Brazil’s newly appointed Environment Minister, Marina Silva, has said that international investments have not materialized as contributions to help the country reduce deforestation in the Amazon and contribute to fighting global climate change.
Brazil has regained the trust of the European Parliament with regard to resistance to the EU trade deal with South America’s Mercosur bloc, Silva said on Tuesday at the World Economic Forum (WEF).
According to her, Brazil’s new government is rebuilding Brazil’s environmental agencies and policies that were dismantled by the previous administration, adding that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had offered to hold the COP30 climate summit in the Amazon region in 2025 to show the country’s commitment towards curbing climate change.
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“There is good global regulation but the investments are lacking and the $100 billion that the wealthy countries had committed is still not here. We need to have resources for mitigation actions and also for adaptation now. The responsibility of preserving the Amazon rainforest is not ours alone,” she said.
Silva said Brazil needs partnerships and technological support.
“We can cut down deforestation in the Amazon to zero but if the rest of the world still emits CO2, Amazonia is going to be destroyed all the same,” the minister said.
She further stated that the new government has overcome European distrust of Brazil’s handling of the Amazon rainforest and will revisit the free trade accord with Mercosur.
Already, Lula has expressed readiness to renegotiate parts of the agreement that have taken 20 years to negotiate, to add environmental and human rights guarantees.
She said the Inter-American Development Bank, headed by Brazil’s Ilan Goldfajn, was keen to finance sustainability projects, while actor Leonardo DiCaprio’s foundation was looking to raise and invest $100 million in the Amazon.
Story was adapted from Reuters.
