[ad_1]
Brazil and France on Tuesday announced an Amazon rainforest protection program that will cost 1 billion euros ($1.08 billion) over the next four years.
The announcement was made as French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Belem, Brazil, to meet with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Belém is located at the mouth of the Amazon River in the state of Para in northern Brazil. The city will host the COP30 climate summit in 2025.
What do we know about this plan?
The investment plan aims to raise “1 billion euros in public and private investment over the next four years,” according to a roadmap published by the French presidency.
According to the announcement, Presidents Macron and Lula are pushing ahead with “a great global public-private investment plan for the bioeconomy” in the Brazilian and Guyana Amazons.
The document proposes the creation of a “carbon market” aimed at rewarding countries that invest in natural carbon sinks. The Amazon rainforest plays an important role in the fight against climate change because it absorbs carbon dioxide emissions.
Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon soared under the leadership of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who lost the 2022 election, but was halved in 2023 as Lula’s government strengthened environmental protections.
Brazil and France said they would support “indigenous peoples and local communities in the Amazon, who play an important role in protecting biodiversity through their traditional knowledge and forest management practices.”
In Belem, President Macron awarded France’s highest honor, the Légion d’Honneur, to Kayapó indigenous Raoni Metukutile. The French presidential palace praised Chief Kayapo as “an international figure in the fight for the protection of the Amazon rainforest and indigenous culture.”
Relations between France and Brazil improve
Relations between France and Brazil have improved since Lula took office, after deteriorating in 2019 when Macron led a wave of international pressure against Bolsonaro over the raging fires in the Amazon.
The Elysée presidential palace earlier said: “We are living in a Franco-Brazilian moment” and said he shared “many points of agreement” with Lula, particularly on “major global issues”. .
France and Brazil are also collaborating on building four submarines, with the third scheduled to be launched on Wednesday during Macron’s visit.
However, there are also many points of contention between Paris and Brasilia. These include a proposed free trade agreement between the European Union and the Mercosur bloc in South America, and Prime Minister Lula’s position on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
President Macron said in January that Paris opposes the EU-Mercosur agreement because it “does not make Mercosur’s farmers and businesses abide by the same rules as ours.”
Lula opposed sanctions against Russia but called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and a negotiated solution to the war.
sdi/jsi (Reuters, AFP)
[ad_2]
Source link
