Brazil at COP27 was marked by Lula and forest agreements signed and ignored

The Brazil that entered the COP27 under the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) saw the president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) gain the international stage, with bilateral meetings and an environmental transition team active since the beginning of the UN conference for changes weather.

COP27 saw the future government take over climate issues from the current administration, which always relegated the issue.

But Brazil, still under Bolsonaro, did not act in such a way as to hold negotiations at the Egyptian COP, as had occurred at COP25, held in Madrid, in 2019. On that occasion, the Brazilian delegation was headed by Ricardo Salles, then Minister of the Environment. That conference, by the way, should have taken place on Brazilian soil – the change of location occurred at Bolsonaro’s request.

In the following edition, in the Scottish city of Glasgow, Brazilian diplomacy formulated a proposal to unlock discussions on the carbon market. The text was delivered to Japan, which took the matter to the negotiating table.

Brazilian diplomatic action is seen as more discreet at COP27, according to observers interviewed by the Sheet🇧🇷 The country, in general, acted in line with groups – such as the G77 + China and the one formed with Argentina and Uruguay.

One possibility suggested for this is the process of change of government. Another point that has been raised is the absence of leadership in the Brazilian team, with little performance by the Minister of the Environment Joaquim Leite, head of the delegation. On Friday (18), he spent the morning practicing diving and, at night, he left the city of the conference, before its closure.

From the point of view of politics and mass displacement, however, Brazil certainly drew attention. Lula’s visit filled meeting rooms, stands and corridors at the conference. It is worth noting that the Brazilian delegation was the second largest at the event.

“I want to say that Brazil is back”, said the president-elect, who has placed the climate issue as one of his main agendas.

During his visit to COP27, Lula also announced, together with the consortium of Amazonian governors, his intention to host COP30, in 2025, in an Amazonian state.

Despite the mostly positive attention, Lula’s trip to COP27 was also marked by the use of businessman José Seripieri Filho’s jet. Known as Júnior, he is the founder of Qualicorp and owner of QSaúde.

The president-elect canceled, at the last minute, a press conference he was going to give to journalists at the conference and left Egypt without explaining the case. It is also worth mentioning the emissions associated with the transport of a few people on a private flight, historically a target of criticism from environmentalists.

The last climate conference under the Bolsonaro government was also marked by two forest agreements. One was signed and the other ignored.

At COP27, Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, countries that concentrate huge tropical forests, formed a bloc to strengthen their positions on the international stage.

At the same time, however, Brazil was left out of the Leaders Partnership for Forest and Climate. The country did not even respond to invitations to join the group, according to Sheet found out.

The agreement was disregarded as a matter of leadership on the subject, according to the report’s investigation. That is, the country’s current position would be to be at the forefront of the main agreements and forums on forests.

Brazil would also have understood that, with the agreement with Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the other partnership, currently under the presidency of the United States and Ghana, would not be relevant.

The idea of ​​the Partnership of Leaders for Forest and Climate is, in short, to verify the advances in forest conservation. This agreement is a follow-up to the Declaration on Forests, signed by Brazil at COP26. The declaration highlighted the commitment to work together to stop and reverse forest loss and soil degradation by 2030.

Lula’s environmental team, in turn, still has no definitions about a possible entry into the partnership. Before taking any step, there is a need to understand exactly what it would involve to be part of this initiative, say participants in the transitional government.

THE SheetItamaraty said, last week, that there are forums with a better format for “dealing with the needs of developing countries”.

According to the document released during COP27, the members of the partnership are committed to leading in areas such as international collaboration in the economics of sustainable land use and support for initiatives by local communities and indigenous peoples.

In recent years, Brazil has shown increasing rates of deforestation and, consequently, increases in greenhouse gas emissions, which jeopardizes its commitments under the Paris Agreement.