MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian and French scientists tackle climate change in Amazon

Tackling climate change has strengthened ties between Brazil and France

Researchers from France and Brazil are meeting this week in Belém, in the State of Pará, to launch a new season of the Amazon Connections Seminar addressing the planet’s future from scientific, cultural, and political perspectives. The gathering will span until Aug. 29 at the Emílio Goeldi Museum in Belém, the host city of COP30, as part of the bilateral agenda held each year in two seasons—one in each country.

According to Sophie Jacquel, representative of the French Embassy in Brazil, this year’s France-Brazil Season 2025 has a special focus on scientific cooperation, which has strong historical ties dating back centuries and an environmental perspective reinforced by the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30).

“We are at a stage where the Amazon is approaching a point of no return due to climate change, which is a major concern for both governments as well as Brazilian and French researchers. That is why we need to further develop knowledge sharing and the interdisciplinarity of research areas,” Jacquel pointed out.

Created in 2023, the season is the result of renewed momentum in bilateral relations, now celebrating their 200th anniversary. The same effort also led to the creation of the Franco-Brazilian Center for Amazonian Biodiversity (CFBBA), inaugurated in November 2024 in French Guiana, which brings together the work of scientists from both countries.

“The universities, across the Amazon in Brazil and French Guiana, are rooted in a territory that faces enormous social and environmental challenges but also has the capacity to envision solutions and shared futures,” says Nadège Mézié, international advisor to the Franco-Brazilian Center for Amazonian Biodiversity.

Over three days, scientific communities from both countries will present recent advances in research on socio-biodiversity, the environment, and climate crisis mitigation, aiming to develop solutions and new perspectives to be presented to decision-makers at COP30.

“We will have anthropologists, archaeologists, health scientists, biodiversity scientists, and meteorologists who may be able to find concrete solutions together,” Mézié stated.

Tuesday was dedicated to young researchers sharing their studies with experienced scientists in a joint effort to build knowledge. “They are the ones who will do the science of tomorrow, who have disruptive ideas and new solutions, especially young scientists from the Amazon working for the Amazon,” Jacquel noted.

According to her, the document produced at the end of the seminar will be presented at upcoming scientific events to gather innovations that can be transformed into environmental solutions, in a process of collective development leading up to the climate conference.

“It is the role of science to serve as a basis for the decisions of governments, decision-makers, and public policy makers,” she said.

The program was structured around three themes: climate and ecological transition, diversity of societies, and democracy and equitable globalization. (Source: Agencia Brasil)