Amazon Summit culminates with a call to the “rich world”

The countries that boast the largest tropical forests on the planet urged this Wednesday the “rich world” to do your part to help preserve these biomes and pay to keep the rainforest standing, at the close of the Amazon Summitwhich took place in the Brazilian city of Belém.

Nations from Africa, Asia, Europe and America were invited to the second and last day of the summit of the member countries of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (OTCA).

After the meeting, which was held behind closed doors, the eight Amazonian countries, together with the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, reaffirmed their commitment against climate change, but insisted that it will not be enough without the necessary cooperation of the richer nations.

In a joint statement called “United for our forests”emphasized the need to combine environmental preservation with economic growth, a message that they will jointly take to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP28), to be held in November in the United Arab Emirates.

“But you cannot talk about tropical forests and climate change without addressing the historical responsibility of developed countries”specified the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, host of the event, during his speech.

In this sense, the ten-point communiqué expresses its concern about the non-compliance of the mitigation goals by some of these nations and calls for “Meet your climate finance obligations.”

This premise refers to the agreement to “provide $100 billion in climate finance a year in new and additional resources to developing countries” to finance the preservation of the most sensitive ecosystems on the planet.

The text also condemns measures taken to combat climate change, some “one-sided”which constitute “a means of arbitrary discrimination or a disguised restriction on international trade”.

In this sense, it reinforces that “Forests can be centers of sustainable development and sources of solutions to national and global sustainability challenges, reconciling economic prosperity with environmental protection and social well-being.”

The statement also reiterates the criticism of the most developed countries, already expressed in a statement signed by Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela this Tuesday, at the ACTO leaders’ summit, also held in Belém. .

Fight poverty

During his speech on Wednesday, President Lula pointed out that it is not enough to fight deforestation, since the places where the forests are most devastated is where there is the most poverty and where the worst health, sanitation, and education indices are recorded. , food security and violence.

This statement was reiterated by the president before the press at the end of the meeting.

“We will go to COP28 to say that if they want to preserve the forests it is necessary to put money, not only for the treetops, but also to take care of the people who are in their shadow, who want to work and study”he claimed.

many intentions

On the first day of the summit, the eight Amazon countries expressed their opinion in a long list of intentions with few concrete actions to stop deforestation of the biome.

The lack of a joint commitment to achieve zero deforestation before 2030 and strong actions against the exploitation of fossil fuels such as oil in the most extensive forest on the planet, which were the most expected, were vaguely addressed in the Declaration of Belém.

In the thick document of 113 points, the Amazonian countries promoted, yes, a complete cooperation agenda for the biome with measures for the management of water, security, health, sustainable infrastructures and the promotion of the human rights of the traditional towns.

Source: EFE