MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolsonaro says Brazil part of the solution, not the problem regarding climate change

Brazil was represented at Glasgow by Environment Minister Joaquim Leite

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro insisted his country was a part of the solution and not of the problem of climate change. Bolsonaro's remarks came after the participation of Environment Minister Joaquim Leite in a side event at the UN COP 26 Climate Change Summit in Glasgow, which the Brazilian head of state chose not to attend and stay in Italy instead.

Under Bolsonaro, indiscriminate logging of the Amazon grew to favor agribusiness, making Brazil one of the 5 countries to have worsened global warming the most.

But the President trusts his country, which owns 60% of the Amazon rainforest, according to a recorded message broadcast on public TV.

“Brazil is part of the solution to overcome this global challenge. The results achieved up to 2020 show that we can be more ambitious,” Bolsonaro said in a message recorded last week.

The President explained that his Government's the national Green Growth plan encourages attracting investments to renewable economy by creating jobs in sustainable activities.

Minister Leite's announcement in Glasgow, nevertheless, lacked details about the execution of such plan.

“Today we present a new climate goal, more ambitious, going from 43% to 50% until 2030 of gas reduction, and of carbon neutrality until 2050, something that will be formalized at COP26,” Leite said in his speech.

Brazil is under international pressure as a result of the legislation that Bolsonaro seeks to pass to allow cattle ranching, agriculture and mining in Amazonian indigenous reserves, after he increased deforestation for illegal activities since he took office in 2019.

Environmentalists lashed out at Leite's speech, on the grounds that that there was no actual program to implement these reductions and that Brazil has recalculated its goals without taking into account former President Dilma Rousseff's pledge in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

“If Brazil wants to present a commitment to the Country Agreement, the goal should be 80% reduction,” said the Climate Observatory entity.

The goal of Brazil with the Bolsonaro administration is to reduce deforestation by 15% by 2024 and eliminate the logging of native forests by 2028.