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IT'S good news not only for his country but for this beautiful, beleaguered planet that Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, popularly known as Lula, won Brazil’s presidential election on Sunday.
This is not only because the incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, is an anti-vax covid conspiracy theorist who oversaw one of the deadliest outbreaks of the pandemic.
It's good news because even in his victory speech, Lula promised major environmental action as a priorit.
“Let’s fight for zero deforestation,” he said. “Brazil is ready to resume its leading role in the fight against the climate crisis, protecting all our biomes, especially the Amazon rainforest…
“We will resume the surveillance of the entire Amazon and any illegal activity, and at the same time we will promote sustainable development.”
Under Senhor Bolsonaro, however, the 6.7 million square kilometres of the Amazon rainforest were being destroyed at an unprecedented rate. In the first half of 2022, over 3,980 square kilometres were cleared.
Why does this matter to anyone outside Brazil? The Amazon contains 25 per cent of Earth’s land biodiversity, and perhaps even more crucially, stores billions of tonnes of carbon that would otherwise increase global warming.
Analysts say Lula’s win could be a turning point. Hence his enthusiastic welcome from other world leaders – which will take a concrete form. The Amazon Fund for Forest Conservation and Climate Protection can now distribute €485 million (about US$480 million) of unused aid. Norway, a major donor of funds to protect the rainforest, halted that aid in 2019, when Mr Bolsonaro took power, and called the ensuing deforestation “scandalous.”
Lula’s position also means a trade deal between the European Union and the Mercosur Latin American bloc, delayed by environmental concerns, may now go ahead.
In a day or two, Lula and other government leaders will head to Egypt for the UN COP27 climate summit – as the world hurtles disastrously towards global warming above the 2015 Paris Agreement's 1.5-degrees C target.
In 2021, TT’s Prime Minister attended the summit, and called, apparently without irony, for action over rhetoric.
With Energy Minister Stuart Young, he then held meetings with leading energy companies. Those talks bore fruit: recently the Finance Minister and Dr Rowley have said proudly that this country is now raking in additional revenues from fossil fuels – a major contributor to global warming.
This year, Planning Minister Pennelope Beckles will represent TT at the summit (the environment is tacked on to her portfolio, it seems). Ms Beckles talks a good talk: she made an excellent speech for Earth Day in April. Until, that is, she claimed TT was an environmental leader – a hilarious idea if it were not tragic. If TT is leading anyone with regard to the environment, we appear to be leading them in the wrong direction.
Another reason to take a leaf, so to speak, from Lula’s book.
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