Amazon Fund: United Kingdom announces more R$215 million – 12/03/2023 – Environment

The United Kingdom announced this Saturday (2) the donation of an additional 35 million pounds (around R$215 million) to the Amazon Fund. The announcement was made by the United Kingdom’s Energy Security Minister, Claire Coutinho, during COP28, the United Nations conference on climate change, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

In May, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, had already announced a contribution of 80 million pounds (around R$500 million) to the Amazon Fund. The contract for the transfer of this first amount was also signed this Saturday during COP28.

The contract was signed with the president of BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development), Aloizio Mercadante. The public development bank is responsible for managing the Amazon Fund. The Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, was also present.

Created in 2008, the Amazon Fund is considered the main international initiative to reduce global warming gas emissions and preserve the forest. Countries such as Norway, Germany, USA, Switzerland and, now, the United Kingdom are donors to the fund.

Since it was established, the Amazon Fund has received R$3.4 billion and financed more than 102 projects to preserve the forest and promote sustainable activities in the Amazon, in a total investment of R$1.75 billion.

Resumption

In 2019, during the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), the then Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles, extinguished the two committees responsible for managing the Amazon Fund’s resources, making project financing and the continuity of donations unfeasible.

The existence of these committees is a contractual condition of the donors, to prevent the money from being used for other purposes. According to data from BNDES, Brazil stopped investing around R$3 billion in environmental actions between 2019 and 2022, an amount that remained retained in the fund after the dissolution of the steering committees.

In October 2022, the STF (Supreme Federal Court) ordered the Union to take the necessary measures to reactivate the Amazon Fund. At the time, the majority of ministers concluded that the extinction of the committees was unconstitutional, as it would constitute a failure by the government in its duty to preserve the Amazon.

Reinstituted by decree on January 1, 2023 by President Lula, the committees resumed their activities, which allowed new resource contributions.