I want a new climate target for Brazil, Txai Suruí asks Lula

A year after taking the world by storm with a speech at the opening ceremony of COP26, the UN climate conference in Scotland in 2021, Brazilian activist Txai Suruí, 25, returned to the meeting, this time in Egypt, with a busy schedule. She, who became a columnist for Sheet since then, it has remained in demand in the corridors of COP27, proof that the speeches on the stage of the Glasgow plenary, with references to the Racionais MC’s, still produced an echo.

In the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh, Txai participated in two official UN events and in panels on the role of indigenous women, on climate justice in Brazilian cities and also on cinema. At dinners, she discussed creating a youth fund and food security. She also held meetings with authorities, such as those in Canada, and meetings with activists.

In the different environments, one speech was central: that indigenous people occupy more spaces of power and be considered an essential part of climate solutions.

🇧🇷There is no top-down solution. I’m not talking here about the consultation process, it’s about decision-making”, she repeated several times, who coordinates the Kanindé Ethno-environmental Defense Association and the Indigenous Youth Movement of Rondônia, a state in one of the main arcs of devastation in the Amazon.

Over there, as well as in Acre and Amazonas, the number of fires has increased by 1,200% since the defeat of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) at the polls, as shown in a recent report by Sheet🇧🇷

Txai criticized the size and profile of the official Brazilian delegation at COP27, the second largest among countries, behind only the United Arab Emirates. “The delegation includes first ladies, wives of secretaries, brought to JBS to speak at the country’s official stand, but we [indígenas] we were not called.”

For her, indigenous peoples are the best diplomats Brazil can have. “During the four years of destruction of the Bolsonaro government, who best represented Brazil’s climate agenda? It was the indigenous peoples. It’s great to know that Brazil is back [como disse o presidente eleito Lula em discurso no Egito]but we also have to be ahead of that.”

Thus, she says, more important than discussing who will occupy the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, a promise by Lula, is to define what are the areas of competence of the portfolio.

“We will have to create a ministry to stay. So that four years from now, regardless of the government that takes over, this ministry will not manage to be dismantled.”

Another request to Lula is for greater ambition in Brazil’s climate target, which currently represents a “pedal”: instead of increasing, the goal of the cut was reduced in the Bolsonaro government (PL).

“President Lula, I want a new NDC [sigla em inglês para contribuição nacionalmente determinada]🇧🇷 Are you going to continue with the Bolsonaro government’s NDC?”

“And next year I want youth and indigenous people to come back as decision makers. I’m not reinventing the wheel. Chile is a great example of how this can be done.

The day after this speech by Txai, Lula participated in a meeting with indigenous leaders. The activist, however, was unable to attend as she had already left Sharm el-Sheikh.

Asked about how she felt one year after COP26, Txai said she had learned a lot since then and met people and organizations, in Brazil and abroad, that she didn’t even know existed.

🇧🇷Visibility makes us reach spaces that we would not be able to and talk to those who often don’t even want to hear us,” said she, who was accompanied by her mother, Neidinha, and sister, Kim, who are also activists in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Despite the changes in her life over the past year, under the COP, she reflected, little seems to have moved forward.

“We need urgent and radical actions, and we need to stop being afraid of this word ‘radical’, because that’s what we need [contra a crise climática]🇧🇷

Recalling Glasgow, Txai also pointed out harmful differences for social movements at COP27. In Egypt, one concern was the treatment of activists. “It is an anti-democratic country, where we cannot demonstrate.”

On the other hand, it celebrated a stronger participation of the black movement at COP27, with a greater presence of quilombolas.

“They are in large numbers here, something I didn’t see at the last climate conference. This is incredible. I hope that other movements and other forest peoples, such as riverside people and extractivists, manage to be at the next one”, he assessed.

For Txai, COP27 was also an opportunity to screen “O Território”, a documentary of which she is one of the executive producers. The film has already won several awards, such as the Audience Award and the Special Jury Prize for Documentary Work at the Sundance Festival. “People don’t know what the Amazon is, and that’s why the film is so successful,” she summarized.

In one of the sessions, she was asked how the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau Indigenous Land, the scene of the events narrated in the film, is today.

“Unfortunately, the territory continues to be invaded, continues to be deforested,” he said. “We remove everyone [os invasores] from there and if we don’t make a way, what will happen? They’ll come back or they’ll invade a new area.”

For Txai, the solution is “to bring people to our side”.

“I’m going back to the territory, sharing what I’ve learned here with the base and discussing how best to respond to a very unfavorable political context in Rondônia, with a Bolsonarist governor who, on the eve of the elections, extinguished yet another conservation unit in the state, which is unconstitutional, and a pro-agribusiness legislative assembly and federal deputies.”

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