Petro and Lula lay the foundations to accelerate the preservation of the Amazon

Colombian President, Gustavo Petroand the Brazilian, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvamet this Saturday to prepare the Amazon Summit next month in Brazil in a push to accelerate the preservation of the Amazon and call for environmental urgency.

“Caring for the Amazon is both a privilege and a responsibility”Lula stated on his first visit to Colombia, which was specifically to the Amazonian heart of the country: Leticia.

From this Amazonian town, located on the triple border with Brazil and Peru, the Brazilian president, together with Petro, closed the meeting “Way to the Amazon Summit” an appeal to the countries of this basin to unite around the defense of this natural reserve both in international forums and in the fight against those who destroy the forest.

“We must join forces so that in international discussions our voice is heard with force in conferences on climate, biodiversity and desertification, and in debates on sustainable development”said the Brazilian president.

Change of economic model

For this reason, he asked the eight countries present in Leticia -Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela, represented by their Environment Ministers “decide how to give our people a dignified life and how to preserve our forests and our biodiversity”.

Along the same lines, Petro, displaying its environmental leadership, went a step further and called for a “revolution”So in your opinion “transform the entire world economic system”is what is necessary to avoid reaching the point of no return in climate matters.

“On oil, on coal and on gas you can only build the sixth extinction of life, the opposite of development”bellowed the Colombian president, who considered that for this reason he “rational” is to change the economic system to decarbonize it.

Colombia and Brazil – which has left Jair Bolsonaro’s period of denial of the climate crisis behind – arrive at the Amazon Summit in Belén do Pará, on August 8 and 9, with their homework done.

Colombia, as Petro recalled, has stopped deforestation by 76% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same of the previous year (although the estimates of the Ministry of Environment project a reduction of 15 to 25% in 2022), while in the In the Brazilian Amazon, deforestation alerts had a reduction of 33.6% in the first half of this year, according to Lula.

Heading to Bethlehem

The fight against deforestation will be one of the themes of the Amazon Summit in August, but many others will also be addressed that have been outlined these three days in Leticia, where environmental, indigenous and civil society organizations, international organizations and the governments of the eight countries have worked to bring a road map for this appointment.

This meeting in Colombia has been “an important step (…) a path that we began with a vocation for change and with the political will to mobilize and open the possibility that the Amazon jungle does not reach the point of no return”exposed the Colombian Minister of the Environment, Susana Muhammad.

But in Brazil, other issues will be addressed, such as the fight against transnational environmental crimes or, as requested by the institutions, greater participation spaces for indigenous peoples and a greater transfer of knowledge should be sought.

“These political commitments that we promote at the highest level should lead our region to reverse the increasingly accelerated deterioration of our Amazon. It is time for us to make a common front to address the challenges of the triple environmental crisis and together as a region, let’s raise our voice to the world for its restoration and protection.”requested the Colombian Foreign Minister, Álvaro Leyva.

The Amazon jungle is the largest freshwater repository in the world, as well as the largest lung in the fight against greenhouse gases. It is also the land of some 400 indigenous peoples and thousands of species. Hence the urgency of a “pact to save the Amazon”

Source: EFE