Marina: Lula will make transition to sustainability – 06/05/2023 – Environment

On the day that the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) launched a package to encourage the purchase of popular cars, the Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, said in a statement on national radio and TV that the president’s actions point to the prioritization of measures that preserve nature.

The minister said that the PT “made a historic choice for the Brazilian transition to sustainability”.

“President Lula’s actions since his inauguration and particularly today point in that direction, rescuing what was lost in recent years,” he said.

Marina has seen her portfolio emptied by Congress in recent weeks without much resistance from the political articulation of the Planalto Palace.

Even so, he kept the tone of optimism in this Monday’s statement.

“We are in the midst of a large-scale process that requires wisdom, clarity and courage to move forward in the face of adversity, always persisting in the commitment to profound and irrevocable changes”, he said.

She made the statement on the occasion of World Environment Day, celebrated on June 5th. For the minister, 50 years after the creation of the date, many actions still need to be carried out on the subject.

“After half a century of this alert, we know that we have not done enough and we have reached the current situation. Changes in the climate, with droughts and floods becoming more and more severe”.

In her speech, Marina stated that, since January, social participation in all environmental public policies has been recomposed.

“We are combating illegal deforestation in all Brazilian biomes and President Lula has just approved the plan that in his first two terms produced the greatest reduction in deforestation rates in the Amazon in the history of Brazil”, he defended.

The government announced 11 days ago a program to stimulate the sale of popular cars. This Monday (5), it announced changes to the plan, but formalized the launch of the policy with a broader scope and confirmed the partial resumption of taxation on diesel to offset the tax waiver.

The measure should yield BRL 1.5 billion in new revenues in 2023 (another BRL 500 million will be collected only in January 2024). This year’s proceeds will be used to offset the cost of the automaker incentive program.

Initially, the focus of the policy was on cars priced at up to R$120,000, but in recent days the government has decided to include trucks and buses as well. A provisional measure was signed by the president to implement the benefits, and automakers will be able to apply the discounts from the publication of the norm. The program will run for up to four months.

_{The project Planeta em Transe is supported by the Open Society Foundations.}