Former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) has been waving abroad in an attempt to set a counterpoint to his main adversary, Jair Bolsonaro (PL), on an agenda valued by international investors: the environment.
The assessment of PT’s allies is that a policy aimed at combating deforestation should act as an important international signal, in a possible new Lula government, that Brazil intends to reassume a prominent position in discussions on the climate.
According to ex-minister Aloizio Mercadante, who coordinates Lula’s government program, one of the campaign’s priorities is to get resources from the Amazon Fund to be released quickly in case the PT is elected.
He states that he has made contacts with Norwegian authorities and that he has the country’s signal that there is an opening to discuss the release of the fund in the event of the former president’s victory.
In case of victory, the PT also intends to take advantage of the global meeting on the climate — the COP 27 —, which will take place in Egypt in November, to present Lula as a leader who represents the opposition to Bolsonaro’s anti-environmental policy. As it is scheduled for before the inauguration, one of the possibilities studied by the campaign is for the party to accompany the conference as a member of civil society.
The Amazon Fund was created in 2008 with the aim of financing projects that help preserve the forest and combat deforestation. Until 2018, Norway was responsible for 93.8% of the funds raised, while Germany contributed with 5.7%, and Petrobras, with 0.5%.
In 2019, however, the two countries announced the freezing of transfers to the fund. The decision came in response to the Bolsonaro government’s decision to extinguish the fund’s two governance bodies: Cofa (Advisory Committee) and CTFA (Technical Committee).
“We have resumed contact and we are absolutely certain that the funds will be released as soon as there is a government that effectively demonstrates that it is committed to combating deforestation. We are talking to the Norwegian representation,” said Mercadante.
Because of the impasse, the fund had almost R$ 3.2 billion stopped in December 2021 – according to a report by the CGU (Controladoria-Geral da União).
Norway’s own Minister of Climate and Environment, Espen Barth Eide, told Reuters in June that the funds would be ready to be released in the event of a change of government.
Norwegian authorities have highlighted in conversations with Brazilian interlocutors that three requirements need to be resolved regarding the Amazon Fund. A governance model that is acceptable to donor countries; a compelling plan to reduce deforestation; and the presentation of concrete results in the fight against deforestation.
The first two points would be enough to start unlocking the resources, according to people with knowledge of these negotiations.
The agenda linked to the Environment became central to Lula’s campaign and had its importance reaffirmed last Monday (12), with the announcement of support from former minister Marina Silva to the candidate. The PT government program, for example, is committed to zero net deforestation.
The former senator presented a series of points that the former president should commit to before announcing support.
Among the proposals is the creation of a National Climate Security Authority, “responsible for setting targets and verifying the implementation of actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase resilience and prepare for adaptation to climate change”.
Marina also asks that an eventual government “implement the carbon market in Brazil, defining environmental safeguards and exploitation of carbon credits generated by the reduction of emissions from deforestation and degradation”.
At the end of August, on a trip to Manaus and Belém, Lula participated in events in which he defended the preservation of the Amazon and the reduction of deforestation, marking differences with the president.
In a meeting with indigenous people, the PT said “that the herd will no longer pass”, using a term used by former Environment Minister Ricardo Salles to refer to the relaxation of environmental standards while public opinion was distracted by the health crisis of the coronavirus. .
“We have to create in Brazilian society the awareness that keeping the forest standing is healthier and more profitable than trying to cut down a tree to plant soybeans, corn or raise cattle,” said Lula.
The former president received demands from scientists and representatives of forest peoples for investments in the area. He heard requests, more than once, for the release of money from the Amazon fund.
Lula has said on different occasions that it is necessary to invest responsibly in the Amazon to regain international credibility.
Present on the trip, Mercadante said that the idea is precisely to strengthen the structures for monitoring deforestation in order to regain support from other countries.
“With Germany alone, we have five funds that are paralyzed. Resources for professional technical training, for the environmental area, for the area of science and technology, [que] are paralyzed”, said the former minister.
Another campaign coordinator, the former governor of Piauí Wellington Dias, also declared that Lula wants to give “special treatment” to the Legal Amazon.
“The North has serious problems in the area of poverty, housing, security, health, sanitation, and infrastructure. In addition to the ‘bioeconomy’ agenda in environmental policy, with a commitment to the Paris agreement, but without giving up our sovereignty”.
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