Analysis: Bolsonaro wastes correct environmental criticism of Europeans with a lie about the Amazon

President Jair Bolsonaro put his finger on the wounds of Europeans by pointing out that the increase in the use of fossil fuels is a serious environmental setback, in his opening speech at the UN General Assembly this Tuesday morning (20).

However, what crumbles the criticism is the lack of international credibility of those who signed measures contrary to environmental protection during the four years of government, in the eyes of the whole world.

At this point in the game, there is no space, time or willingness on the part of international actors to give any credibility to Bolsonaro’s statements — there is an important difference between speaking at the UN and being heard at the UN.

Knowing this and about to face the polls, Bolsonaro funneled the General Assembly’s global audience to make an exclusive nod to his supporters, forcing the image of an anti-system representative to denounce inconsistencies by global powers.

“Countries that presented themselves as leaders of the low carbon economy now started to use dirty sources of energy. This represents a serious setback for the environment”, he said, referring to the Europeans, who invest in new infrastructure and partnerships to import fossil fuels. from other countries, preparing to cut off Russian gas supplies.

The criticism is timely and echoes environmentalism. The Europeans, according to diplomats from the bloc, arrive embarrassed to participate in the UN General Assembly and in the New York Climate Week, which take place concurrently throughout this week.

The context of the war creates urgency about energy security and puts in check the transition plans of the European Union, which until then was in a more comfortable position to ask the rest of the world for more ambition in the goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Germany has been heavily criticized for the investment agreed with Senegal to produce gas in the African country with a view to German supplies. The project goes in the opposite direction of international cooperation efforts that seek precisely to convince the least developed countries to invest directly in renewables — avoiding fossil dependence where it has not yet been developed.

Had it been a government willing to cooperate internationally, Bolsonaro could have criticized the offer of an alternative studied by the CNI (National Confederation of Industry): the export of green hydrogen.

The president limited himself to citing the solution among a list of the country’s energy advantages, as part of a poorly formulated defense in the face of international criticism, instead of positioning himself as a leader of the climate agenda to point the direction of the transition, from ( and not despite) the context of the energy crisis.

Instead of using the UN stage to enhance Brazil’s image, the president belittled it with repeated misinformation. “In the Brazilian Amazon, an area equivalent to Western Europe, more than 80% of the forest remains untouched, contrary to what is reported by the national and international media,” he said, based on a distortion of data. The fact that almost 20% of the Amazon has already been deforested does not make the other 80% untouched.

These are lands under pressure from squatters, prospectors and loggers, especially on non-destined public lands, with at least 17% of degraded areas, according to the Amazon Scientific Panel.

Just under half of the Amazon territory is protected by law — with conservation units or indigenous lands — and, even so, 68% of these areas suffer from degradation and deforestation pressures, in addition to the impacts of road construction and infrastructure works, according to the report. Raisg (Amazon Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information).

“These impacts [da guerra na Ucrânia] put us all against the Sustainable Development Goals,” Bolsonaro said, although his government has also acted contrary to this agenda. In 2020, Bolsonaro vetoed the mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from the multi-annual plan. .

In the corridors of the UN headquarters, the speech was received with indifference and had little repercussion. The persistence in denying deforestation data in the Amazon added to a more restrained tone than in previous years made the speech that, in past meetings, already aroused indignant reactions from other countries tiresome.

The possibility of a change of government at the end of the year puts global leaders on hold. Asked about the reception of Bolsonaro’s speech, an advisor linked to the European Union replied that he prefers to wait for the electoral scenario to comment.

In a statement, the director of responsible investments at the Nordea Scandinavian countries fund, Eric Pedersen, said that “the recorded deforestation, the unpunished violence against indigenous communities, as well as the emptying of the bodies that enforce the law speak for themselves”. “All this needs to be remedied to create a stable investment environment,” he added.

Without a constructive stance in the face of the planet’s challenges, not even the recognition of scientific data on the Amazon, the president was unable to seize the opportunity to speak to global leaders. The use of the UN for an exclusive nod to the Bolsonarista base was the only choice at this point, when the world had already turned its back on it.

_{The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.}