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In the role of hypothetical host, the US President Joe Biden It will host 40 heads of state, including the representative of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro, At the so-called Climate Leaders Summit, on April 22-23.
The event is seen as a central opportunity for Biden to assume the role of a global political figure on climate issues, an agenda he emphasized as a priority for his administration during the entire 2018 election campaign, from which he emerged victorious.
For the first time in history, Biden created the position of Special Envoy for Climate in the US Federal Administration, which gave John Kerry a mission to make the Democrats’ green agenda possible both domestically and internationally.
“The United States is Back”, the slogan of the current US government, must be demonstrated in the behavior of the White House leader. In the past four years, Americans have withdrawn from the successive spaces of multilateral debate and negotiating tables shared between foreign leaders. It was the case with the Paris climate agreement, it was with the World Health Organization (WHO)That was the case in the nuclear agreement with will.
The shift in US foreign policy by former President Donald Trump called for a rapprochement with the world’s populist and conservative right-wing advocates and focused diplomatic efforts – or unrest – on central issues of Republican voters, such as the issue of trade disputes with the United States. . China Or restrictions on the entry of migrants and refugees into the country. The administration’s motto was America – and the Americans – first, and this translated into the US’s absence from global governance issues.
right Now , Democratic administration is trying to re-establish the role the United States has set itself as a beacon of the economic, democratic and moral values of the West. Biden declared in his inaugural speech on January 20: “We will repair our alliances to advance not only through the example of strength but by the power of example.”
On the same day, the executive order was signed The United States has returned to the Paris climate agreementFrom which former President Trump withdrew the Americans. Just seven days later, he announced that the United States would not only return to the climate negotiation table, but that it would also be responsible for bringing the matter to the negotiating table at the leaders’ summit in the coming days.
a The event will serve the Americans to reaffirm commitments they have ignored in recent years to try to prevent the planet from warming above 1.5 degrees Celsius in the future.. The Biden government plans to announce to the heads of state of 17 economies that together account for 80% of greenhouse gas emissions and 4/5 of global GDP, more ambitious targets for reducing US carbon dioxide emissions by 2030.
“In his call, the President urges leaders to use the summit as an opportunity to determine how their countries will also contribute to achieving a stronger climate ambition,” said the White House statement on the launch of the summit.
Tasso Azevedo, Climate Monitor’s GHG emissions estimator coordinator. The Leaders Summit is now seen as an important step for major global powers to commit to more ambitious plans at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, to be held in November, in Glasgow, England.
Biden says the tropical forests of Brazil are being destroyed
In this context, Brazil appears as an opportunity for the Biden government to demonstrate the coherence of its agenda and persuade its arguments.
Bolsonaro was elected president with proposals to reduce environmental fines, boycott the demarcation of indigenous lands and advance the interests of rural producers. His first two years in office were marked by successive increases in deforestation. The rate of forest loss jumped from 7,500 square kilometers in 2018 to 10,100 square kilometers and 11,100 square kilometers in 2019 and 2020, respectively. They were the highest values since 2008.
During the 2020 presidential campaign, Democrat Biden said he would like to lead efforts to create a $ 20 billion international fund for Brazil to preserve the Amazon. When citing Brazil, Biden packed into the imagination of the American voter with photos of the wildfires that set the world on fire in 2019In Bolsonaro’s first year.
“There is clearly a complete symbolism in the negotiation with Brazil, which has been identified globally as resistance to preserving the environment. It would be an asset for the Biden government to acquire a commitment to Bolsonaro, a gain not only internationally, but also with the Biden government,” said a diplomat. A Brazilian follows up on negotiations between Brazil and the United States on this issue. To BBC News Brazil, American Democratic voters are very interested in this. ”
The first estimates are between John Kerry’s team and the Brazilian authorities led by the Environment Minister Ricardo Salles And by the advisor at the time Ernesto Araujo, Seems to be making a positive impression on both sides. On the US side, negotiators appeared to be amazed that Brazil was willing to treat the environment issue as a “new priority” as long as the financial considerations of the country’s forest services were included in the negotiations.
