Entrepreneurs fear Brazil will become an ecological pariah

Executives from more than 100 large companies have called on Brazil to take a leading position in the negotiations HIM-HER-IT On the climate in November, at a time when the Amazon rainforest was destroyed during the government Bolsonaro It leaves the country in an environmental pariah position on the planet.

Business leaders, including the heads of Brazilian companies or Brazilian units of multinational companies, warned in a joint letter that Brazil could be “excluded from a new climate-economic order that is solidifying before our eyes”.

The signatories include local directors of e-commerce company Amazon, oil company Shell, as well as CEOs of JBS, the world’s largest meat processor, and aircraft manufacturer Embraer.

“Brazil must maintain its centrality in this dialogue, at the cost of the massive damage done to the productive sector and Brazilian society,” the letter read.

The document calls for agreement on rules for global carbon markets, one of the main sticking points in previous negotiations in HIM-HER-IT.

In the last great summit of HIM-HER-IT On climate, in 2019, countries failed to reach agreement on carbon markets, with Brazil, Australia and others refusing to drop the requirement to transfer credits from old carbon trading schemes.

The letter also calls on Brazil to take steps to reduce illegal deforestation in the Amazon region.

Deforestation and fires in the Brazilian Amazon increased after the president Jair Bolsonaro He took over in 2019, causing an international uproar over the fact that the president had not done enough to stop the destruction of the forest.

Deforestation hit its worst score in 12 years in 2020, with an area nearly 14 times the size of New York City destroyed.

In August, Environment Minister Joaquim Pereira Leyte indicated a policy change that includes doubling the environmental inspection budget, providing for the hiring of 700 environmental inspectors.

Bolsonaro In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly last week, he said Brazil was committed to conservation, and promised to fight illegal deforestation, although environmental groups doubt the compromise’s tone could represent a real change in the government’s agenda.