroke
The turn of the wheel in the speech is in opposition to the proposals defended by Bolsonaro, an Army reserve captain who has been in favor of reducing environmental finess, interrupt the demarcations of indigenous lands and promote the interests of rural producers.
The same week that Bolsonaro sent his letter to Biden, the chief of the Amazonas State Police filed a complaint with the Supreme Court for him to an investigation is opened against the Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles, for allegedly obstructing an inspection on the confiscation of timber.
For the NGOs, the actions and anti-environmentalist rhetoric of the Bolsonaro Government are behind the growing increase in deforestation in the jungle, which has reached record levels under his tenure.
The devastation of the Amazon has eroded the image of Brazil and has raised the market alert. A group of 280 companies and environmental movements, which includes the largest banks and agricultural firms in Brazil, this month demanded that the government adopt “bigger goals” for the protection of the jungle.
The demand joins that of an important group of global investment funds that last year warned of an eventual withdrawal of capital, in case the Government did not reinforce the fight against deforestation and fires.
The criticism was recently added again by the young activist Greta Thunberg, who pointed out that the Brazilian president failed in the “responsibility” to preserve “the current and future living conditions of humanity.”
Pressure on Biden
Various voices have also been raised in recent days to ask Biden not to succumb to a bilateral agreement with Brazil on environmental matters until there is a reduction concrete in deforestation rates.
A group of 36 American and Brazilian artists, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Katy Perry and Caetano Veloso, published a letter to Biden yesterday in which they expressed their “deep concern” with the signing of a possible agreement and asked “urgent actions“to face the threats of the Amazon.
The NGO Greenpeace also took a position in this regard, stressing that a bilateral agreement “requires an active dialogue from civil society, traditional peoples and indigenous populations “.
“This has not been done by the current government, which is not very democratic and oblivious to listening,” the Climate and Justice Coordinator of Greenpeace Brazil, Fabiana Alves, told Efe.
EFE Agency
PB
.
#Jair #Bolsonaro #United #States #rid #image #environmental #villain
source https://pledgetimes.com/jair-bolsonaro-tries-before-the-united-states-to-get-rid-of-his-image-of-environmental-villain/
Disqus comments