Without the physical presence of President Jair Bolsonaro (no party), Brazil begins its participation in COP26 with the speech of the Minister of the Environment, Joaquim Leite, who will address the global leaders from a distance at 11:00 am on Monday (1st).
The minister’s speech will be broadcast live from the pavilion set up at the headquarters of the National Confederation of Industries (CNI), in Brasília. Leite is going to Glasgow, Scotland, where the Climate Summit will take place, only next week and will lead the Brazilian delegation in the United Kingdom.
Bolsonaro will only make a video appearance this Monday to present the new goal of reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. The government’s current target for 2030 is 43%. The new number is still under discussion, but it should be between 45% and 48%.
Brazil is under pressure to raise its target, after several countries have raised theirs, given new scientific evidence that the current ones are not enough to keep global warming at a maximum of 2°C by 2050, and preferably 1.5°C — the target of the Paris Agreement of 2015.
As Brazil’s main authority at COP26, Leite will be responsible for presenting and defending Brazil’s actions against climate change to the more than 190 countries present at the meeting and to the world press. The minister assumes the role of trying to reverse the image that the government has cultivated in the world, in relation to deforestation for legal and illegal agricultural activities.
Leite should present a study by Embrapa that points out the preservation of 280 million hectares of forest in Brazil through agricultural activities. According to the agency, the survey is carried out with data from the 2017 Agricultural Census, but was updated with data from the National System of Rural Environmental Registry (SiCAR).
Leite’s other mission will be to negotiate amounts for financing activities to combat deforestation. “The minister will also defend the carbon market and greater climate financing from rich countries to developing nations,” says the Ministry of the Environment in a statement.
The G20 summit agreed, during a conference in Rome this weekend, to create a R$100 billion fund to help vulnerable countries to combat problems related to climate change and its effects.
In the request for money from developed economy countries, the fact that the Bolsonaro government has frozen R$ 1.4 billion in benefit of 40 Amazon Fund projects to combat deforestation and recover the forest weighs heavily against Brazil. The measure was taken during the administration of Ricardo Salles, an act that was not undone by the current minister.
other presences
Brazil will count on the presence of 13 governors at COP26, among them, Governor João Doria (PSDB-SP), who will participate, this Monday, in the session “Cities and Declarations: Overview of his current work on climate innovation and trends and future needs” and the launch of the book “Acordo Ambiental São Paulo”, promoted by Cetesb (Environmental Company of the State of São Paulo).
Mauro Mendes (DEM), governor of Mato Grosso, will also be present. He will accompany the panels “Carbon Neutral MT”, “Amazon Day” and “Finance for sustainable infrastructure”, which discuss solutions for the economic activity of one of the states with the most problematic relationship with biomes at risk. Helder Barbalho (MDB), governor of Pará, the state that deforests the most, will also be at the Climate Summit, but did not disclose his agenda.
Also participating are governors Paulo Câmara (PSB), from Pernambuco; Romeu Zema (Novo), from Minas Gerais; Camilo Santana (PT), from Ceará; Gladson Cameli (Republicans) from Acre; Marcos Rocha (PSL), from Rondônia; Wellington Dias (PT), from Piauí; Renato Casagrande (PSB), from Espírito Santo; Fátima Bezerra (PT), from Rio Grande do Norte; Carlos Moisés (PSL), from Santa Catarina; and Eduardo Leite (PSDB), from Rio Grande do Sul.
They will not go, but representatives will be sent: governors Wanderlei Barbosa (no party), acting governor of Tocantins; Reinaldo Azambuja (PSDB), governor of Mato Grosso do Sul; Antonio Denarium (Progressives), governor of Roraima; Waldez Góes (PDT), governor of Amapá, will send the Environment Secretary, Josiane Andréia Soares Ferreira, and the Planning Secretary, Eduardo Tavares. Wilson Lima (PSC), governor of Amazonas, will be represented by the Environment Secretary, Eduardo Taveira. Renan Filho (MDB), governor of Alagoas,
(*With information from Lourival Sant’Anna, Douglas Porto and Carolina Figueiredo, from CNN)
Reference: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
