Tony Blair: Brazil is ‘critical’ in the energy transition – 08/31/2023 – Environment

Because it already has the Amazon rainforest and an abundance of renewable energy, Brazil can play a relevant role in the global transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, both politically and economically, says Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He held the post from 1997 to 2007 and was leader of the British Labor Party from 1994 to 2007.

Blair is one of the speakers at the International Conference on the Amazon and New Economies, which is being promoted in Belém, capital of Pará, by Ibram (Brazilian Mining Institute).

On the initiative of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), Belém is competing to host COP30, the United Nations climate conference scheduled for 2025. The city is already attracting international attention, and NGOs and governments are campaigning in favor of the country.

In his speech, Blair stated that Brazil is a “critical country” in the environmental discussion on a global scale.

“You have abundant renewable energy. You can invest more in biomass. You have lots of hydroelectric plants,” said Blair. “Brazil has room to take the lead in green hydrogen.”

He highlighted that, in relation to the forest, the country needs to stop deforestation and also invest in innovation to take advantage of the potential of the region’s bioeconomy. Countless medicines can be developed from these studies of flora and fauna, said the former prime minister.

Brazil also has numerous mineral resources in the Amazon region, which will require a different treatment of the issue.

“For all these reasons, Brazil has the capacity to dialogue with global giants on an equal basis and, therefore, will have the capacity to unite the union of forces in the climate debate at a global level”, stated Blair.

But to secure that position, he recommends that the government have a grand plan that can be implemented. Without this, political discourse can be drained by day-to-day life, and nothing happens in practice.

“If this State manages to carry out the economic transition, it will become a reference. And that will only happen if the strategy includes everyone, including the people of the Amazon region. People need to have a life here.”

What happens in Pará, in particular, in the next decade will be very important and holding the UN conference in that part of the world would carry symbolic weight, argued Blair.

He also pointed out that, despite the advances in renewable energies, the oil and mining industries need to be part of the debate in Brazil and in the world.

“We’re going to need steel, for example. We won’t do the renewable parks without it. After extensive decarbonization, research indicates that we’ll still have at least 20% of fossil sources, so it would be hypocritical to exclude these sectors. It’s no use just pointing out the finger at them,” he said.

“There are ways to make production cleaner, and that’s what we need to discuss with companies. The industry will not stop. Mining is part of the solution, not just the problem — and Ibram [aqui no Brasil] plays an important role in that.”

Blair made a particular warning about the need for countries to seek alternatives to guarantee the financing of the new cycle of growth based on environmentally fair and sustainable principles. He reinforced that the demand for reducing emissions is now growing precisely in the poorest countries, where resources are scarce.

“The developed countries created the problem of climate change, we are talking about the rich countries of the global north. In these countries, emissions are actually falling. The United States and European countries now represent 20% of emissions”, he says.

“Developing countries didn’t create the problem and they want to lift their populations out of poverty. So they need to maintain growth and, in many cases, they still need fossil sources. By 2030, India, China, and Asian countries will account for 70% of emissions.”

Blair recalled, for example, that China made heavy investments in renewable energy, creating large parks, but, at the same time, inaugurated new coal plants to account for a higher growth rate.

The issue of financing is especially critical for emerging countries in Africa and Latin America. “If we can’t find a way to finance the transition in that part of the world, it will use the cheapest energy from fossil sources to ensure its growth.”

Short-term financial conditions make this issue worse. At the moment, he recalled, there is an increase in the cost of living and in the price of energy because of the conflict in Ukraine. “Politicians will prioritize the issue of the cost of living, and tend to resort to traditional sources, fossil fuels.”

Blair has been a fixture in the climate debate for over 20 years. When he was Prime Minister, he acted to incorporate the discussion of global warming into the public agenda, which, at that time, many people still doubted really existed.

He was the first British head of government to designate a Deputy Prime Minister as responsible for environmental policy and freed up billions of pounds in resources for investments to enable renewable energy.

The United Kingdom was one of the few countries that had managed to meet its carbon emission reduction targets established by the Kyoto Protocol, from 1997. current Paris Agreement.

However, environmentalists consider his position ambiguous, due to the lack of a clearer policy for sustainable economic growth.

Many said that there was still a large gap between Blair’s speech and practice at the beginning of the 21st century.

At the time, they cited as an example that their government did not implement a mechanism to reduce fossil fuel consumption in cars, which could displease the middle class. In 2000, a protest by truck drivers and farmers led the Labor party to shelve a green diesel tax.

Some even attributed the decline in emissions much more to conservative party initiatives.

In the 1980s, the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher faced the miners and started the closure of coal mines and started to adopt gas plants in the generation of electric energy. This change was decisive for reducing emissions decades later.

_{The reporter traveled at the invitation of Ibram (Brazilian Mining Institute).}