Environment: Lula's speech and what to expect from the next government on the topic

At the invitation of Curto News, two environmentalists analyzed excerpts from President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's speech on the environment: Carlos Rittl, international policy expert at the Rainforest Foundation in Norway, and André Guimarães, executive director of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM).

For Carlos Rittl, the commitments made by President Lula in his speech are very important and represent a radical change in relation to the war declared by Bolsonaro on forests, indigenous peoples and environmental laws.

“Bolsonaro gave environmental criminals the certainty of impunity, and the deforestation of the Amazon and violence against the people of the forest exploded. And cooperation between Brazil and other countries on the environment has disappeared.”

The president elected withpromestrive to regain Brazil's leading role in the face of the climate crisis, in fighting for zero deforestation in the Amazon, combating environmental crimes, creating a ministry to deal with the rights of indigenous peoples and resuming international cooperation to protect the Amazon.

André Guimarães maintains that there is a great expectation of change in the country's orientation in relation to what is done with the Amazon. Remember the dismantling of environmental inspection bodies – which led to a “violent” increase in deforestation in the last 3 or 4 years. In his opinion, Lula clearly showed that combating deforestation in the Amazon is a priority. Listen to what he says:

At the same time, the executive director of IPAM reinforces that the institute will not ignore any mistakes made by the new management.

Carlos Rittl says that resuming Brazil's leading role in the face of the climate crisis “will not be an easy task.”

“This means recovering all of Brazil's environmental and climate governance dismantled by Bolsonaro, restructuring and strengthening Ibama, ICMBio, Funai, their budgets and staff, zero tolerance with deforestation, removal of invaders from indigenous lands. And in 2023, President Lula will begin his new term with the worst budget for the environment in decades, and with a very organized environmental crime in illegal land-grabbing, timber and gold mafias with a lot of money and deep in the middle of the Amazon.”

Even so, Rittl believes that the legacy built by Lula in the past can help him – which can be assumed given the receptivity that world leaders have shown to his return to the Presidency.

“But within the international community, Lula has a lot of credit. Brazil was a protagonist in combating deforestation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions among developing countries during its previous administration. And the exceptional way in which his return to the Presidency has been welcomed by world leaders shows that the possibilities of resuming cooperation between the governments of Brazil and rich countries for the protection of the Amazon, its people and for the resumption of climate policies nationals is very big.”

Lastly, Guimarães reinforces that “putting Brazil in the right direction” means combating deforestation in Brazilian biomes – which would restore our international prestige.

Curto curation:

• What Lula's victory in Brazil means for the climate (The New York Times*)
• From deforestation to energy: What to expect from the Lula government on the environmental front (Reset)
• Bolsonaro's defeat is a turning point in the climate (Axios*)
• Elections in Brazil: Scientists celebrate Lula's victory over Bolsonaro (Nature*)
• Why Brazil's election is a huge victory in the fight against climate change (NBC News*)

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(🇬🇧): content in English

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