brazil

• Overview of Brazil and Climate

  • Brazil houses 60% of the Amazon Basin, which is the single largest remaining rainforest in the world. 
  • Brazil is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in Latin America.
  • The Amazon rainforest is one the of world’s largest carbon sinks. 
  • President Lula has prioritised the reconstruction of Brazil’s environmental policy, emphasising low carbon and socio-economic development.
• Resource Exploitation

  • Economic growth has often gone in hand with exploiting the rainforest.
  • It relies heavily on farming, mining and other resource sensitive activities that deplete the Amazon for growing the economy.
  • Individuals and companies continue to profit from land clearing and exploiting natural resources, and authorities are limited in their abilities to track and punish those who do it illegally.
• Brazil Resource Exploitation

  • In the last 50 years, Brazil’s Amazon rainforest has lost about ⅕ of it’s forest cover or 300,000 square miles.
  • About 70% of land cleared becomes cattle pasture. 
  • There are more than eighty million head of cattle in the Amazon.
  • Brazil is a top exporter of beef, with exports totalling some $7 billion in 2020.
• Ineffective Cooperation: National Interests

  • At the 2019 G7 summit in France, world leaders pledged $22 million to help firefighting in the rainforests.
  • This was rejected by Brazil where then president Bolsanaro felt that Brazil’s sovereignty was questioned by then French president Emmanuel Macron.
• In 2022, President Lula is determined to address the destruction of the Amazon. She immediately calls for a summit to address climate change

  • In 2023, twelve states call on wealthy nations to meet their climate funding obligations so the international community could pay for the critical services provided by forests.
  • It also urged the developed nations to meet an existing commitment to provide $200 billion a year for biodiversity protection.
• United for Our Forests

  • Brought together leaders from three regions with some of the most extensive rainforests in the world.
  • President Lula: ‘we are going to COP28 with the aim of telling the rich world that, if they want to effectively preserve the rainforests that exists, they need to pay money not only to take care of the canopy but to take care of the people who live under it’.  
  • The agreement did not commit to zero deforestation by 2030. Instead, it allowed Amazon countries to pursue individual deforestation goals.