A fund eludes Bolsonaro and closes the billionaire’s deal with the Amazon countries – 06/11/2021

A billion-dollar global fund and state governors have signed an agreement to attract resources for environmental projects in the Amazon region. Last Saturday, the International Federation for the Sustainable Development of the Legal Amazon closed a Memorandum of Understanding with Emergent, a US organization that serves as the administrative coordinator for the LEAF Alliance.

But social and indigenous movements from Pará and other countries warn that sending money must take into account clear criteria and call for the involvement of activists, communities and environmentalists in fundraising. The fear is that the flow will be limited to the authorities, and only finance their projects.

The agreement was closed in Glasgow, on the sidelines of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, and represented a trend among international actors not only to turn to the federal government. By agreement, the possibility of transactions between the legal Amazon countries and the participants in Lev is open.

The initiative comes days after the Leaf Alliance mobilized $1 billion for states and states committed to increasing their ambition to protect forests and reduce deforestation. In addition to resources from developed economies such as the USA, UK and Norway, the fund relies on contributions from companies such as BlackRock, Burberry, EY, Inditex, Intertek, SAP, Walmart.org, Amazon, Airbnb, Bayer, BCG, Delta Airlines, E .ON, GSK, McKinsey, Nestlé, PwC, Salesforce and Unilever.

In addition to the Brazilian states, countries such as Costa Rica, Ecuador, Ghana, Nepal and Vietnam have signed agreements with the foreign fund.

Norway says agreement with countries ‘complementary’

Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s Environment Minister and one of the project’s funders, noted that the rapprochement with the states is “complementary” to what is already in Oslo’s relationship with national governments. “This is not an alternative, it is an additional alternative,” said the minister, who continues to advocate that indigenous peoples and other groups are part of the initiative. “I doubt it doesn’t always happen,” he said. “But it would be fair.”

However, he made it clear that he would like to see changes in the government’s environmental policy. Jair Bolsonaro. When asked if he was satisfied with Brasilia’s strategy, he laughed and only said diplomatically: “There is always room for improvement.”

“We are following the political situation in Brazil,” he said. “There are elements of development that we would like to see differently, and adding a class of nations promotes a broader relationship,” he said. “In this context, it is important to preserve a forest that is in Brazil, but that serves the world.”

According to him, there is no progress yet in the appeal of the Amazon fund, which was still dismantled under the management of Ricardo Salles. “I hope one day we will have news,” he added.

Eight of the nine Amazon states have already submitted proposals to LEAF and passed an initial technical evaluation. This means that they are eligible for transactions with potential buyers of carbon credits resulting from emissions reductions.

The rulers of the region celebrated the access to the resources. “The signing of this agreement represents an important commitment by the legal Amazon region to global climate security,” said Flávio Dino, President of the International Federation of the Legal Amazon and Governor of Maranhão.

Helder Barbalo, the governor of Pará who signed the memorandum of understanding on behalf of the International Federation, said the agreement is “clear evidence that we have a clear strategy for the Amazon’s contribution to climate balance”.

The British also noted the importance of the new agreement and insisted that the bill was not just for the states. There are talks between London and the Brazilian federal government so that a similar approach could occur.

said Maggie Charnley, Deputy Director of International Climate Finance UK – Forestry, Land Use and Carbon Markets.

According to her, the agreement is also based on the federal government’s commitment to reverse deforestation by 2030. “We hope to continue working with Brazil at all levels, including through the Leaf Alliance, so that together we can achieve these goals,” she said. .

“Since its launch at the White House Leaders Summit on Climate in April, the Leaf Alliance has demonstrated the scale and collaboration needed to tackle the climate crisis and make a significant contribution to achieving net-zero emissions globally by 2050,” said John Kerry. Special Envoy of the President of the United States for Climate.

“The Alliance has already exceeded its goal of mobilizing government and private sector resources to support large-scale actions to reduce deforestation and restore tropical and subtropical forest emissions,” he continued.