Senator Kátia Abreu (PP-TO) was surprised by young Brazilians in front of the official pavilion of Brazil at COP26, this Tuesday (9). She received a black box with a message against bill 2.159/2020, which revises the general law on environmental licensing.
“What is the 2,159? Licensing?” asked the senator, who is the draftsman of the bill in the Senate. The young indigenous woman Jaciara Borari, 26, then replied that stopping the “cattle” is a possible mission. In response, the senator smiled and kissed her forehead.
”Don’t worry, we won’t do anything against our Amazon”, said the senator, saying goodbye to the group.
The project’s scope, however, is broader than that of the Amazon biome and dispenses with most permits, assessments and inspections — which earned it the nickname “father of the cattle” among environmentalists.
Approved by the Chamber of Deputies last May, it generated an alert even from international investors. For Abreu, the main challenge in his report lies in decisions on infrastructure works.
The senator participates in COP26, along with a group of parliamentarians who praise the Brazilian government’s new posture in the environmental agenda.
The young people considered Abreu’s reaction to be receptive. According to the NGO Engajamundo, which created the action, the delivery of the “box with the message ‘mission possible’ was inspired by spy movies, who receive missions in letters and envelopes.”
When she was Minister of Agriculture, in 2010, Kátia Abreu had received the anti-Golden Motoserra award from environmentalists, for her encouragement to make the Forest Code more flexible. Last May, she declared that she would transfer her award to then-minister Ricardo Salles (Environment).
“At least I was Minister of Agriculture,” he said wryly in a video on his social media.
Organizations formed by young Brazilians also have experience in rewarding political leaders with ironic titles.
In 2019, Salles won the Terminator award from the Youth for Climate movement. At the end of 2019, the predecessor in the Ministry of the Environment, Edson Duarte, took the title of Last Who Calls for the Climate. In 2016, the then Minister of Agriculture, Blairo Maggi, won a necklace of pearls, for declarations that minimized environmental conflicts.
The journalist traveled at the invitation of Instituto Clima e Sociedade.
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