Brazil’s new environment minister, Marina Silva has said that the country will not shy away from playing a leading role in addressing climate change and the impending emergency that the world is facing.
The minister also announced the creation of an extraordinary secretary to end deforestation and plans to set up a climate authority within the administration of President Lula da Silva.
Lula, who was sworn in on Sunday as president of Brazil has pledged to stop deforestation in the Amazon, which is an important biome to curb climate change and has revoked policies of his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro who eased environmental protection and allowed the rate of deforestation to surge to a 15-year-high on his watch.
“The environmental agenda was destroyed by the previous government,” Silva said in a speech as she took office,” she said. “Climate change policy was dismantled to the point that Brazil became an environmental pariah in the world,”.
Silva, the daughter of Amazon rubber tappers, became a prominent environmentalist and held the same ministerial position for five years during Lula’s first and second terms.
She oversaw a significant drop in deforestation at the time, a task she will have to tackle again in helping Lula to fulfil his campaign pledge to stop illegal deforestation.
The minister announced the creation of a green economy department in her ministry but said the transition to a low-carbon economy will not happen overnight.
“It won’t happen by magic. We will place the pillars, but we will need resources and partnerships,” she said in reference to international assistance that the Lula government is seeking.
Silva said restoring Brazil’s prominent role as an environmental leader will help the South American trade bloc Mercosur conclude its free trade deal with the European Union, which had been held up by concerns over uncontrolled Amazon deforestation.
Story was adapted from Reuters.
