Credits: Flickr/Palácio do Planalto
Ricardo Salles, Brazil’s Minister of Environment, has a clear plan for COP25: get more money.
According to Salles, rich countries haven’t paid the $100 billion/year they promised to developing countries for their environmental efforts. Ironically, Salles’ demand comes just a few weeks after the announcement of the annual Amazon deforestation rates. The rates confirmed that the Brazilian Amazon lost 9,762 km2, the highest rate since 2008.
Things did not start well for Brazil at COP25. On Tuesday, the Brazilian government was “honored” with the COP’s first “Fossil of the Day” award. The reason? “Blaming civil society for the Amazon fires.”
But there have also been good news for Bolsonaro and his team. Brazil has found a powerful ally for the negotiations of Article 6, which will regulate carbon markets under the Paris Agreement. China now supports Brazil’s demand to allow old Kyoto carbon credits into the future market. If you don’t know what we’re talking about, you may want to read our previous piece on carbon markets here. But in a nutshell, these credits are worthless, environmentally speaking, and could dramatically affect the effectivity of carbon markets as a tool to decrease emissions.