US special climate envoy John Kerry told sheet at COP26, in Glasgow, that Brazil is engaged in dialogue with the Americans.
Asked about Donald Trump’s conversation with a government aligned with the previous US administration, Kerry replied, among the corridors of the conference, that “what we’ve been talking about is common sense, about facts.”
He highlighted the name of Environment Minister Joaquim Leite, who took over from Ricardo Salles at the end of May. “Milk has been very considerate to us,” he said.
“Now the expectation is for implementation. It is necessary to do what is said to be done, and we are going to help Brazil in that,” he concluded.
Led by Leite, the Brazilian delegation is coming to COP26 with the objective of regaining international credibility, shaken by setbacks in environmental policies, international cooperation and control of deforestation.
In the past two days, the country has adhered to two agreements it had refused to sign in the past — the forest declaration and the global commitment on methane. According to American leaders, the strategy for convincing climate agreements is to connect them to the economic agenda, prioritizing business with the signatory countries.
At an event at the US booth at COP26, Kerry presented the Net Zero World initiative to finance energy transition in developing countries.
“Countries use fossil energy because they think there is no alternative, until we go there and support the transition,” he said.
“Just as President Kennedy had said, ‘Let’s go to the moon, not because it’s easy, but because it’s tall,’ we’re going to do it because it’s tall.”
The former secretary of state in the Obama administration also acknowledged that current plans are insufficient to maintain the safest climate level, of up to 1.5ºC of warming. “We are falling short of what the world needs, but we are not incapable,” he said.
The journalist traveled at the invitation of Instituto Clima e Sociedade.
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