GERMANY READY TO UNFREEZE BRAZIL DEFORESTATION AID AFTER LULA WIN IN BRAZIL

Wed 02 November 2022:

Following Norway’s lead, Germany announced on Wednesday that it was prepared to resume providing financial aid to Brazil to fight deforestation in the wake of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s election victory.

Deforestation speeds up climate change as the trees and soil, particularly in untouched rainforest, suck in carbon dioxide.

“We are in principle prepared to release the frozen funds,” said a development ministry spokesman in Berlin. “We will now talk to the transition team in Brazil about the details.” He was referring to aid paid by Germany into the Amazon Fund for Forest Conservation and Climate Protection, considered one of the main tools to reduce deforestation in the planet’s biggest tropical forest.

During Lula’s first time in office, deforestation in the Amazon fell by 80%. Under Bolsonaro, it surged again.

A recent analysis by Carbon Brief shows that Lula’s victory could bring deforestation down 89% by the end of the decade.

Today’s election was crucial for the climate. pic.twitter.com/RkjPe7C4ga

— Jerome Roos (@JeromeRoos) October 30, 2022

The spokesman said it was not yet clear when payments would resume but added that “in the German government, there is a great will to reach out quickly”.

Payments had been suspended by Germany and Norway, the fund’s largest donors, as deforestation increased under far-right, climate-skeptic leader Jair Bolsonaro.

Following Lula’s victory in the presidential elections, Norway had already said on Monday that it will start delivering Amazon protection subsidies to Brazil once more.

After winning the election on Sunday, Lula, who presided between 2003 and 2011, declared that Brazil was “ready to reclaim its place in the fight against the climate crisis, especially the Amazon.”

“Fight for zero deforestation,” he pledged. One of the recommendations made by the UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, in line with the goals of the Paris Accord, is to reduce deforestation.

More than 90% of deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon is illegal. Government agencies like Ibama are tasked with stopping it. But Bolsonaro appointed people to head the agency who refused to spend most of its budget and restricted what its employees could do.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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