Preserving the forest needs money, says Lula – 09/08/2023 – Environment

President Lula (PT) closed the Amazon Summit by setting the tone for the position of Brazil and other countries with tropical forests in climate negotiations.

“We’re going to COP28 with the objective of telling the rich world that if they want to effectively preserve what’s in the forest, they have to invest money not just to take care of the forest canopy, but to take care of the people who live down there,” he said during statement to the press in Belém this Wednesday (9).

The statement came after a meeting with authorities from the Amazon countries (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela), the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo and Indonesia, which also have a large part of their territory covered. through humid forests, and from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, who presides over CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States).

“We will defend together that the climate financing commitments assumed by the rich countries are fulfilled”, stated the petista.

“It’s not Brazil that needs money, it’s not Colombia that needs money, it’s not Bolivia or Venezuela. It’s nature, which industrial development, over 200 years, has polluted and needs to be [as nações desenvolvidas] pay your share now to restore some of what has been spoiled.”

Alongside the president’s statement, the federal government published a joint communiqué in the early afternoon that gives direction to the positioning of forestry countries in UN climate and biodiversity negotiations.

Entitled “United by our forests”, the text has ten paragraphs. Four of them charge developed countries with responsibilities, mainly for fulfilling funding promises and also for mitigating climate change.

Reaffirming a position shared by the bloc of developing countries, the text mentions “the need for developed countries to lead and accelerate the decarbonization of their economies”.

The text reinforces the charge of US$ 100 billion annually for the climate, which developed countries had promised to disburse between 2020 and 2025, but are still about to announce the completion of only the first shipment.

In the same paragraph, the document cites a previous commitment, with donations for development, which should correspond to a financing commitment for development equivalent to 0.7% of gross national income.

The differentiation between financing for development and the climate agenda is a frequent request of African countries in the negotiations, with a view to ensuring, as the document mentions, that resources for the climate are new and additional, and not just a new label for the same money.

The text also calls for a commitment made last year, when countries signed the new Global Biodiversity Framework, which provides for US$ 200 billion per year for biodiversity conservation by 2030.

Another message to the developed bloc targets the European Union and repeats the message given in the Declaration of Belém, signed on Tuesday (8) by the Amazonian countries: “we condemn the adoption of measures to combat climate change and protect the environment, including unilateral measures that constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised restriction on international trade”, says the text of the statement, in criticism of the new demands made by the European bloc for a trade agreement with Mercosur.

In his speech, Lula reinforced this point, saying that “protectionist measures barely disguised as environmental concerns” by rich countries are not the way forward.

The text also mentions that international cooperation is an effective way to support the “sovereign commitment to reduce the causes of deforestation and forest degradation”.

By announcing the commitment of the signatory countries to the conservation of their forests and the fight against deforestation, the text mentions the search for a “fair ecological transition”, emphasizing a vision of conservation allied to economic development –one of the targets of disparity between the positioning of developed blocks and those under development in climate and biodiversity negotiations. Rich countries view proposals for sustainable development and bioeconomy in protected areas with distrust.

The statement states that the signatory countries are “convinced that our forests can be centers of sustainable development and producers of solutions to national and global sustainability challenges, reconciling economic prosperity with environmental protection and social well-being”.

The text is signed by the eight member countries of ACTO (Amazonian Cooperation Treaty Organization), by the Caribbean country Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, by the Republic of Congo and also by the two countries with which Brazil already had a partnership, last year , an alliance for forests: Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

With the idea of ​​testing the formation of a negotiating bloc of forest countries, overcoming historical differences in the approach of the countries on the subject, the document invites other nations to dialogue and takes note of other initiatives, such as the Republic of Congo’s plan to host a Three Basin Biodiversity and Forest Ecosystems Summit.

The reporters traveled to Belém at the invitation of Instituto Clima e Sociedade and Avaaz.