Among Brazilian diplomats, the “modest” and “flexible” tone of Kerry and his team at the forefront of the proposals for Brazil has drawn attention. In mid-April, Kerry told the British magazine The Economist that he could not “dictate” what Brazil was and that it was “a government that has felt hurt by the way it has been dealt with so far.” According to US diplomatic sources, Kerry’s concern has not angered the Bolsonaro administration, which could lead to a complete halt in the costly negotiations for the Americans..
However, in recent weeks, the US government has increased the degree of pressure on Brazil to commit itself to clear goals of combating deforestation and to require any major transfer of resources to the country to show results. Exactly the opposite of what Minister Sallis has publicly stated that he wants. In a recent interview with O Estado de S. Paulo, The head of the environmental portfolio said he expects $ 1 billion in down payments Annually so that Brazil can commit to reducing between 30% and 40% of the devastation inflicted on the Amazon region. Without prior asylum, Sallis said, the country could not advance any goal.
In light of the deal, the US State Department sent to Itamaraty that there is no possibility of transfers without results. And that the future of other expensive Brazil agendas will also depend on the success of the climate negotiations, such as pushing forward bilateral trade agreements with the United States and maintaining US support for the country’s entry into the country. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. A representative of a commercial entity from the two countries who participated in meetings with diplomats of the United States and Brazil conservatively confirmed that “the Americans have made clear that they will not buy land on the moon.”
At the same time, the U.S. government has come under increasing pressure from indigenous groups, members of civil society and even Brazilian conservatives and parliamentarians to broaden the scope of the talks. They all complained that the proposals that Salis and Araujo made to Kerry did not represent the broader interests of Brazilian society, as there was no public hearing process by the federal government for these groups.
Raoney asks Biden to ignore Bolsonaro
A month ago, in a letter revealed by BBC News Brazil, the Indigenous Peoples in Brazil (APIB) requested US President Joe Biden and climate envoy Kerry for a “direct channel of communication” with the US government on issues related to the Brazilian Amazon. Last Tuesday (4/13), the US ambassador to Brazil, Todd Chapman, and Jonathan Pershing, one of Kerry’s advisors, attended a meeting with indigenous leaders.
“They were concerned about what we were informed of and interested in changing the environmental policy of the Bolsonaro government. They know who they are negotiating with. We know their ability to pressure and hope because it was an unprecedented opening for dialogue,” told BBC News Brazil, Dynaman Tuxa, APIB coordinator.
The American actors’ conversation with the Brazilian Indians was another sign of the Biden administration that the Brazilian government would need to make concrete and consistent commitments in order for there to be a bilateral declaration of commitment on the 22nd.
Within my Emirates there is a clear understanding that without this the country will not take over American resources. However, the signal to a potential target is weak. Vice President Hamilton Muraw announced in the Official Gazette on Wednesday (04/14) that the country is operating with the Bolsonaro administration expected to close deforestation of around 8,700 square kilometers per year. It’s definitely a downgrade from the first two years of management, but it’s also Its value is 15% more than the level obtained in the year before Bolsonaro’s inauguration. Even among Brazilian negotiators, there is doubt that this number will encourage Americans to open their pockets.
If a bilateral agreement fails, there is still potential for a multilateral exit: a proposal to create a fund of around $ 10 billion that would go to South American countries to conserve the region’s tropical biomes. Thus, the United States can use the weight of its Brazilian neighbors to increase the pressure on Bolsonaro’s environmental measures.
Last week, the Biden government sent a high-level envoy to the region for the first time. The first director of the Western Hemisphere at the National Security Council, Juan Gonzalez, began visiting Colombia, Argentina e UruguayTo discuss, among other topics, the climate crisis. Brazil wasn’t on Gonzalez’s itinerary.
